On the roads
The horrific car accident on Sunday morning that left 5 teenagers dead reminds me of some very stupid driving I saw from people on the trip down to Inverloch and back.
On the way down I saw a motorcyclist come up behind me on a stretch of single lane road. I was doing about the speed limit. He sat behind me for a few minutes. I saw a sign noting we were coming up to an overtaking lane, and thought he’d wait to overtake, but no, while we were on a curved stretch of road with double-white lines (indicating it was unsafe to overtake, don’t cross the lines), he decided to zoom past me. Only then did I see his pillion passenger on the back.
Stupid.
Driving back to Melbourne, I saw a couple of instances of people (one a zoomy sportscar, one a big truck) overtaking by using lanes marked for vehicles moving in the opposite direction to turn right.
And that was just two days after a nearby fatal crash close to Phillip Island. (In that accident, the man killed was not wearing a seatbelt.)
What can be done to stop this kind of behaviour?
Tags: driving
17 comments
OZCOOL = Moron
The other week I met a thoroughly nice bloke who drives a four-wheel-drive. But while he gets some flak from his mates about it, he doesn’t live up to the cliche. He regularly uses it out in the bush as part of green activism while monitoring loggers. Interesting.
So not all 4WD owners fulfil all the 4WD cliches, by any means.
But some do. For example a bloke spotted last week driving a vehicle with the personalised numberplate “OZCOOL”. Whether that’s what he thinks of himself or whether it’s a corporate vehicle I don’t know. (There is a brand of refrigeration of that name.)
Bullbar — needless and dangerous in an urban environment. The rest of the vehicle didn’t look like it ever left the bitumen, though I suppose one can never tell.
Aggressiveness — he flashed the lunchtime (last Monday 20th, approx 1:25pm) pedestrians on the Flinders Lane/Degraves Street zebra crossing as he slowly forced his way forward onto it.
As another pedestrian crossed, he edged forwards, almost nudging the man. The man turned around and thumped the bonnet. Mr OzCool jesticulated gesticulated angrily, as if he had any kind of case to do so, and drove off.
Mr OZCOOL, you’re a freaking moron.
YOU DON’T HAVE RIGHT OF WAY on a zebra crossing. YOU have to wait.
You must give way to any pedestrian on a pedestrian crossing.
If you don’t like it, go stuff yourself drive somewhere else.
(The Rate The Plate web site seems to have gone west, so I guess I have to blog about these idiots myself.)
One drive, three morons
All from a ten minute period this morning.
Lady in Mini Cooper, turning off Footscray Road to head over the Bolte Bridge. At some stage have you considered getting off the phone?
White stationwagon, heading over the Bolte Bridge. There’s been over a kilometre of signs and arrows on the road surface indicating which lanes you need to be in to go towards Geelong. You can’t do it from the left lane, and at the point that the left lane goes… uhh… left, it’s too late to change your mind now.
Range Rover, Queensway. The reversible lane is not that hard to use. That red cross on the sign is an indicator that you’re not meant to be there, at least not in that direction.
Where do these people get their licences?
A missed opportunity?
I assume Glen Eira council put this graph of forecast revenue from parking in their propaganda sheet newsletter because they’re pleased about it.
I was going to point out that plenty of people park in stupid places, and I’d prefer they got stung with tickets if at all possible, so they can subsidise my council rates. It looks to me like every other council nearby except Bayside is doing a better job at this than mine.
But having thought about it, I suppose some of those inner-city councils are also earning a heap of money off parking meters. I’m not sure there are many spots in Glen Eira that would be worthy of parking meters. I’m not adverse to paying for parking in high demand areas, if it’s relatively cheap, and particularly if there are easy ways to get there without a car, but I suspect in most areas of Glen Eira it would just encourage a lot of shoppers to go elsewhere.
(It would probably be a better comparison for Glen Eira to be comparing themselves to other middle-distance areas. Bayside and Monash are fair enough, but where’s the comparison with Hobson’s Bay, Moonee Valley or Darebin?)
My rights as a pedestrian
When I’m out walking, I actively (but not foolishly, I hope) defend my rights as a pedestrian. If I have an opportunity to walk safely and legally before a car goes, I will take it.
The main rules are not difficult to comprehend, but some motorists just don’t seem to understand them.
[Page references are those in the Vicroads PDF summary of the road rules.]
Red means stop. It doesn’t mean drivers can zoom through at the last minute. Given that Yellow actually means “stop if it is safe to do so” [p27], there’s no reason why drivers should still be travelling through the intersection after I’ve got a (conflicting) green man. Not that there’s much I can do about this but glare.
Drivers are meant to stop behind the stop line, not halfway across it blocking the pedestrian crossing. If blocked by the cars ahead, that’s the driver’s fault for not looking ahead to make sure it was clear. [p27]
The zebra crossing means vehicles have to give way for me to cross. If a motorist was driving so fast they had to brake sharply, that’s their fault [p58]. (I view extended periods of delays to motorists at busy zebra crossings, such as in Flinders Lane, with some glee. If they were stupid enough to bring their car into the middle of a big busy city, they’re going to face some delays in their quest to get to the next red light.)
Flagged Children’s Crossings are more strict. Vehicles have to stop if someone is waiting to cross, and not drive through until the last person is completely off the crossing. [p57] (I also recommend not trying to run down crossing supervisors at lighted intersections, such as some right-turners at McKinnon and Jasper Roads seem to do.)
Vehicles are not allowed to park on a footpath.[p78] Foot. Path. It’s really not that hard.
If a driver is turning across my path, they have to give way to me [p29] — unless it’s a roundabout.
Many motorists, myself included, give way when coming out of side-streets to crossing pedestrians. Strictly speaking vehicles don’t have to do this, but personally I consider it polite.
(Update: Commenter Andrew notes elsewhere the rules say: “At Stop or Give Way signs [...] you must not only give way to vehicles, but also to any pedestrians at or near the sign [...]”. [p31] However it appears that this specifically applies at locations not at intersections. I’m not clear on why you’d have such a sign that’s not at an intersection.)
If a vehicle is going into or coming out of a driveway or carpark or whatever, they have to give way to me. [p60]
Drivers have to stop for tram passengers unless there’s a safety zone/platform stop. [p60] The tram is a big thing on wheels that’s 3-5 times as big as a car; there’s no excuse for not seeing it.
I don’t have to cross at the lights if they’re more than 20 metres away (but I’ll certainly do so if it’s safer to do so).
The above rules are, I think, pretty logical.
But there are some others I learnt about while reading up on it, which I suspect not so many people are aware of.
- Motorists have to give way to peds when turning in a slip lane (including separated from the other lanes by just a painted island) [p30]
- Motorists have to give way to all peds (and everyone else for that matter) when making a U-turn [p31]
- Giving way to peds when turning includes instances such as turning into a main road that the pedestrian is crossing. [figure 24, p35]
Footnote: Why have VicRoads published the road rules in a PDF that doesn’t allow you to copy text out of it?
Tags: driving, pedestrians, VicRoads, walking
16 comments
Driving school FAIL
Dear “Number One Driving School”,
You may not be Number One for long if you keep teaching your learner drivers to park in bus zones, then sit there for 5+ minutes.
This pic was taken a couple of weeks ago, and was separate to another noted yesterday via Twitter: You parked in a bus zone then walked past three legal spots to where you were going? FAIL.
And if the Glen Eira parking inspectors want some easy prey, try the bus zone outside Flaked Out fish’n'chips in the evening.
Hey I was wondering — would they give me the power to issue traffic infringement fines? Preferably on commission, but heck, I’d do it for free, just to bring these morons down a rung or two.
Pretty please?
Tags: bus zone, Morons on the road, parking, road
8 comments
A moron in Bourke Street
“No entry” signs? Lots of them? IT DOESN’T APPLY TO ME.
Congratulations NOH-500, you are moron of the week.
(Last Thursday, lunchtime)
Tags:
5 comments
Morons
Don’t beep at me. I can see the green light. But I can also see the traffic banked up on the other side of the intersection.
I know it’s really hard because the switch is so awkwardly placed, such a long way from your hands on the steering wheel, but fer chrissake use your indicators!
Don’t tailgate me. I’m going at the speed limit. I’m not going to speed because you’re in a hurry.
Look, if you don’t know where you’re going, don’t keep driving slowly down the road while you try to look at the Melway. Pull over.
Get off the smegging phone, you moron.
Not surprised to read this: Hummer Drivers Get More Tickets. A Lot More., given I spotted one lady zooming down Kingsway recently, in a Hummer with personalised licence plates, happy jabbering away on the phone.
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13 comments
