Parking and Driving the Cheeses me off!

[ian]

Drivers who sit in the right lane on an expressway and leave a 200 metre gap to the car in front, if you reactions are that slow hand in your license.

[Stan]

tailgaters
people who cant get on with it in a turning lane - 2 cars get through on the arrow, when plenty more could have
people who sit in the right lane and not overtaking
people who forget where their indicators are
hand held mobile phone idiots that drive inconsistently

[ParaBul]

Most of what you've written reads to me as if you're excessively stressed - you need to learn to relax. I say this because I reckon I've been there (and some would argue I'm still there... ) But this bit resonates with me:

Then there are drivers who STOP or almost stop at roundabouts even though maintaining their former speed would have allowed them to safely pass in front of cars already on the roundabout. Europeans know how to use roundabouts. Most Aussie drivers seem not to have much of a clue or simply don't care.

Drives me crazy - follow a driver up to a roundabout, and you can see their head. They
- Pull up the the roundabout.
- Stop.
- THEN they turn their head and look left.



The other annoyance I have is inaccurate road signs (especially those that cause me embarassment).

At an intersection of a major arterial road and a less major arterial, the right turn lane has a sign that says "No Green Arrows" from 7am - 9am and 4pm to 6pm Mon - Fri. I was in the turn right lane a few minutes before 8am on a Thursday morning, watching two vehicles make it through each cycle - creep into the intersection while the through lanes had a green light, then complete the turn on the red.

I made it to the front of the line, and decided to turn off my engine while I waited for the next green. Put the DSG in neutral so I could start the engine again, and drifted off.

Suddenly I had a green arrow.

WTF?

Hit the key then the accelerator - oops, I'm in neutral.

Grab the shifter to hit Drive - damn, won't move.

That's right - need foot on brake to shift from neutral.

So - off the accelerator, onto the brake, find Drive, then back on the accelerator - while listening to the honking horns behind me.



I think three of us made it through - but I'm sure a few more could've made it if I hadn't been caught out.

Goddam DSG! Give me a manual in that situation!

[team_v]

Road works signs (i.e. do 40 in an 80 zone) when they are either working on the footpath and no where near traffic or there is no works ata ll (due to wet weather or a weekend).

Then they wonder why people don't follow the rules.

[wai]

The solution to this is to have marked parking bays. If a motorist does not park within a marked bay, they can be fined. The issue with marked parking bays is that councils do not make as much as they do without marked parking bays.

A standard parking bay is 6.5 m long for intermediate bays and 6 m for the end bays. This is because the length of a standard vehicle is 5.5 m, so allowing the required 0.5 m either end of the bay gives you the 6.5 m. For end bays, you only have a vehicle at one end, so you only need an additional 0.5 m. All this is because you must maintain a 1 m space between your vehicle and the vehicle at either end.

With smaller cars, you can fit more cars in a given run without marked bays, also with automatic parking systems on cars, some manufacturers say that they can park the car in a space that is 0.8 m longer than the car. This is actually illegal as you actually need a space that is 2 m longer than the car being parked.

Now it is the responsibility of the parking vehicle to ensure that when it is parked, there is a space of 1 m to the vehicles at both ends.

Without marked bays, it is open season. Councils will not fine you for parking too close to the vehicles at either end as they do not know which vehicle was the last to park. What they do see is more revenue if the run is ticketed, or from fines for overstaying.

It is the same in parking stations and parking areas. The standard width of a parking bay is 2.5 m, and 3 m if the end bay has a wall, column or fence as one boundary of the bay. The width of disabled bays is 1.5 x standard parking bays. The thing is that developers can squeeze a few more bays into a parking area by reducing the width to 2 m, and ignoring the end bay requirements. They do this because they must show a minimum number of bays to get a building approved. The same goes for the space between opposing rightangle parking bays. It is supposed to be 7 m. This allows vehicles to enter and exit the bays easily. Again, by reducing this to 6 m they may be able to get another row of spaces in, and that can be the difference between a building being approved or not.

My Caddy is just over 4.8 m long, so to be parked legally, the space between the bumpers of cars already parked must be just over 6.8 m. How many know how long, wide and tall their vehicles actually are? Better still, how many know how wide a traffic lane is? It moght not be such a great idea to spin the car to scrub off speed (other than on a race track) as you might just end up in a worse case and take out innocent drivers.

The same goes for vehicles who stop too close to the vehicle in front when coming up to lights. There is a "rule/convention" which says that you must see "tyres and tarmac" of the vehicle in front when you stop behind them at lights. This is so that you can actually drive out from that position should the situation require it. The majority of drivers stop so close and give themselves no room to manouvre out if needed.

[martinijosh]

I have to admit, one of my most hated things is when I'm in a traffic jam and the car in front leaves a huge gap between them and the car in front of them. Then they roll forward - probably being an automatic car so it's no dramas for them. Or worse when they just crawl when all the other cars are stopped. This then leaves me left having to use the biting point on the clutch which then gives that lovely burning clutch smell.

So release the clutch without using throttle. Unless you're on a hill you'll be fine.

[Hillbilly]

People who turn their engines off at traffic lights to save half a breath of fuel and take forever to move ROFL

[dylan8]

Yeah, there are some dumbass drivers out there. Not much you can do, unless you want to wind up on A Current Affair on one of their Road Rage specials

Next minute, slow/hopeless drives blamed on hoons! *insert tracy grimshaw meme*

Road works signs (i.e. do 40 in an 80 zone) when they are either working on the footpath and no where near traffic or there is no works ata ll (due to wet weather or a weekend).

Then they wonder why people don't follow the rules.

After working on site I can understand why that slow traffic even if not working on the road (footpath etc). But leaving the signs out when no work is actually happening bugs me too

[Ben J]

Some things that annoy me:

People who don't indicate. Even if it's a case that doesn't really affect me or other drivers, it just really pisses me off.

People who tail gate you hard on the highway when you're in the right lane over taking people, but have another car infront of you so theres no way you can go any faster and get out of the way even if you wanted to.

People who can't stay in their lane around corners and nearly push you into curbs/off the road.

Bad drivers in general annoy me.

[Tim]

We recently had a Bus lane added near a local major intersection. Some people use it to turn left in busy traffic and others wait it out until they reach the point where you are legally allowed to enter the lane to turn left. Im in the latter.

Although it pisses me off having to wait when there is a perfectly good empty lane there. A week after the lane was created the police were sitting in a side street booking people for driving in the bus lane to get to the left turn lane.

The moral of the story is dont persecute a driver for following the road laws.