Parkway mayhem

Many posters here don’t seem to see the irony of their attitude towards slow movng vehicles and cyclists. If the “tractor” bothers you so much, why aren’t you threatening to run it off the road and do serious harm to the driver. Many are complaining about other vehicles hitting each other in their rush to get around it but I don’t see many suggestions that people are ikely to run into the machine itself. Is that perhaps because it is a lot bigger than you and you can miss these things when it poses a greater risk to you than the other driver/rider?

Hahahahahahaha, exactly what I was thinking. Self absorption & hypocracy seems to be the rule of the day here.

troll-sniffer said :

yellowsnow said :

Haha! Have you guys actually driven in mainland Europe? I’ve encountered all sorts of slow-travelling diggers and tractors, military tanks, horses pulling carts overflowing with cabbages (or illegal immigrants), elderly cyclists and even donkeys travelling on 100kmh + roads. I’ve never seen a driver bat an eyelid, let alone shake a fist or rush to get onto the nearest internet forum to vent their anger. People just accept it, take it in their stride … well, they might engage in some skilfully executed if risky overtaking manoeuvre but they cope, instead of stressing about it for more than five seconds they move on.

No wonder people laugh at Canberra drivers – there’s not many cities in the world where a single digger on a road creates such a flurry of impotent rage. I love Canberra, but posts like this really make me question its residents’ priorities and ability to cope with the real world.

+eleventy billion squared.

+1.

I definitely wouldn’t get the government to ban them driving at certain times, but it is common courtesy to try and avoid driving your tractor on the road in peak hour. In some circumstances, it may be crucial that you get somewhere asap, but otherwise they should try and go either early like 7:30 or later like 9:30, to avoid the largest chunk of traffic being held up.

You can’t fully hate them though, because surely they must realise that it’s bad to drive a tractor in peak hour, so they must really have to. Or their boss ordered them to, and he is an inconsiderate person. I’m sure they are absolutely flooring it to get the most speed they can out of it. If they were just at half speed, chilling out watching ppl get frustrated, I’d hate them. But I imagine mostly that they’d be thinking “:S I’m sorry guys! I’m flooring it as much as I can”. And they tend to pull over to let people past when they can in my experience. In peak hour they’d never get back into their lane though.

yellowsnow said :

Haha! Have you guys actually driven in mainland Europe? I’ve encountered all sorts of slow-travelling diggers and tractors, military tanks, horses pulling carts overflowing with cabbages (or illegal immigrants), elderly cyclists and even donkeys travelling on 100kmh + roads. I’ve never seen a driver bat an eyelid, let alone shake a fist or rush to get onto the nearest internet forum to vent their anger. People just accept it, take it in their stride … well, they might engage in some skilfully executed if risky overtaking manoeuvre but they cope, instead of stressing about it for more than five seconds they move on.

No wonder people laugh at Canberra drivers – there’s not many cities in the world where a single digger on a road creates such a flurry of impotent rage. I love Canberra, but posts like this really make me question its residents’ priorities and ability to cope with the real world.

Spot on.

yellowsnow said :

Haha! Have you guys actually driven in mainland Europe? I’ve encountered all sorts of slow-travelling diggers and tractors, military tanks, horses pulling carts overflowing with cabbages (or illegal immigrants), elderly cyclists and even donkeys travelling on 100kmh + roads. I’ve never seen a driver bat an eyelid, let alone shake a fist or rush to get onto the nearest internet forum to vent their anger. People just accept it, take it in their stride … well, they might engage in some skilfully executed if risky overtaking manoeuvre but they cope, instead of stressing about it for more than five seconds they move on.

No wonder people laugh at Canberra drivers – there’s not many cities in the world where a single digger on a road creates such a flurry of impotent rage. I love Canberra, but posts like this really make me question its residents’ priorities and ability to cope with the real world.

+eleventy billion squared.

I recently completed a cycling holiday in France, Germany and Holland. Apart from the amazing scenery and great food, the greatest pleasure was encountering mature considerate drivers. The behaviour of Australian drivers by contrast now makes me wonder just how grown up a large percentage of our drivers are.

Haha! Have you guys actually driven in mainland Europe? I’ve encountered all sorts of slow-travelling diggers and tractors, military tanks, horses pulling carts overflowing with cabbages (or illegal immigrants), elderly cyclists and even donkeys travelling on 100kmh + roads. I’ve never seen a driver bat an eyelid, let alone shake a fist or rush to get onto the nearest internet forum to vent their anger. People just accept it, take it in their stride … well, they might engage in some skilfully executed if risky overtaking manoeuvre but they cope, instead of stressing about it for more than five seconds they move on.

No wonder people laugh at Canberra drivers – there’s not many cities in the world where a single digger on a road creates such a flurry of impotent rage. I love Canberra, but posts like this really make me question its residents’ priorities and ability to cope with the real world.

Having come across many tractors/backhoes/whatever you want to call them dawdling along doing 20-40 kph on a 80-100kph road with traffic backing up for kms behind it, I don’t understand why they are not restricted vehicles. They should not be travelling along any main road with a speed limit above 60kph in peak hours (730-930am and 400-630pm) and it is probably should not be travelling along roads above 90kph at any time.

On a side note I suspect the people having accidents on the parkway are just ass clowns who can’t drive, I don’t understand why there have been so many along there in the past month or so. It used to average a few at most a month, now it’s a daily occurrence.

bughunter said :

Also remember a 100 Km/h speed sign represents the maximum speed, not the minimum.

If you’re incapable of doing the speed limit, hand your licence back and GTFO.

Unless, of course, you’re in a tractor thing (yep, that’s what I’m calling it) and it’s actually the vehicle that’s incapable not the driver lol

I agree with the OP! I used to see this on the Monaro during peak time too! The traffic would be banked up for kilometres with everyone in the right lane because if you didn’t get into it straight away, no one would let you in when you actually came upon the tractor.

God forbid everyone “keep left” like you’re supposed to and overtake the tractor when you get to it.

They have no place in peak traffic on a 100km/h road… ever!

A single backhoe on the Parkway you say?

How I do yearn for the stately morning drive down Parramatta Road being totally consumed by Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’.

How Canberran.

if you want to drive your backhoe on the highway then buy one of these

http://www.thalesprotectedmobility.com.au/tpm/hmev.html

australian designed and made if i recall correctly

Russ said :

Firstly, it’s a backhoe, not an excavator or tractor or digger.

Secondly, they should be able to do around 40km/h.

Thirdly, they have no place on a 100km/h road during peak times – their speed is completely incompatible with the prevailing flow of traffic.

Finally, if someone really needs to move a backhoe along such roads at peak times, they can get it floated on a truck just like every other piece of earthmoving machinery.

I am in total agreement- all the mayhem and confusion I have witnessed on the GDE and Parkway caused by backhoes and tractors with mower attachments on the back is beyond belief. We don’t have a huge peak period in the mornings for traffic- get them the hell away from the motorways between 7.30 and 9.30- after that fine..I have seen people in spasms of rage due to the inconvenience these beasts cause.

Grail said :

So there was a crash, and there was an excavator on the road at the same time, therefore the excavator cased the crash?

You will find that crashes on the Parkway are usually due to people trying to merge into 100km/h traffic at 80km/h, coming to a sudden halt at the bottom of the entry ramp when halfway merged into the parkway when they see something in their rear view mirror and panic, idiots trying to enter the exit ramp from the right hand lane (cutting off whoever was in the left lane and either colliding with them or triggering a rear-end collision that they are not involved in themselves), or people who for whatever reason slow down suddenly in traffic: typically of a morning if there is any car, bike or person near the shoulder, there will be someone who slows down to rubberneck.

The slow traffic does serve to test the tempers of impatient and selfish drivers. I would prefer to remove the impatient and selfish drivers (you know who I mean: the folks complaining that everyone else is not doing 110 in a 100 zone) rather than the productive and useful people.

Just remember that getting everyone to work on time is a cooperative effort. If you find yourself speeding up to overtake someone who is “only” doing 95, the chances are that you are part of the problem, not the solution.

Yours truly,
White Honda Jazz doing 90km/h maximum during peak hour on the Parkway & GDE.

Also I didn’t say it was a direct cause of the crashes I just was speculating it might have been a possibility.

And I agree that most of the ones in the morning are people trying to merge and failing badly or crossing traffic to the exit lanes I see that all the time as well which is something people also need to learn is to be more aware of what is on the road or stop being dickheads trying to get to work .000001 seconds faster than everybody else. But when it is dangerously slow it makes me wonder how that can be acceptable.

As I said the last 2 days I have almost had the side of my car get hit because people are trying to jump into the gap I’m leaving in front of me so I’m not tail gating but they aren’t making it because they are going so slow behind the backhoe, it’s a danger either way.

Ok so I’m not an expert on what they are called but you still knew what I was talking about 😛

p1 said :

Russ said :

Firstly, it’s a backhoe, not an excavator or tractor or digger.

Ummm, backhoes can both excavate and dig holes. So it is all three.

No, while it is a synecdoche, which may cause a little brain-confusion for some, the correct term is indeed backhoe. An excavator is a different machine and would not be found travelling down any public road, and a “digger” is something you might hear mentioned on Grand Designs.

EvanJames said :

chewy14 said :

People going significantly slower than the traffic around them are just as dangerous as those going significantly faster.

And axe murderers. I see a slow vehicle and think “bad as an axe murderer”.

Oh ICWATUDIDTHR.

There’s plenty of research that shows variation from the mean speed of traffic is a risk factor for accidents. Seems you’ve seen one too many “speed kills” signs.

chewy14 said :

People going significantly slower than the traffic around them are just as dangerous as those going significantly faster.

And axe murderers. I see a slow vehicle and think “bad as an axe murderer”.

Grail said :

Just remember that getting everyone to work on time is a cooperative effort. If you find yourself speeding up to overtake someone who is “only” doing 95, the chances are that you are part of the problem, not the solution.

Yours truly,
White Honda Jazz doing 90km/h maximum during peak hour on the Parkway & GDE.

I can understand the GDE because it’s speed limit is 90 but why travel that speed on the Parkway?

Yes getting to work on the roads is a co-operative effort. So why don’t you co-operate with the majority of people and travel at the prevailing speed?

People going significantly slower than the traffic around them are just as dangerous as those going significantly faster.

Russ said :

Firstly, it’s a backhoe, not an excavator or tractor or digger.

Ummm, backhoes can both excavate and dig holes. So it is all three.

Firstly, it’s a backhoe, not an excavator or tractor or digger.

Secondly, they should be able to do around 40km/h.

Thirdly, they have no place on a 100km/h road during peak times – their speed is completely incompatible with the prevailing flow of traffic.

Finally, if someone really needs to move a backhoe along such roads at peak times, they can get it floated on a truck just like every other piece of earthmoving machinery.

They could make it 4 lanes on madness

The Parkway is a motorway grade road, in every other major city in this country slow vehicles, tractors, bicycles and mopeds etc are not allowed on motorways. Why should the parkway be any different?

So there was a crash, and there was an excavator on the road at the same time, therefore the excavator cased the crash?

You will find that crashes on the Parkway are usually due to people trying to merge into 100km/h traffic at 80km/h, coming to a sudden halt at the bottom of the entry ramp when halfway merged into the parkway when they see something in their rear view mirror and panic, idiots trying to enter the exit ramp from the right hand lane (cutting off whoever was in the left lane and either colliding with them or triggering a rear-end collision that they are not involved in themselves), or people who for whatever reason slow down suddenly in traffic: typically of a morning if there is any car, bike or person near the shoulder, there will be someone who slows down to rubberneck.

The slow traffic does serve to test the tempers of impatient and selfish drivers. I would prefer to remove the impatient and selfish drivers (you know who I mean: the folks complaining that everyone else is not doing 110 in a 100 zone) rather than the productive and useful people.

Just remember that getting everyone to work on time is a cooperative effort. If you find yourself speeding up to overtake someone who is “only” doing 95, the chances are that you are part of the problem, not the solution.

Yours truly,
White Honda Jazz doing 90km/h maximum during peak hour on the Parkway & GDE.

There are crashes on the Parkway every week and is the reason that I studiously avoid it as once you’re on there you’re pretty much stuck if there’s an accident. It’s the divers not the tractors. You should be prepared for such things on the road from time to time, even if it is annoying in peak hour – perhaps it was a farmer going to work?

I think its more the point that it CAN only do 20 and the person moving it around is going about in a peak traffic time…

I am just trying to raise the point as i have almost been side swiped 2 days in a row, and there also have been crashes on the parkway on said days

Yeah, but wouldn’t a reason be “my digger only does 20” ?

carnardly said :

Should they be banned from morning rush hour? No. absolutely not.
Any accidents that happen are usually the result of bad or stupid decisions by motorists.

And those stupid decisions are made worse when people get stuck behind a very slow moving vehicle in an otherwise fast moving traffic condition…..

chewy14 said :

bughunter said :

Pesky tractors and diggers, make a list of vehicles that you don’t want on the road at the same time as you. Submit that to the gubmit so they can make more rules for others to ensure there is less inconvenience in your life. Also remember a 100 Km/h speed sign represents the maximum speed, not the minimum. That hour I spent on the parkway today was well and truly wasted but I’m not looking to scapegoat some minor portion of ‘traffic’ for the behaviour and mistakes of car drivers.

I thought there was a law for impeding traffic?

Driving too slow can be just as dangerous as driving too fast, speed differential from the mean speed of traffic is a risk factor for accidents.

I think that is the right one?

125 Unreasonably obstructing drivers or pedestrians

(1) A driver must not unreasonably obstruct the path of another
driver or a pedestrian.

Offence provision.

Note Driver includes a person in control of a vehicle — see the
definition of drive in the dictionary.

(2) For this rule, a driver does not unreasonably obstruct the
path of another driver or a pedestrian only because:
(a) the driver is stopped in traffic; or
(b) the driver is driving more slowly than other vehicles
(unless the driver is driving abnormally slowly in the
circumstances).

Example of a driver driving abnormally slowly
A driver driving at a speed of 20 kilometres per hour on a length of road
to which a speed-limit of 80 kilometres per hour applies when there is
no reason for the driver to drive at that speed on the length of road.

I drove past some kind of digger on Tuggeranong Parkway yesterday and wondered why it was there. In Europe, these kinds of vehicles (along with bicycles, horses and gypsy caravans) are quite sensibly banned from trunk roads.

As for people who crashed “because there was a digger on the road”, they should have their licences cancelled and be required to prove they have learned to drive before being allowed back on the road.

In fact, shortly after overtaking the digger, I found myself behind a total cretin driving in the right-hand lane at about 90km/h. It’s about time the police stopped their random driver testing and actually pulled over the great many drivers who are actually breaking the law by clogging up the fast lane, tail-gating, and driving with fog lights on.

bughunter said :

Pesky tractors and diggers, make a list of vehicles that you don’t want on the road at the same time as you. Submit that to the gubmit so they can make more rules for others to ensure there is less inconvenience in your life. Also remember a 100 Km/h speed sign represents the maximum speed, not the minimum. That hour I spent on the parkway today was well and truly wasted but I’m not looking to scapegoat some minor portion of ‘traffic’ for the behaviour and mistakes of car drivers.

I thought there was a law for impeding traffic?

Driving too slow can be just as dangerous as driving too fast, speed differential from the mean speed of traffic is a risk factor for accidents.

Should they be banned from morning rush hour? No. absolutely not.

Any accidents that happen are usually the result of bad or stupid decisions by motorists.

Pesky tractors and diggers, make a list of vehicles that you don’t want on the road at the same time as you. Submit that to the gubmit so they can make more rules for others to ensure there is less inconvenience in your life. Also remember a 100 Km/h speed sign represents the maximum speed, not the minimum. That hour I spent on the parkway today was well and truly wasted but I’m not looking to scapegoat some minor portion of ‘traffic’ for the behaviour and mistakes of car drivers.