16 January 2012

KEEP LEFT UNLESS OVERTAKING

16 January 2012 | Voytek

We have fantastic roads, very little traffic and small distances to travel – driving in Canberra should be easy but it isn’t.

Why is it that everyone here thinks it acceptable to sit in the right lane at all times?

It seems the majority of the people in Canberra choose the lane they drive in based on wherever they have to eventually turn no matter how far away that turn may be. Take the Monaro highway from 1600 to 1800 on a weekday – in both directions the right lanes are totally congested. People that live in the southern Tuggeranong suburbs coming out of Fyshwick and Queanbeyan instantly veer into the right lane just because they will eventually turn right onto Isabella or johnston drives. Its the same in the morning all over Canberra – turning left onto Erindale Drive off Sulwood drive. The left lane as far as the eye can see, totally empty. Why? “Oh because I need to get onto Adelaide Avenue”.

The most frustrating thing is the fact that you are totally oblivious to the fact that your driving is appalling. The amount of times I’ve made eye contact and then shaken my head at the idiot that blocked me in the right lane and gotten that exact same look of confusion back is beyond belief.

If everyone kept left only getting into the right lane immediately before their turn everyones trip would be a whole lot quicker and healthier for the blood pressure of the seemingly few decent drivers left in this oversized country town.

“Keep left unless overtaking” doesn’t only apply when you are driving to Sydney.

And use your damn indicator.

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winter2:49 pm 02 Feb 12

Erg0 said :

Paying with a credit card in the express lane is inconsiderate now?

This could be a whole other thread…

With the faster speed of electronic payment systems, along with the use of pin number and no pin even required for small transactions, credit cards are the faster option.

Although I have noticed that the ALDI payment system is alot faster then Coles/Woolworths. I wonder how they worked that one out.

NoImRight11:11 am 02 Feb 12

Erg0 said :

Paying with a credit card in the express lane is inconsiderate now?

This could be a whole other thread…

Yes I was a bit surprised at that one. The lady that needs to completely resort her handbag each time shes handed 20c in change takes way longer. Even so somehow my life goes on.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back10:03 am 02 Feb 12

74Daizies said :

dph said :

As frustrating as I find it when somebody is sitting in the right lane, dawdling along & blocking traffic flow, I thoroughly enjoy watching them block bogans in speeding commodores, lowered utes & so on…

If I’m in the left lane, I’ll always try to box them in, so that they are stuck behind the person going slowly in the right lane & can’t overtake them on the left because my car’s in the way.

Yep, that’s me for sure. I love pissing people off by blocking them in!!! Ha ha. slow down people, it isn’t a race. 🙂

You love going out of your way to piss other drivers off? You sound like a very mature and productive member of society…

Erg09:59 am 02 Feb 12

Paying with a credit card in the express lane is inconsiderate now?

This could be a whole other thread…

74Daizies11:04 pm 01 Feb 12

dph said :

As frustrating as I find it when somebody is sitting in the right lane, dawdling along & blocking traffic flow, I thoroughly enjoy watching them block bogans in speeding commodores, lowered utes & so on…

If I’m in the left lane, I’ll always try to box them in, so that they are stuck behind the person going slowly in the right lane & can’t overtake them on the left because my car’s in the way.

Yep, that’s me for sure. I love pissing people off by blocking them in!!! Ha ha. slow down people, it isn’t a race. 🙂

Jono10:19 pm 01 Feb 12

Simmo said :

Jono said :

KB1971 said :

Its not really about being in a hurry, its about courtesy.

I believe it is simply about thinking of others. (Yes, courtesy). The little things like keeping left when driving or not blocking the escalators two abreast annoy people so much because it would be so easy for people to not do those things. However many people go about the world as if they are the only ones. Apathy and ignorance are considered normal and if anybody dares to say any different then they are labelled as being the difficult one. Sure brain cancer is huge in comparison but that doesn’t mean everything less than that is of no consequence. Hell over a billion people live on less than $1.25 a day but most Australians would think more about buying a new large screen tv than world poverty. That is perhaps an indication of how much most Australians think about anything other than themselves. It would be just as easy to not stand two abreast on the escalator or to keep left unless overtaking most of the time, but people are not actively thinking about what they are doing and the impact their actions or inaction may have on anyone around them.

I didn’t say that people shouldn’t be considerate and courteous, nor do I believe that. And I wouldn’t do any of the things that I listed; slowing traffic by unnecessarily driving in the RH lane; paying by credit card in the express queue at the supermarket; blocking the escalator; as they’re all discourteous and inconsiderate.

But I did say that anyone who’s allowing themselves to get angry (the OP talked about his blood pressure rising) about any of those things desperately needs a good healthy dose of perspective. Getting caught behind someone who’s in the RH lane and slowing you down and thereby causing you to get to your destination 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 2 minutes, whatever, later is genuinely of no consequence.

Simmo10:43 pm 31 Jan 12

Jono said :

KB1971 said :

Its not really about being in a hurry, its about courtesy.

I believe it is simply about thinking of others. (Yes, courtesy). The little things like keeping left when driving or not blocking the escalators two abreast annoy people so much because it would be so easy for people to not do those things. However many people go about the world as if they are the only ones. Apathy and ignorance are considered normal and if anybody dares to say any different then they are labelled as being the difficult one. Sure brain cancer is huge in comparison but that doesn’t mean everything less than that is of no consequence. Hell over a billion people live on less than $1.25 a day but most Australians would think more about buying a new large screen tv than world poverty. That is perhaps an indication of how much most Australians think about anything other than themselves. It would be just as easy to not stand two abreast on the escalator or to keep left unless overtaking most of the time, but people are not actively thinking about what they are doing and the impact their actions or inaction may have on anyone around them.

bigred10:17 pm 31 Jan 12

There are a few constants about driving in Canberra. 1. You signal to change lanes and the gap closes. 2. People always travel in the right lane, especially when they are turning left at the next intersections. 3.Asians can’t drive at all. 4. Some twat will always run the red as you are about to take off on the green 5. Someone will always hog the right lane in those few spots where the “keep leftunless overtaking” rule applies. 6. No sod really cares anyway.

Jono8:41 pm 31 Jan 12

KB1971 said :

Its not really about being in a hurry, its about courtesy.

Actually it’s about getting a dose of perspective. The OP was clearly pretty cranky about what, in reality, is a pretty minor issue. If they’re going to get upset every time sombody’s discourteous to you, whether it’s driving in the right hand lane, or getting in the express queue at the supermarket and then paying by credit card, or standing two abreast on the escalator and preventing anyone getting past, then they’re going to have a pretty angry life as those are inconsiderate things that people will do to you every day.

I suggest reading Charlie Teo’s Australia Day speech where he talks about dealing with parents who’ve discovered that their children have brain cancer and then you might get an understanding about how minor many of the things that many of us let ourselves get upset about really are.

watto233:10 pm 31 Jan 12

Alderney said :

KB1971 said :

By this stage I want to turn right at the next intersection but he is there so I have to accellerate to move across (he ignored my indicator & I loath the old hit the brakes & merge method.

I wouldn’t feel too bad about that if I were you.

As someone once imparted to me, ‘driving cars or playing footy, always accelerate into the gap’.

I personally believe you either accelerate or brake slowly to get into the gap the safest method possible. Even if i dare say it means going 5-10km over the limit. Clearly if the bigger gap is behind the car then just gradually slowing to say 5km under the limit to get behind it and adjusting your speed to match the flow of the traffic before moving into the lane is the safest option, but often accelerating into the gap is also safer.

Skyring12:03 pm 17 Jan 12

Erg0 said :

Skyring said :

Erg0 said :

The problem is that speeding doesn’t necessarily increase your velocity over the course of the entire trip. It’s often just as fast, or faster, to drive intelligently at the speed limit (see the Monaro Hwy examples above).

So you can stick to the speed limit, drive intelligently, and arrive at the same time or even ahead of another driver who is actually going faster?

I think you may be confusing intelligence with quick thinking here.

Here’s a question for you: two cars set off from the same point, a blue car travelling at 100km/h and a white car travelling at 80km/h. One minute later, the blue car reaches a red light and stops. 30 seconds after that, the white car arrives at the same red light and stops next to the blue car. At the moment the light turns green, which car has a higher velocity?

Here’s a question for you: two cars set off from the same point, a blue car travelling at 100km/h and a white car travelling at 80km/h. One minute later, the blue car reaches an amber light and speeds through. 30 seconds after that, the white car arrives at the red light and stops. At the moment the light turns green, which car has a higher velocity?

Given enough traffic lights operating at their own individual cycles, the faster car will catch fewer red lights than the slower. Think about the Monaro Highway heading south from Fyshwick. At the point where the 100 km/h zone begins with one lane becoming two, the 100 km/h car pulls out from behind the 80 km/h car and they both proceed at those speeds until the next set of lights at the AMC. It takes the faster car 144 seconds to cover the four kilometres distance and the slower 180 seconds. That’s 36 seconds difference. I’m not familiar with the exact cycle of the lights at the AMC, but my recollection is that they are green for a lot longer than they are red for vehicles going along the Monaro, and they stay red for less than thirty seconds. Chances are that neither vehicle will be caught by these lights, but if the faster car is caught by the red, he’s going to be moving again before the slower car gets to the same point anyway.

The only other stretches of 100 km/h road with traffic lights are along the Parkway between Glenloch Interchange and Sulwood Drive (15.4 kilometres) and HMAS Harman to Fyshwick (too short to make a good example). The time difference between the two vehicles from Glenloch to Kambah will be on the order of two minutes, which is longer than the red cycle of the lights there too.

So there’s not going to be a point where the blue car and the white car are side by side at a traffic light unless there is some interference by other traffic causing the faster car to slow down which negates the whole speed difference anyway.

melon12346:30 pm 16 Jan 12

1967 said :

Heading South on the Monaro in the afternoons is a great source of entertainment for me.
Approaching the intersection of Shepard St in Hume, for some reason, the road suddenly goes from 2 lanes to 3 and with out fail half of the traffic in the original right lane zoom into the new right lane and speed off to see how many cars they can overtake.
A couple of hundred meters past the intersection, the new, additional lane ends, and the speed demons have to merge with the rest of the right lane hoggers. As no-one in this city has managed to learn how to merge properly, this enevitably caused both lanes to slow down, to a crawl while they sort themselves out.
I always stick in the left lane here and generally end up ahead of cars that were in front of me before the start of the third lane.
The sad thing is, it’s the same clowns every day, and they get so worked up over having to slow down it’s funny to watch.

Enjoy life in the slow lane.

I partake in a similar fashion. The right lane also slows down when a driver commences slowly t0 40km/h to prepare for their movement into the Mugga Lane exit, and subsequently the Mugga Lane traffic attempts to merge at the same speed or from the complete stop they’re at in the lane (as discussed by other posters). All makes the left lane a nice option.

But I do agree with the OP when it comes to unnecessary use of the right lane, even outside of any form of peak time. On countless occasions I’ve seen people pass the Isabella Drive turn off on the Monaro, and immediately move to the right lane, despite there being nobody else around but me to witness it. There’s no excuse for it aside from either simple ignorance of the law, or simple belief that because it’s quiet, the laws don’t matter. But I guess it’s important to anticipate that right lane exit 4km ahead.

Grail said :

In the meantime, keep left, give way to merging traffic, relax, and remember that you are commuting, not racing. The extra minute is not going to make a difference. Lead by example!

Agreed. Whilst it won’t ever happen, I hope with some delusion that by being a courtesy road user, others will also be courtesy. It’s probably the same delusion that makes me think that one day people will learn to indicate out of a roundabout they’re meant to as well.

DrKoresh3:23 pm 16 Jan 12

devils_advocate said :

KB1971 said :

No entirely true, ADR18/03 indicates that a vehicle speedometer must not read slower than the actual vehicle speed (EG: at 100km/h, your vehicle cannot be doing 105) but it can read fast.

The tolerance is 10% + 4km/h. So at 100km/h your vehicle couls actually be doing 86km/h.

My near new Pathfinder is 6km out at 100km/h but my 14 year old Commodore is only 1km out at 100.

If this were the case with your girlfreinds car, this would mean that I would catch you in my Commodore even though I am not speeding and your girlfriend is sitting on an indicated 100km/h (but the actual speed is say 94).

Therefore I would want to pass & if she is sitting next to another car in the right hand lane this then makes it frustrating for me (I am not going to get into the whole thing of how much time I would save going 5km/h faster as that is not realy the point of the topic).

How long does your GF sit in the RH lane before she needs to turn? One of my regular runs is the Monaro HWY & I have followed people from Fyshwick to Isabella Drive who have sat in the RH lane well under the limit holding the traffic back. If seh is turning onto Isabella then she really only needs to start thinking about it after Shepherd St, that should be plenty of time to merge.

Relax I hear some people say? Yep that is fine if you have nowhere to be in particular but if you are working and need to be places than this can be frustrating and time consuming.

Anyway, no such issues on bikes, just wayward dogs, kids & the world imploding riding across pedestrian crossings to deal with.

+1

Speedos are often significantly inaccurate. The ADR thing applies to when the vehicle is new. Look at the age of canberra’s vehicle fleet. Many of them would still have cable-driven speedos, which wear out and become inaccurate (sometimes massively so).

So everyone pull your head in and keep left.

You’re obviously writing with the view that everyone ELSE should keep left, so that you can roar past in the right lane. The error bar in the speedometer is insignificant, and by exceeding the posted speed limit on your speedometer you demonstrate an obvious ignorance of WHY the speedo is set to slightly over estimate speed. People like you don’t understand that roads aren’t for getting from where you are to where you’re going as fast as humanly possible, but that they’re there to help make transit as quick and efficient as possible without breaking road-rules. Speed limits aren’t suggestions FFS, they’re the law.

Sgt.Bungers2:29 pm 16 Jan 12

Couple of things… Australian Road Rules do not require a motorist to keep left on a multi lane road unless the speed limit is OVER 80 km/h (read 90 or above.), or if there is a Keep Left Unless Overtaking sign that applies to that stretch of road.

Motorists do not have to keep left on such roads if the road is congested. So in the situation you’ve painted above, I dare say that motorists in the right lane are not really doing anything wrong most of the time…

Let’s also do some maths… the Monaro Highway from the Pialligo Ave / Morshead Drive intersection near the airport, to Johnson Drive near Conder, is approx 17 km in length. 7.5 km of that has a 100 km/h speed limit. The remaining 9.5 km has an 80 km/h.

Assume you have a completely clear run bar one set of traffic lights. You average 100 km/h in the 100 zones and 80 in the 80 zones… do not have to stop at any point. It will take you 11 minutes and 37 seconds to traverse this road.

Now assume you get stuck behind a rolling road block of 80 km/h for that entire distance, including in the 100 zones. Your travel time is now 12 minutes 45 seconds… a whopping extra 1 minute and 8 seconds…

But what about… shock horror, a rolling road block at 60 km/h for the whole 17 km… keeping in mind that at such a speed on an 80 km/h or heaven forbid a 100 km/h road, many Canberrans will resort to banging their hand repeatedly on the steering wheel. Adrenaline will be pumping… they’ll be so angry they’ll immediately lose clumps of hair from stress… they’ll be yelling, they’ll be screaming, there’ll be crazy hand gestures, there’ll be road rage, there’ll be alpha male warrior dances on the side of the road… stories about this commute will be told at the dinner table, possibly passed down from generation to generation… all because their travel time increased too… drum roll… 17 minutes. An extra 4 minutes and 23 seconds… roughly the length of a song. Not really worth thinking twice about is it? You’ll also be saving petrol… bonus.

🙂

devils_advocate1:32 pm 16 Jan 12

KB1971 said :

DrKoresh said :

I don’t drive, but my girlfriend does and she drives on the side of the road her next turnoff is on, because people really aren’t very considerate when it comes to needing to change lanes for an exit. Besides, she drives at the speed limit, not over, not under, so people who have a problem with being behind her car are driving too fast. If they want to speed off into the sunset (or more likely, to the next set of traffic lights, where we invariably catch up with them, highlighting the pointlessness of speeding) they can do their dick aggressive lane change manoeuvre and pretend they’re in Fast & The Furious.

.

No entirely true, ADR18/03 indicates that a vehicle speedometer must not read slower than the actual vehicle speed (EG: at 100km/h, your vehicle cannot be doing 105) but it can read fast.

The tolerance is 10% + 4km/h. So at 100km/h your vehicle couls actually be doing 86km/h.

My near new Pathfinder is 6km out at 100km/h but my 14 year old Commodore is only 1km out at 100.

If this were the case with your girlfreinds car, this would mean that I would catch you in my Commodore even though I am not speeding and your girlfriend is sitting on an indicated 100km/h (but the actual speed is say 94).

Therefore I would want to pass & if she is sitting next to another car in the right hand lane this then makes it frustrating for me (I am not going to get into the whole thing of how much time I would save going 5km/h faster as that is not realy the point of the topic).

How long does your GF sit in the RH lane before she needs to turn? One of my regular runs is the Monaro HWY & I have followed people from Fyshwick to Isabella Drive who have sat in the RH lane well under the limit holding the traffic back. If seh is turning onto Isabella then she really only needs to start thinking about it after Shepherd St, that should be plenty of time to merge.

Relax I hear some people say? Yep that is fine if you have nowhere to be in particular but if you are working and need to be places than this can be frustrating and time consuming.

Anyway, no such issues on bikes, just wayward dogs, kids & the world imploding riding across pedestrian crossings to deal with.

Speedos are often significantly inaccurate. The ADR thing applies to when the vehicle is new. Look at the age of canberra’s vehicle fleet. Many of them would still have cable-driven speedos, which wear out and become inaccurate (sometimes massively so).

So everyone pull your head in and keep left.

DrKoresh12:11 pm 16 Jan 12

KB1971 said :

No entirely true, ADR18/03 indicates that a vehicle speedometer must not read slower than the actual vehicle speed (EG: at 100km/h, your vehicle cannot be doing 105) but it can read fast.

The tolerance is 10% + 4km/h. So at 100km/h your vehicle couls actually be doing 86km/h.

My near new Pathfinder is 6km out at 100km/h but my 14 year old Commodore is only 1km out at 100.

If this were the case with your girlfreinds car, this would mean that I would catch you in my Commodore even though I am not speeding and your girlfriend is sitting on an indicated 100km/h (but the actual speed is say 94).

Therefore I would want to pass & if she is sitting next to another car in the right hand lane this then makes it frustrating for me (I am not going to get into the whole thing of how much time I would save going 5km/h faster as that is not realy the point of the topic).

How long does your GF sit in the RH lane before she needs to turn? One of my regular runs is the Monaro HWY & I have followed people from Fyshwick to Isabella Drive who have sat in the RH lane well under the limit holding the traffic back. If seh is turning onto Isabella then she really only needs to start thinking about it after Shepherd St, that should be plenty of time to merge.

Relax I hear some people say? Yep that is fine if you have nowhere to be in particular but if you are working and need to be places than this can be frustrating and time consuming.

Anyway, no such issues on bikes, just wayward dogs, kids & the world imploding riding across pedestrian crossings to deal with.

That’s a fair point, and in truth she only does on places like Northbourne (which is only 60k’s and often too congested to change lanes easily to turn), when on the parkway and such she will enter her turn-off early, but not unreasonably so, just so she has enough time to comfortably check her blindspots and change lanes without having to disrupt traffic. But in any case, a difference of 5kph or so isn’t going to make any difference on the time of your commute, especially if you are sensible enough to plan on arriving to work 5 or 10 minutes before you start your shift.

KB197111:48 am 16 Jan 12

DrKoresh said :

I don’t drive, but my girlfriend does and she drives on the side of the road her next turnoff is on, because people really aren’t very considerate when it comes to needing to change lanes for an exit. Besides, she drives at the speed limit, not over, not under, so people who have a problem with being behind her car are driving too fast. If they want to speed off into the sunset (or more likely, to the next set of traffic lights, where we invariably catch up with them, highlighting the pointlessness of speeding) they can do their dick aggressive lane change manoeuvre and pretend they’re in Fast & The Furious.

.

No entirely true, ADR18/03 indicates that a vehicle speedometer must not read slower than the actual vehicle speed (EG: at 100km/h, your vehicle cannot be doing 105) but it can read fast.

The tolerance is 10% + 4km/h. So at 100km/h your vehicle couls actually be doing 86km/h.

My near new Pathfinder is 6km out at 100km/h but my 14 year old Commodore is only 1km out at 100.

If this were the case with your girlfreinds car, this would mean that I would catch you in my Commodore even though I am not speeding and your girlfriend is sitting on an indicated 100km/h (but the actual speed is say 94).

Therefore I would want to pass & if she is sitting next to another car in the right hand lane this then makes it frustrating for me (I am not going to get into the whole thing of how much time I would save going 5km/h faster as that is not realy the point of the topic).

How long does your GF sit in the RH lane before she needs to turn? One of my regular runs is the Monaro HWY & I have followed people from Fyshwick to Isabella Drive who have sat in the RH lane well under the limit holding the traffic back. If seh is turning onto Isabella then she really only needs to start thinking about it after Shepherd St, that should be plenty of time to merge.

Relax I hear some people say? Yep that is fine if you have nowhere to be in particular but if you are working and need to be places than this can be frustrating and time consuming.

Anyway, no such issues on bikes, just wayward dogs, kids & the world imploding riding across pedestrian crossings to deal with.

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