Bus drivers educating Canberra drivers on traffic light etiquette?

Bussie said :

I’ve seen people not get over the sensors a few times. One night driving the bus back to the depot 6 motorbike cops were not activating the senseor so they rolled forward and motioned for me to get over it. Not sure why they didn’t just put the lights on and run the red.

That’s unacceptable, how are civilian motorcyclists supposed to handle it?
Given my carbon bicycle has tripped every light that I’ve met visiting Adelaide, the idea that a pack of motorcycles can’t here is ludicrous.Another example of the sub-standard infrastructure we inherited from the Fed’s?

OMG, so glad this topic has come up. I loathe these drivers!!

When drivers leave 2-3 car lengths in front of them during peak hour on Northbourne, they prevent other cars from joining the traffic when the lights go green. It is SO inconsiderate, and so unnecessary – do some drivers never look in their rear vision mirror to see what’s happening, or believe they don’t need to have some awareness of others on the road??

Likewise those who are going straight ahead but hog left turning lanes and prevent drivers behind them using the ‘turn left at any time with care’ option – please! think about other people who need to get places.

And don’t get me started on the complete uselessness of having red arrows for right turns on EVERY traffic light in Canberra! It may be a worthwhile safety measure on Northbourne at peak hour, but the rest of the time, in most other intersections, you can spend alot of your life looking at a road with NO oncoming traffic, but you can’t cross it because of the nanny red arrows. Don’t all drivers have sufficient visual faculties to make a judgement call here?? (Sorry, but I said don’t get me started)

Ceej1973 said :

And that goes for roundabouts too. They sit at the line in the left lane waiting for an invite or something whilst cars from the right in the centre lane, indicating to turn off to the right. There is a reason for 2 lanes, to promote smooth flow of traffic through roundabouts. Needless to say, the ones who sit there and ignore the other cars indicating (whilst all the cars to the right go around the roundabout),usually end up travelling at 20+ km/hr over the speed limit once they finally move off. I did a polite quick “beep beep”, not “hoooooooooonk” , to one of these procrastinators the other morning, and got the finger, death stares plus the works. I am starting to wonder if its worth my while being polite, maybe instead I should be like everyone else and abuse the crap out of day dreamers.

You can’t trust that traffic in a roundabout is actually going where their indicators indicate they are going. So many drivers have no clue about using the left indicator when exiting a roundabout and often for some unknown reason turn the right one on when going straight and then leave them off when turning.

Just yesterday I was driving along north-borne in stopped traffic and the guy in the lane next to me had two whole car lengths in front of him and was talking on the phone, I watched him and as soon as he finished talking he started forward and filled up the space.

Ceej1973 said :

Cars being slow to take off at the lights and leaving 3 car lengths between their car and the car in front of them is definitely one of my traffic pet hates. I am too polite to beep, but I often yell “Wake up!” very loudly, which is probably much ruder if my window’s open. So a bus driver seemingly educating drivers on this was very funny. But I think what gave me the most pleasure was that NY minute beep. Never seen anything like it in Canberra!

And that goes for roundabouts too. They sit at the line in the left lane waiting for an invite or something whilst cars from the right in the centre lane, indicating to turn off to the right. There is a reason for 2 lanes, to promote smooth flow of traffic through roundabouts. Needless to say, the ones who sit there and ignore the other cars indicating (whilst all the cars to the right go around the roundabout),usually end up travelling at 20+ km/hr over the speed limit once they finally move off. I did a polite quick “beep beep”, not “hoooooooooonk” , to one of these procrastinators the other morning, and got the finger, death stares plus the works. I am starting to wonder if its worth my while being polite, maybe instead I should be like everyone else and abuse the crap out of day dreamers.

The strangest thing I find is that after the funeral procession take off, drivers then seem in a mad rush to fill the spot in front of them they just made from having the reaction time of a retarded snail, shove it up the arse of the car in front and jam on their brakes causing a concertina effect back through the traffic, i see it every morning!

screaming banshee said :

BlackIce said :

My first thought on this situation would be that the first car in the line was so far back that they were not on the pressure sensors that inform the controller for traffic lights that someone wants to turn right. Hence the long line of traffic and the bus driver taking the time to get out and indicate they should move up.

Except they’re not pressure sensors.

No they’re induction loops so that when something metallic is near them the current flowing through them changes.

I’ve seen people not get over the sensors a few times. One night driving the bus back to the depot 6 motorbike cops were not activating the senseor so they rolled forward and motioned for me to get over it. Not sure why they didn’t just put the lights on and run the red.

BlackIce said :

My first thought on this situation would be that the first car in the line was so far back that they were not on the pressure sensors that inform the controller for traffic lights that someone wants to turn right. Hence the long line of traffic and the bus driver taking the time to get out and indicate they should move up.

Except they’re not pressure sensors.

BlackIce said :

My first thought on this situation would be that the first car in the line was so far back that they were not on the pressure sensors that inform the controller for traffic lights that someone wants to turn right. Hence the long line of traffic and the bus driver taking the time to get out and indicate they should move up.

+1

Someone did this at the lights turning into ANU from Barry Drive from the Belconnen direction. It was funny seeing the car sit there waiting through a few traffic light changes until they got frustrated and ran the red light to turn. I reckon they must have thought the lights were broken!

Re: the Asian comment… I’m asian and I never leave that much space, it pisses me off when people do that. Although, my dad does leave heaps of space and I tell him off for it…his reasoning was that people can roll back etc. It’s not totally unfounded as I’ve seen some manual drivers roll back heaps… as an auto driver, I ask the question…why do some roll back more than others?

fernandof said :

Henry82 said :

The road rules specify you must maintain a safe distance between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you. AFAIK if a car rear ends you, and you roll forward and hit the front; you’re responsible for the damage to the car in front because you didn’t leave a safe distance (i could be wrong though). Having said that, an excessive gap isn’t good. I was taught that you leave a 1 car space until the car behind you stops, then move up.

As a thumb rule, I leave enough space to see the back wheels of the car in front. In a typical sedan that’d be about a meter-and-a-half. That said, I do leave a smaller space when driving in Sydney and I’m quite happy with the relaxed attitude of Canberra drivers.

You beat me to it. I was taught as a general rule of thumb, that if you could just see the where the tyres of the car in front touched the ground, you were at a good distance. Of course, this does not work well with all cars, but for your average hatchback or family sedan, I found it useful. At the very least, I got a feel for what was the right distance, and dont have to give it thought now.

On not getting many cars through the green lights – from my experience the right hand turn from Northbourne onto Barry Dr is a bad one – more often than not not many cars get through. Yes, it doesn’t stay green for all that long, but so often, the first few cars take a long time to start moving. Must get lulled into a stupor of inattention with the long waits between green.

Cars being slow to take off at the lights and leaving 3 car lengths between their car and the car in front of them is definitely one of my traffic pet hates. I am too polite to beep, but I often yell “Wake up!” very loudly, which is probably much ruder if my window’s open. So a bus driver seemingly educating drivers on this was very funny. But I think what gave me the most pleasure was that NY minute beep. Never seen anything like it in Canberra!

And that goes for roundabouts too. They sit at the line in the left lane waiting for an invite or something whilst cars from the right in the centre lane, indicating to turn off to the right. There is a reason for 2 lanes, to promote smooth flow of traffic through roundabouts. Needless to say, the ones who sit there and ignore the other cars indicating (whilst all the cars to the right go around the roundabout),usually end up travelling at 20+ km/hr over the speed limit once they finally move off. I did a polite quick “beep beep”, not “hoooooooooonk” , to one of these procrastinators the other morning, and got the finger, death stares plus the works. I am starting to wonder if its worth my while being polite, maybe instead I should be like everyone else and abuse the crap out of day dreamers.

Henry82 said :

The road rules specify you must maintain a safe distance between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you. AFAIK if a car rear ends you, and you roll forward and hit the front; you’re responsible for the damage to the car in front because you didn’t leave a safe distance (i could be wrong though). Having said that, an excessive gap isn’t good. I was taught that you leave a 1 car space until the car behind you stops, then move up.

As a thumb rule, I leave enough space to see the back wheels of the car in front. In a typical sedan that’d be about a meter-and-a-half. That said, I do leave a smaller space when driving in Sydney and I’m quite happy with the relaxed attitude of Canberra drivers.

BlackIce said :

My first thought on this situation would be that the first car in the line was so far back that they were not on the pressure sensors that inform the controller for traffic lights that someone wants to turn right. Hence the long line of traffic and the bus driver taking the time to get out and indicate they should move up.

Possibly. I did once have that happen to me when I stayed back from the lights to wait in the shade on a hot summer day – with no one behind me. But I was much further back than she was.

BlackIce said :

My first thought on this situation would be that the first car in the line was so far back that they were not on the pressure sensors that inform the controller for traffic lights that someone wants to turn right. Hence the long line of traffic and the bus driver taking the time to get out and indicate they should move up.

I was already composing this reply as I read down and you beat me to it…

what_the said :

Ha ha ha what a legend!! God Canberras stuff around at the lights, I’m sure it’s half the reason we have ‘traffic’ here.

Absolutely. Long on pendantry and short on sense.

My first thought on this situation would be that the first car in the line was so far back that they were not on the pressure sensors that inform the controller for traffic lights that someone wants to turn right. Hence the long line of traffic and the bus driver taking the time to get out and indicate they should move up.

The road rules specify you must maintain a safe distance between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you. AFAIK if a car rear ends you, and you roll forward and hit the front; you’re responsible for the damage to the car in front because you didn’t leave a safe distance (i could be wrong though). Having said that, an excessive gap isn’t good. I was taught that you leave a 1 car space until the car behind you stops, then move up.

Ha ha ha what a legend!! God Canberras stuff around at the lights, I’m sure it’s half the reason we have ‘traffic’ here.

arescarti42 said :

Solidarity said :

Can someone explain to me why some Asian drivers (always Asian) leave 5 or 6 carspaces between them and the car in front?

When stopped? I’ve never seen anyone do that, surely people would pull in in front of them.

Yes, I suspect what is being described is a “New York minute” or carspaces, which is probably more like enough space to fit one car but no more than two.

Someone once told me that they’ll happily stop well behind the car in front if there’s a nice, shady spot a couple of car lengths back.

Solidarity said :

Can someone explain to me why some Asian drivers (always Asian) leave 5 or 6 carspaces between them and the car in front?

When stopped? I’ve never seen anyone do that, surely people would pull in in front of them.

One of my pet hates too. The same thing applies to idiots who stop a car length or two behind the car in front at the beginning of a slip lane, preventing people who want to turn left from doing so.

Solidarity said :

Can someone explain to me why some Asian drivers (always Asian) leave 5 or 6 carspaces between them and the car in front?

I once read this advice for women on “how to keep safe”. It included “Always leave a car’s length between you and the car in front when stopping at the lights so you can pull out if somone tries to hijack your car” or something to that effect. Maybe they all come from cities where carjacking is rampant? 😉

Can someone explain to me why some Asian drivers (always Asian) leave 5 or 6 carspaces between them and the car in front?