CANBERRA $@#% You I'm pulling out anyway

#55 Aagh. Should have previewed. In a rush. Actually HenryBG comment and my response. Thoroughly Smashed not involved.

HenryBG said :

Thoroughly Smashed said :

.

I would say “useless public servants”, except the tradies on our roads are often among the worst.

Excellent post. Managed to label two groups at once while, in your own mind at least, maintaining a sense of balance and fair play. So you see a lot of people that “nearly” hit you. Whats the common denominator here? Maybe spend some time in the room of mirrors…

Yes Henry, every single car that has run up your backside, because you carelessly pulled out into oncoming traffic, has been driven by me and me alone. You would not believe how intimidating my 1.3 lt micro Mitsubishi can be can be.

[Qbngeek said]: Okay, time to point out some very obvious things. First of all the speed limit there is 100km/h, but I am not going to go into that as I am sure you feel you have a right to do 5km/h over for some stupid reason.

More importantly, if you were struggling to keep control of your car under heavy braking then I suggest you get it serviced and get them to pay particular attention to your brakes. I have literally stood on the brake (I even lifted my arse off the seat because of the force of my leg on the pedal) in several cars to avoid wildlife and farm animals (my Dad lives in the middle of nowhere) and I have never had to fight the car to maintain control. The worst one pukked slightly to the left adn it was nearly 15 years old. [end quote]

I needed to copy and paste your comment as I am signed in on the first page of comments, but not the second so could not click on quotes. Some quirk of the riotact web system.

Firstly, to ally the pedant. I know that when my speedo says 105 I am going under 100. How do I know this? The car is only 2 years old and is an expensive European model. Also, it’s been tested.

I was also by no mean the fastest car on the road at the time. Don’t try to diffuse this dickheads actions by blaming me for being there. If it wasn’t me in that spot at that time, it would have been someone else; maybe someone not as capable a driver as I, and carnage may have reigned.

Secondly, while there may have been some embellishment to my comment, it was intended to indictate the serious nature of the way this fuckwit, who apparently also lives in qbn, pulled out with no regard to what was actually happening on the road. If one is required to wait 5 or 10 minutes before proceeding then one is required to wait 5 or 10 minutes before proceeding; simple as that.

I’m glad that you feel you are such a legend driver that you can proclaim to the world (or at least the riotact audience) your tales of avoiding wildlife and other animals. What I can say to you is that if you have never had to fight to keep a car under control you have never been in a truely tricky situation. I can say that in my 26 years of driving I’ve really only had to fight to keep control of a car once. Luckily for that person I managed to because they were dead if I didn’t (I would have gone 80 km/h into their drivers side door). That however, does not make the initial pressures my vehicle was under on this occasion (with a 3 year old child on board) any the less dramatic.

Are you one of those people who believe things because they are in the paper? I don’t think you are, so it might be a good start to not totally believe everything you read on the riotact. Just remember the grain of salt qbngeek.

Felix the Cat said :

I see quite often people going left around a 90 degree corner coming to a stop when there is a car some kms back in the distance and then pulling out when a car is approaching 50m away at 80km (eg Gungahlin Dr turning left onto Gundaroo Dr near Gungahlin Lakes Golf Club).

I think that is HenryBG you are following…….

HenryBG said :

AsproBoy said :

HenryBG said :

AsproBoy said :

HenryBG said :

To the OP:
I would suggest that you are belatedly noticing standard driving behaviour from people who’ve driven in the real world.
There’s something special in the Canberra water that makes people think nobody’s allowed to get in front of them.

I understand your disappointment, but you’ll have to understand – the problem is yours.

Thanks for the insight Henry. You have definitively demonstrated that encountering self-important arse hats like yourself on the roads is no doubt the root cause of my problem.

How ironic – somebody who doesn’t believe he should have to slow down for other traffic on the road calling somebody else a “self-important arse hat”.
Not that I have the faintest idea what an “arse hat” is – some kind of american thing learnt from the idiot box, I have no doubt.

Look Grandpa Simpson… I am obviously confusing you with technicalities and “jive talk” that those dang blasted kids always go on with, so I’ll dumb it down a little.

My fundamental assertion is that pulling out into the path of an oncoming car doing 80km/hr, causing said oncoming car to brake heavily to avoid a collision, is an unsafe manoeuvre.

I’ll wait here while you go and google “arse hat”.

When you say “causing said oncoming car to brake heavily”, do you in fact mean, the driver of said oncoming car, having seen somebody turn into their lane, continues to accelerate for as long as possible in order to approach the rear of the offending vehicle at a very high speed in an attempt to intimidate before braking heavily and acting like the victim instead of the road bully he really is?

Just curious why, when you see a car turning into your lane, you feel the need to drive so quickly when what you should be doing is slowing down.

No one else got that from Aspro’s comment, just you Henry. I suspect you do this often & that is why you have such experience with it.

Can you not see that when you pull out of a side road (not a slip lane) into a piece of road that is marked at 80 or 100 km/h & dont have a Ferrarri or a Hyabusa that acellerates to 100 in 4 seconds is dangerous?

If you do this on a regular basis then your arrogance is astounding if you expect other people just to slow down for you. I would not be surprised if you get run over by a B double one day & that poor driver will have to live with that for the rest of his life even though it would not have been his fault.

Thoroughly Smashed said :

To contribute, if I’ve got room to do so I will move out of the left lane when I see someone in the distance waiting in a slip lane.

Yours appears to be a voice in the wilderness.
I *really* don’t understand why so many people have trouble with this simple concept.

I would say “useless public servants”, except the tradies on our roads are often among the worst.

AsproBoy said :

HenryBG said :

AsproBoy said :

HenryBG said :

To the OP:
I would suggest that you are belatedly noticing standard driving behaviour from people who’ve driven in the real world.
There’s something special in the Canberra water that makes people think nobody’s allowed to get in front of them.

I understand your disappointment, but you’ll have to understand – the problem is yours.

Thanks for the insight Henry. You have definitively demonstrated that encountering self-important arse hats like yourself on the roads is no doubt the root cause of my problem.

How ironic – somebody who doesn’t believe he should have to slow down for other traffic on the road calling somebody else a “self-important arse hat”.
Not that I have the faintest idea what an “arse hat” is – some kind of american thing learnt from the idiot box, I have no doubt.

Look Grandpa Simpson… I am obviously confusing you with technicalities and “jive talk” that those dang blasted kids always go on with, so I’ll dumb it down a little.

My fundamental assertion is that pulling out into the path of an oncoming car doing 80km/hr, causing said oncoming car to brake heavily to avoid a collision, is an unsafe manoeuvre.

I’ll wait here while you go and google “arse hat”.

When you say “causing said oncoming car to brake heavily”, do you in fact mean, the driver of said oncoming car, having seen somebody turn into their lane, continues to accelerate for as long as possible in order to approach the rear of the offending vehicle at a very high speed in an attempt to intimidate before braking heavily and acting like the victim instead of the road bully he really is?

Just curious why, when you see a car turning into your lane, you feel the need to drive so quickly when what you should be doing is slowing down.

Sgt.Bungers said :

When I first started driving I also had this problem, got cut off all the time.

After sitting defensive driving and several advanced driving courses, motorbike and truck driving courses, I no longer experience drivers failing to give way resulting in an emergency situation anywhere near as often. Almost never in fact.

The key thing that changed was me. I have slowed down considerably. I now treat every other road user as a trained assassin who is going to attempt to kill me the instant I let my guard down. When they make their move, they’re not only going to do their very best to make it look like an accident, but will also kill themselves if they have to.

While it sounds absurd, when you think about it, this is an incredibly realistic representation of using our roads, regardless of your mode of transport.

My advice? There’s not a lot you can do to change the behavior of others. Though ff you’re constantly finding yourself in emergency situations, have a look at your own driving.

If you see a road user approaching an intersection where you have right of way, immediately start easing up on the accelerator in case you need to start braking. If the road user is approaching at high speed and may not stop, release the accelerator and hover over the brake, or even start braking. If they see you and stop, no problem, continue on your merry way. If they don’t see you and fail to give way, you’ve already wiped 5 km/h off your own speed and will be in a better position to stop safely if you have to.

Learn that a give way sign and a dotted line is never going to physically stop a 1 to 62.5 tonne machine, ever. Most drivers will also avoid ever stopping at all costs. Approaching an intersection, they’ll check with a fleeting glance if it’s safe to proceed, then move off if they believe it’s safe. Naturally if they have not seen you (how often have you looked for the butter in the fridge and not seen it immediately, even though it’s right in front of you), then they’re still going to go.

Most drivers will not double check. If you’re prepared for this then you’ll have far fewer problems.

Very well said. Defensive driving is a must. Always be aware of every car around you and have a think about what they are likely to do next. You can usually predict when some idiot is about to do something stupid before it has happened. This has saved me on more than one occasion.

I see quite often people going left around a 90 degree corner coming to a stop when there is a car some kms back in the distance and then pulling out when a car is approaching 50m away at 80km (eg Gungahlin Dr turning left onto Gundaroo Dr near Gungahlin Lakes Golf Club).

Solidarity said :

You merge at speed.

If it’s an 80 zone and the traffic is doing 90, you do 90.

If it’s an 80 zone and the traffic is doing 60, you do 60.

You can adjust your speed once you’re in the flow of traffic.

Common sense, simple common sense.

You’d think so…

qbngeek said :

Alderney said :

Some wanker pulled out in front of me (from the right) last Thusday while I was going southbound at 105km/h in the right hand lane on the Monaro Highway. This was at the intersection which leads to the houses/properties a kilometre or so before the gaol. I had to apply my brakes very hard and wrestle with the wheel in order to maintain control. All the while hoping that the people behind were not going to crash into the back of me.

Okay, time to point out some very obvious things. First of all the speed limit there is 100km/h, but I am not going to go into that as I am sure you feel you have a right to do 5km/h over for some stupid reason.

More importantly, if you were struggling to keep control of your car under heavy braking then I suggest you get it serviced and get them to pay particular attention to your brakes. I have literally stood on the brake (I even lifted my arse off the seat because of the force of my leg on the pedal) in several cars to avoid wildlife and farm animals (my Dad lives in the middle of nowhere) and I have never had to fight the car to maintain control. The worst one pukked slightly to the left adn it was nearly 15 years old.

Thats should have said pay attention to your brakes and suspension.

Alderney said :

Some wanker pulled out in front of me (from the right) last Thusday while I was going southbound at 105km/h in the right hand lane on the Monaro Highway. This was at the intersection which leads to the houses/properties a kilometre or so before the gaol. I had to apply my brakes very hard and wrestle with the wheel in order to maintain control. All the while hoping that the people behind were not going to crash into the back of me.

Okay, time to point out some very obvious things. First of all the speed limit there is 100km/h, but I am not going to go into that as I am sure you feel you have a right to do 5km/h over for some stupid reason.

More importantly, if you were struggling to keep control of your car under heavy braking then I suggest you get it serviced and get them to pay particular attention to your brakes. I have literally stood on the brake (I even lifted my arse off the seat because of the force of my leg on the pedal) in several cars to avoid wildlife and farm animals (my Dad lives in the middle of nowhere) and I have never had to fight the car to maintain control. The worst one pukked slightly to the left adn it was nearly 15 years old.

astrojax said :

mein gott! the world’s gone mad, mad i tells ya: i’m in almost total agreement with sgt bungers..!

Me too, but I often am.

The intersection of Oaks Estate Road is a classic. I approach that with real dread these days, and assume that every car (and Deanes bus) is going to start driving across it. With the Deanes buses I’m usually right.

Being ready for it avoided a very nasty crash one day (Deanes bus) although it was a close thing and I locked my car’s wheels briefly, for about the only time ever. So often cars do decide to go across, they seem to misjudge the speed of oncoming traffic which means the orientation of the road is probably contributing. All you can do is be ready, slow down a bit, and foot near the brake and hand near the horn. Brake prevents the crash, horn means maybe they won’t do it next time.

The number of crashes there though indicates that a lot of people don’t slow down adn they’re not watching the other cars like a hawk.

G-Fresh said :

Here’s an idea, if fewer people had s*** & slow cars they would be less likely to get in others way.

Now we’re in solutions mode. I support this idea. I never have trouble merging in my I6 twin turbo.

All authorised rego inspection stations to install a chassis dynamometre. If your car reads less than 200kw per tonne at the drive wheels, it is unsafe to operate on the roads and is either defected or turbocharged at the operator’s expense.

You merge at speed.

If it’s an 80 zone and the traffic is doing 90, you do 90.

If it’s an 80 zone and the traffic is doing 60, you do 60.

You can adjust your speed once you’re in the flow of traffic.

Common sense, simple common sense.

mein gott! the world’s gone mad, mad i tells ya: i’m in almost total agreement with sgt bungers..!

Thoroughly Smashed said :

Ahh crap. That was meant to be directed at Futureproof. Apologies.

Don’t I feel a bit stupid.

Bahahahahaha, Riotact fail, happens daily just ask Mr Gillespie 😛

To contribute, if I’ve got room to do so I will move out of the left lane when I see someone in the distance waiting in a slip lane.

Here’s an idea, if fewer people had s*** & slow cars they would be less likely to get in others way.

When I first started driving I also had this problem, got cut off all the time.

After sitting defensive driving and several advanced driving courses, motorbike and truck driving courses, I no longer experience drivers failing to give way resulting in an emergency situation anywhere near as often. Almost never in fact.

The key thing that changed was me. I have slowed down considerably. I now treat every other road user as a trained assassin who is going to attempt to kill me the instant I let my guard down. When they make their move, they’re not only going to do their very best to make it look like an accident, but will also kill themselves if they have to.

While it sounds absurd, when you think about it, this is an incredibly realistic representation of using our roads, regardless of your mode of transport.

My advice? There’s not a lot you can do to change the behavior of others. Though ff you’re constantly finding yourself in emergency situations, have a look at your own driving.

If you see a road user approaching an intersection where you have right of way, immediately start easing up on the accelerator in case you need to start braking. If the road user is approaching at high speed and may not stop, release the accelerator and hover over the brake, or even start braking. If they see you and stop, no problem, continue on your merry way. If they don’t see you and fail to give way, you’ve already wiped 5 km/h off your own speed and will be in a better position to stop safely if you have to.

Learn that a give way sign and a dotted line is never going to physically stop a 1 to 62.5 tonne machine, ever. Most drivers will also avoid ever stopping at all costs. Approaching an intersection, they’ll check with a fleeting glance if it’s safe to proceed, then move off if they believe it’s safe. Naturally if they have not seen you (how often have you looked for the butter in the fridge and not seen it immediately, even though it’s right in front of you), then they’re still going to go.

Most drivers will not double check. If you’re prepared for this then you’ll have far fewer problems.

Ahh crap. That was meant to be directed at Futureproof. Apologies.

Don’t I feel a bit stupid.

Jethro said :

AsproBoy said :

HenryBG said :

To the OP:
I would suggest that you are belatedly noticing standard driving behaviour from people who’ve driven in the real world.
There’s something special in the Canberra water that makes people think nobody’s allowed to get in front of them.

I understand your disappointment, but you’ll have to understand – the problem is yours.

Thanks for the insight Henry. You have definitively demonstrated that encountering self-important arse hats like yourself on the roads is no doubt the root cause of my problem.

I”m with Aspro here. You can’t just pull out straight in front of an oncoming car and expect them to slam on the brakes to accommodate you. Cars on the main road have right of way over cars entering, who need to give way to oncoming traffic.

+1. I can’t believe people are claiming that they have right of way when pulling out of a T intersection. THEY DON’T. It’s just that simple. They are required by law to pull out only when safe (which means not doing so in a manner that requires the other vehicles to hit the brakes).

Thoroughly Smashed said :

Good lord.

AsproBoy: Please cut up your licence.

WTF are you going on about????

Thoroughly Smashed said :

Good lord.

AsproBoy: Please cut up your licence.

Thoroughly Smashed – I presume this refers to the state of your car when pulling out blindly into traffic heedless of the relative speed of your vehicle and theirs, and expecting them to slow down to accomodate you.

Or perhaps it is an indication of the condition in which you no doubt drive.

Could you please post up your make, model and license plate details so that if I see your car I know to expect negligent driving. Forewarned is, after all, forearmed.

Good lord.

AsproBoy: Please cut up your licence.

Funky1 said :

HenryBG said :

AsproBoy said :

Thanks for the insight Henry. You have definitively demonstrated that encountering self-important arse hats like yourself on the roads is no doubt the root cause of my problem.

How ironic – somebody who doesn’t believe he should have to slow down for other traffic on the road calling somebody else a “self-important arse hat”.
Not that I have the faintest idea what an “arse hat” is – some kind of american thing learnt from the idiot box, I have no doubt.

Wouldn’t that then be an “ASS hat”?? 🙂

or maybe even ‘ass-cap’ – or is that a cap being popped into his ass? so yanky, so chic – i can’t keep up…

and to answer asproboy’s question – something more sinister is my take… reptoids, perhaps?

HenryBG said :

AsproBoy said :

Thanks for the insight Henry. You have definitively demonstrated that encountering self-important arse hats like yourself on the roads is no doubt the root cause of my problem.

How ironic – somebody who doesn’t believe he should have to slow down for other traffic on the road calling somebody else a “self-important arse hat”.
Not that I have the faintest idea what an “arse hat” is – some kind of american thing learnt from the idiot box, I have no doubt.

Wouldn’t that then be an “ASS hat”?? 🙂

Some wanker pulled out in front of me (from the right) last Thusday while I was going southbound at 105km/h in the right hand lane on the Monaro Highway. This was at the intersection which leads to the houses/properties a kilometre or so before the gaol. I had to apply my brakes very hard and wrestle with the wheel in order to maintain control. All the while hoping that the people behind were not going to crash into the back of me.

I can’t remember exactly what type of vehicle it was because the idiot is such a nobody he is of little consequence to my life, but it was deffinately white and may have even been the dreaded commodore. I recall had NSW plates and he turned right down Lanyon Drive towards that town in NSW…

It’s getting reasonably easy to pick the people who have never driven around Australia and other parts of the world. They’re the ones convinced that certain types of driving behaviour is restricted to certain areas.
Attention:
Dickheads are an international phenomenon. Bitching about them on an online forum just shows how close your horizons really are.

HenryBG said :

AsproBoy said :

Primarily, the increasing frequency at which cars enter single or dual 60-80km/hr lanes from a standing start and either can not accurately judge the time it will take an oncoming car to reach them, or they simply don’t give a rats.

Oh, look, another Canberra driver who believes he owns the road in front of him.

Here’s a clue, moron: it is your “oncoming car”‘s driver’s responsibility to slow down if there’s a car in front of him. You have no right to an untrammeled access to any stretch of road doing your choice of speed on it. So long as the turning car’s driver makes a safe maneuver, he has no other reponsibility to the idiots who think they own the road he just turned onto, up to and including those idiots having to slow down.

Yeah giving way to cars with the right of way is soooo last century.

I hate it especially when they do that if there is no car to be seen behind me. Could you not just wait 2 more seconds and then turn onto an empty road?!

AsproBoy said :

Tony said :

If im merging into an 80km/h zone and actually doing 80km/h, and the traffic Im merging into is doing 90-95, I dont care I merge anyway you speeding pricks, alla GDE.

The original post was mostly about T intersections, not merging.

Yeah, the original post made this very clear, haha.

Rollersk8r said :

I’ve owned a few cars, large and small, and can report a direct relationship between the size of the car and amount of respect you’re afforded. In a small car people always have to make that desperate lunge from behind to close you out on the Form One Lane etc. Doesn’t happen so much in a big car. And I don’t think it’s just Canberra.

Similarly, the general respect afforded by other drivers can be affected by the age of the vehicle you drive. I have an old classic jalopy I take out from time to time and I notice a sharp increase in lack of courtesy compared to driving my modern car.

Agree with Very Busy… people seem to be doing what they can get away with. Our road rules have become road suggestions.

One that fascinates me is how people will slide into the left lane of a roundabout to turn left when there’s a car coming around the roundabout (especially on very small roundabouts). if the car already on the roundabout intends to exit left and then needs to be in the left lane to turn left soon after, it gets very difficult as there’s suddenly a car on their left.

Very Busy said :

. One of the basic road rules that is so commonly broken, is the use the indicators.

Wow – a new thread on this very subject, how coincidental.

http://the-riotact.com/indicate-indicate-indicate/65497

conversely, I got honked at for waiting for oncoming traffic to pass before turning onto the 80km zone (i.e. Hayden Drive)

AsproBoy – This is my theory:

Our Governments and law enforcement agencies have, for many years now, been neglecting to properly enforce our road rules. A fascination with enforcing the speed limit rules and neglecting the enforcement of all other road rules has caused a significant increase in the number of poorly skilled, arrogant and ignorant drivers on our roads. One of the basic road rules that is so commonly broken, is the use the indicators. It is such a common occurrence that drivers waiting at T intersections (and roundabouts) are frustrated when the car they’re waiting for, turns left into the same side street without indicating their intentions to do so. The simple use of the indicator in this situation would have allowed the waiting car to proceed. This is happening so often that drivers are just pulling out of intersections because they assume that the approaching car may well turn off beforehand anyway. Indicators seem to have become redundant.

I’m not sure how to obtain the stats, but I’d love to know how many drivers have been booked over the last few months for failing to indicate. I would bet that it is not very many, if any.

I drive over 60,000kms on Canberra’s roads each year and I find this is a rule broken by all types of drivers, old, young, middle aged, male and female.

I’ve owned a few cars, large and small, and can report a direct relationship between the size of the car and amount of respect you’re afforded. In a small car people always have to make that desperate lunge from behind to close you out on the Form One Lane etc. Doesn’t happen so much in a big car. And I don’t think it’s just Canberra.

Having driven in Perth recently, allow me to disabuse of the notion that this is a uniquely Canberran phenomenon. If anything, it happened to me more frequently over there (small sample, obviously). Then again, I was driving a small car, so there might be something in your theory – it actually makes some sense that people are less willing to run the gauntlet in front of a tank-sized 4WD than a tinny little econobox.

The title reminded me of this joke….

How do you tell who i the male porn star at the service station?

He is the guy who almost fills his tank with peterol, hs a silly look on his face and then takes out the nozzle and sprays petrol everywhere.

Tony said :

If im merging into an 80km/h zone and actually doing 80km/h, and the traffic Im merging into is doing 90-95, I dont care I merge anyway you speeding pricks, alla GDE.

OMG i hope you realize that that is a Give Way line not a merge line if your coming in on the GDE

HenryBG said :

AsproBoy said :

HenryBG said :

To the OP:
I would suggest that you are belatedly noticing standard driving behaviour from people who’ve driven in the real world.
There’s something special in the Canberra water that makes people think nobody’s allowed to get in front of them.

I understand your disappointment, but you’ll have to understand – the problem is yours.

Thanks for the insight Henry. You have definitively demonstrated that encountering self-important arse hats like yourself on the roads is no doubt the root cause of my problem.

How ironic – somebody who doesn’t believe he should have to slow down for other traffic on the road calling somebody else a “self-important arse hat”.
Not that I have the faintest idea what an “arse hat” is – some kind of american thing learnt from the idiot box, I have no doubt.

Look Grandpa Simpson… I am obviously confusing you with technicalities and “jive talk” that those dang blasted kids always go on with, so I’ll dumb it down a little.

My fundamental assertion is that pulling out into the path of an oncoming car doing 80km/hr, causing said oncoming car to brake heavily to avoid a collision, is an unsafe manoeuvre.

I’ll wait here while you go and google “arse hat”.

AsproBoy said :

HenryBG said :

To the OP:
I would suggest that you are belatedly noticing standard driving behaviour from people who’ve driven in the real world.
There’s something special in the Canberra water that makes people think nobody’s allowed to get in front of them.

I understand your disappointment, but you’ll have to understand – the problem is yours.

Thanks for the insight Henry. You have definitively demonstrated that encountering self-important arse hats like yourself on the roads is no doubt the root cause of my problem.

I”m with Aspro here. You can’t just pull out straight in front of an oncoming car and expect them to slam on the brakes to accommodate you. Cars on the main road have right of way over cars entering, who need to give way to oncoming traffic.

AsproBoy said :

HenryBG said :

To the OP:
I would suggest that you are belatedly noticing standard driving behaviour from people who’ve driven in the real world.
There’s something special in the Canberra water that makes people think nobody’s allowed to get in front of them.

I understand your disappointment, but you’ll have to understand – the problem is yours.

Thanks for the insight Henry. You have definitively demonstrated that encountering self-important arse hats like yourself on the roads is no doubt the root cause of my problem.

How ironic – somebody who doesn’t believe he should have to slow down for other traffic on the road calling somebody else a “self-important arse hat”.
Not that I have the faintest idea what an “arse hat” is – some kind of american thing learnt from the idiot box, I have no doubt.

HenryBG said :

To the OP:
I would suggest that you are belatedly noticing standard driving behaviour from people who’ve driven in the real world.
There’s something special in the Canberra water that makes people think nobody’s allowed to get in front of them.

I understand your disappointment, but you’ll have to understand – the problem is yours.

Thanks for the insight Henry. You have definitively demonstrated that encountering self-important arse hats like yourself on the roads is no doubt the root cause of my problem.

To the OP:
I would suggest that you are belatedly noticing standard driving behaviour from people who’ve driven in the real world.
There’s something special in the Canberra water that makes people think nobody’s allowed to get in front of them.

I understand your disappointment, but you’ll have to understand – the problem is yours.

AsproBoy said :

Primarily, the increasing frequency at which cars enter single or dual 60-80km/hr lanes from a standing start and either can not accurately judge the time it will take an oncoming car to reach them, or they simply don’t give a rats.

Oh, look, another Canberra driver who believes he owns the road in front of him.

Here’s a clue, moron: it is your “oncoming car”‘s driver’s responsibility to slow down if there’s a car in front of him. You have no right to an untrammeled access to any stretch of road doing your choice of speed on it. So long as the turning car’s driver makes a safe maneuver, he has no other reponsibility to the idiots who think they own the road he just turned onto, up to and including those idiots having to slow down.

Tony said :

If im merging into an 80km/h zone and actually doing 80km/h, and the traffic Im merging into is doing 90-95, I dont care I merge anyway you speeding pricks, alla GDE.

The original post was mostly about T intersections, not merging. Primarily, the increasing frequency at which cars enter single or dual 60-80km/hr lanes from a standing start and either can not accurately judge the time it will take an oncoming car to reach them, or they simply don’t give a rats.

The worst examples of this phenomenon can be found regularly on Sulwood Drive, Erindale Drive, Hindmarsh Drive, Namatjira Drive and Isabella Drive. Apologies to our northern friends, I am sure this happens north of the lake as well.

I do however, fully agree with Futreproof that very short slip lanes are no solution to this problem.

It’s the crappy design of the roads. Case in point is the T junction at the top of Mugga Lane. When you get a green light to turn right into Yamba Drive. You think (if you were an out of towner) that you have a lane to yourself. Low and behold, just 50 metres later as you accelerate, your lane runs out very quickly and the drivers in the right hand lane heading the same direction as you are going too fast to slow down, or the adjacent left hand lane is chockers with cars and they can’t pull over for you. Many merging lanes are like this this in Canberra. Who ever designs them should have their wages garnished for stupidity.

more than likely a white commodore with an overly confident driver is speeding towards you AsproBoy!

can’t say I have noticed this much on single lane roads around town (mind you these are fairly limited outside of suburban streets).

Tony said :

If im merging into an 80km/h zone and actually doing 80km/h, and the traffic Im merging into is doing 90-95, I dont care I merge anyway you speeding pricks, alla GDE.

Translation: I like to make you slow down, because it makes me feel good about myself.

Tony said :

If im merging into an 80km/h zone and actually doing 80km/h, and the traffic Im merging into is doing 90-95, I dont care I merge anyway you speeding pricks, alla GDE.

Deary me…..its good thing this only internet heroics and not something someone would actually do

If im merging into an 80km/h zone and actually doing 80km/h, and the traffic Im merging into is doing 90-95, I dont care I merge anyway you speeding pricks, alla GDE.

Annoying. Another symptom of the “f you, I’m allright Jack/Jill attitude that is far too widespread.