BE VERY CAREFUL

Sands, yes putting some spin on your story. I did read it, especially the bit about overtaking a car with trailer. Now what speed where you doing? My best is faster than 40. My point was simple slow speed limits are there for other reasons, confusion such as you faced is one such reason. Like I said Canberra drivers seem to ignore signs anyway!!!

Bus drivers don’t need a throttle or brake, they just need one green and one red button. The green one says ‘Go’ and the red one says ‘Stop’. No need for varying amounts of throttle and brake, smooth driving is for chumps.

VN – yeah so true with buses…

Although when i got my licence i dont remember learning to always give way to buses as they belive they are the only vehicle on the road.

Many times i am overtaking a bus on a suburban street as the are still indicating left and people getting off only to be almost run off the road coz they will instantly pull out the second the last person gets off/on.

On the other hand I have also watched people fall over many times on a bus – when the driver isn’t conciderate enough to wait until they have sat down (mainly elderly, pregnant, injured people), or atleast not take off so quickly that the movemnet jolts them off their feet.

Genie – no complaints as such, but:

Buses have right of way 🙂 What do you want them to do, wait for Canberra’s always generous and courteous drivers to let them in? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

One thing that really pisses me off about that area is when your coming off Caswell and going to go along Parkes Way. There are signs which not to use that part of the road is you want to travel along the Parkway, but people still decide to use it, which causes them to come to a complete stop when trying to merge across 3 lanes before the temporary lights to turn onto the Parkway.

Benma – totally loving you with this comment… How obvious are the god damn signs that say Civic Straight / Parkway turn…. I hate all the arseholes that cant do the 20metre detour so they arent crossing the 3 lnes of traffic (and SOLID WHITE LINES MIND YOU) and almost causing accidents.

Several months ago i was in the slip lane to get onto the parkway having come through the then s-bend. Only the be faced with an idiot in a Holden that i almost t-boned. YES T-BONED… the front of my car was facing his drivers side door… Traffic was held up for a good 5 mins while he negotiated a 20-point turn to face the correct direction..

I am also extremely disapointed by the many ACTION bus drivers who are always cuttin across the traffic – they are larger vehicals and cant drive as fast hence increasing the chances of someone smashing into them…..

The other extremely obviously signage people ignore…. THE FACT ITS ONLY 60k’s !!!! If you want to zoom through there doing 100’s an hour can you not attempt it during peak hour..

Anyways that my gripe for today….. Feel free to complain about everything I have just said.

IIRC there is/was also a large electronic sign (mounted atop a trailer) indicating ‘Two way’.

It’s still there. They’ve just turned it around for southbound traffic to indicate left lane for the City and right lane for Tuggeranong.

An old man in a volvo almost gave me a head-on, as I headed north in the left most lane through there – I believe he was trying to head right, up towards Belconnen.

Yep.

Signage and road conditions should cater for distracted tourists and p plate drivers etc, not just gun drivers who know the road.

Whatever the vagaries of Canberra drivers, and the current signage (observed or not)there IS a problem in this area and it is worthwhile the traffic people looking at it before there is a fatality

IIRC there is/was also a large electronic sign (mounted atop a trailer) indicating ‘Two way’.

Agree with JC too, nobody bothers to read the signs anyway.

I went up Caswell Dr towards Belconnen this afternoon. There is a “Two Way” yellow sign at the point where the opposite side traffic can turn onto Parkes Way. There are also 2 more white “Two Way” signs further up the road.

One thing that really pisses me off about that area is when your coming off Caswell and going to go along Parkes Way. There are signs which not to use that part of the road is you want to travel along the Parkway, but people still decide to use it, which causes them to come to a complete stop when trying to merge across 3 lanes before the temporary lights to turn onto the Parkway.

You either haven’t read the post JC or you’ve decided to spin it. I totally agree with you about 40km zones especially. Some drivers are thoughtless arseholes. But that has nothing to do with my post.

Signs don’t help Canberra drivers. Take speed signs for exmaple, many road road works have 40km/h signes, yet cars roar through. Maybe this example shows one of many reasons why limits are slow and why we should always abide by them.

ha, mate I couldn’t be more relaxed. All in jest.

Peace, Sands. I did almost the same thing the other day, going south. The temporary turnoff to go towards Woden off Caswell drive is in need of better signing or marking. A KEEP LEFT sign might help.

Jesus, do you always over-react like this?

ah, ok then. Well maybe I’m the only moron on the road el (though this thread would suggest I’m not) and you’re obviously 100% switched on 100% of the time(ahem), but forget about me having a crash and think of the poor sods I might have accidently run into. It could have been a perfect driver – like you!!! – but for all the other morons like me who get confused, be careful. For the you special el, you just keep raising that bar, you’re doing an awesome job.

Travelled the same stretch of road last weekend Sands, for the first time. I was aware of the signs, however I was wondering at the time if anyone got lulled into thinking it was dual carriageway… I know what you mean.

Yawn. I read the original post. As I said, it’s seems fairly obvious that the stretch is two-way.

Quite apparently you weren’t ‘aware of all signs etc.’

Maybe you could just PAY ATTENTION to the original post “And for all the instantly negative rioters out there who are going to say “why didn’t you read the signs”, or “you should have been more careful” or “why were you overtaking” etc… I consider myself to be a very cautious driver and nothing I was doing was out of the ordinary. I wasn’t speeding, I wasn’t talking on the phone, I was aware of all signs etc.”

If people aren’t noticing what must be very subtle signs in a construction war zone then put clearer ones up. Until then, be careful.

Maybe people could just PAY ATTENTION while they’re driving rather than cruising along on autopilot?

Yeah, I drove down that road for the first time yesterday and got a very nasty shock when I realised that it wasn’t a dual carriage way. I think that I’ll go back to taking the long way though Belconnen.

well if there are a few people going northbourne and the same thing has happened, then it can’t be that huge a sign. Sounds like there have been a few too many close calls to justify a clear massive ass sign.

I thought there was a huge ass sign saying “Two Way”. None the less, if you are not concentrating, its easy to do. I was heading southbound on that road and had some guy in a van swerve into my lane, I had to drive off the side of the road to avoid hitting him.

THere has been a recent change in he southbound to Civic traffic which would explain why there was not enough traffic southbound to Woden/Tuggernanong to make it clear that it was two way.

Agree that the signs have not moved into the right spots as quickly as they should have, travelling through there regularly you get somewhat used to it.

I must say the flow improved when they added to turning signal at the new Caswell/Parkes way crossing. Looks like it might only be a month or so before the Southbound can go straight through to the parkway.

Exactly shiny flu – there were southbound cars on the other side of the concrete pillar so it was just natural to assume it was a double lane on my side of the concrete pillar.

Just to clarify, I believe it actually IS a double lane road, but they’ve just temporarily turned it into a two way road while they work on the southbound double lane. That’s the scary bit.

I’ve driven along there a few times but a couple days ago I was dropping a mate from work home… I was damn confused, because I remember it being two lanes, but not two way. I did see the signs, but with some cars driving southbound on the other road I can totally understand how it could be so easy to use that right lane.

Traffic cones or the like would have made it more clear.

Sands, I had the same feeling the other day. I wasn’t sure if it was 2 lanes for me or 1 each way. So I took it as being 1 each way and was right. I suppose just to suspect that is usually the case. Even if it does cost you an extra few mins behind some slow car.

Also thanks to all the people that don’t seem to be able to follow the rules of Form 1 Lanes. Always enjoyable to have to brake quickly when someone decides that you are too slow when the both of you are about to merge lanes.

Yes, that road. I was heading northbound, the car barreling towards me heading southbound. This was down towards the bottom of the hill, about 15-20 seconds after I’d driven through the traffic lights.

To be honest I don’t even know where the signs are. It just seems patently f*cking obvious that it’s a two-way road anyway.

I saw Steve Pratt driving southbound in the northbound section of the Parkway the other night. Number plates to follow ……

do you mean on that road? Do you really reckon the signs are really that clear or are you just used to the roadworks? I don’t use it that often (twice now!) and can say that northbound, it wasn’t clear to me at all.

Indeed it is nothing out of the ordinary.

I was almost struck head on by an arse-clown in a 4WD that hadn’t read the signs and was overtaking about 2 months ago.

Luckily there was plenty of room for me to drive off onto the shoulder, as the 4WD had nowhere to go, and was going fairly quick. unts.