Keep left??

OK, this may be a dumb questions, but I am not Australian and haven't been
outside NSW much since moving here.

In NSW, on a 2 or 3 lane dual carriageway or motorway, it is convention to
return to the left lane after overtaking so long as the speed limit is over
80kph. When the speed limit is 80kph or below, there is no convention to
return to the left lane and travelling in any lane, and passing on the
inside is acceptable (unless otherwise signposted).

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Does the same ruling apply to Queensland??

If it does. What are you SE QLD'ers doing? There's cars all over the fckin
place )

Thanks for reading a dumb question.
Jack
PS, sorry for the over generalised attack on QLD drivers.

 

The law is the same everywhere in Australia: keep left unless overtaking.

 

Slightly different. If you're over 50 years of age, or, any age if you have
your head firmly implanted up your arse, you are required to occupy the far
right lane, and be required to stay alongside vehicles travelling in the
centre and left lanes, thus preventing any other overtaking.

If there is little other traffic around, you are required to stay DIRECTLY
IN FRONT of drivers attempting to pass you. Feel free to change lanes as
required - after all, you own the road.

I believe so, but law is one thing, and whether or not it's actually policed
is another.

 

It's a law without any penalty though!
(Although in Qld if you're doing less than 80 in the right-lane of a 100kph
zone you can be booked)

 

Heh, ahhh yes...
You've experience the Queenslander driving style

I've lived there for years and believe me they totally deserve any
criticism levelled at 'em.
I'll be back up there for a few weeks starting this Monday - so long as
I get through the Gold Coast/Brisbane area quickly and painlessly I
should be right though.

 

No! How else can I sneak past in the left hand lane? In fact, if you
can get everyone else to stay in the RH line, I would be even
happier Can you make the trucks go there too?

Jeremy I admire the fact that a of thought goes into the writing of
these rules, but have people ever looked at what is happening on the
roads and analysed why? AFAIK people aren't driving like this because
it is written that way, they are driving that way because it is easy/
simple. Who reads the rules once they get their license anyway?

I now believe that people sit in the RH lane on roads like the F3
because they are too lazy to look over their shoulder and change lanes
to the left. It is far easier for them to speed up and slow down to
avoid the need to 'risk' changing lanes.

I think people in this newsgroup came to the conclusion years ago that
if you put exit lanes on the right lane or ended the right hand lane
instead of the left hand one when you revert to 2 lanes from 3, you
would push those people into the middle or left lanes. Of course, you
might have a few people accidentally exiting a motorway
unintentionally for the first few years...


and about those use of hazards on the F6... ;-p

Dale.

 

my understanding is if the speed limit is 90km/hr or more you must keep left
unless overtaking . under that is free for all (unless you were causing
traffic problems/danger which then you may be committing a separate
offence).
I remember seeing it on an ad when the Australia wide rules came in (or were
updated) - about 3 or 4 yrs ago I think. there was a bit of an ad blitz on
telly.

 

Queenslanders are all over the place dodging potholes.
MikeH

 

That's very funny!

He really needs to get a few friends involved too and make it a convoy
as it really isn't the same if it's just one van.

Dale.

 

Depends on the road and the speed limit.

 

Although the law states that you should be in the extreme
left lane, I think on roads with 3 or more lanes there is
some common sense in staying in the 2nd from left lane. By
keeping the extreme left lane relatively free, it makes it
easier and safer for merging and exiting traffic. Plus the
extreme left lane is the one most likely to be turned into
an exit, or most likely to end. Reducing the number of lane
change/merges between vehicles travelling at different
speeds reduces the likelihood of accidents, so therefore if
most traffic stayed in the 2nd from left lane the accident
risk would be lowered.

 

I'd have to go along with this. I've driven and/or ridden in every
capital city in the country and a fair few regional areas as well and
the lane discipline in all of them was atrocious, even compared to the
UK (which I thought was heavenly for the two months I spent driving
around it, but is apparently one of the worse countries in Europe as
far as keeping left/right goes - at least according to the natives I
talked to).

Certainly I've been living in Sydney for a few years now and i
wouldn't describe lane discipline here as anything except terrible
(which, combined with by far and away the most aggressive drivers in
the country, can lead to some frustrating and scary moments).
Probably the most egregious example I can think of happening recently
was a truckie holding back a kilometre or two long line of traffic on
the highway down to Canberra by trundling along in the right hand lane
(amongst which was an ambulance - complete with flashing lights and
siren). I was particularly surprised, because IME truckies -
especially long distance ones - are amongst the best when it comes to
lane discipline and general courtesy.

About the only aspect of driving here (Sydney) I'd consider worse than
the lane discipline is the red-light running. I was nearly skittled
several times when I first moved here from Brisbane, until I learnt
that 3-odd cars going through the intersection after the light had
turned red was basically "normal". At least back home it's usually
only one or two cars, and it's relatively uncommon (say, witnessed
once a week rather than a few times a day).

CS

 

In Qld they use the following rules:
(On M1 110km limit, four lanes)

Right hand lane: Teens and those in company cars 115-140kms
Centre Right lane: General people with a little common sence to stay
out of the way and empty (or powerful) trucks 95-120kms
Centre Left lane: Most trucks, grey power with caravans and those
generally not powerful enough (or stable enough) to reach 110
Far Left lane: Generally empty except for all those to merge
over within 3 mocroseconds to exit freeway! Oh and those wishing to have a
nice hastle free run for the 60 kms from Gold Coast to Brisbane 90- 120kms
(Until Springwood where it turns to shit and reverts to the complete
oppisite!)


Yes, as for the SEQld drivers, I have NFI what 90% of them are thinking 90%
of the time and makes driving for a living a very tiresome effort.

 

Its when people get to the age of:

ANYONE GOING SLOWER THAN ME IS AN IDIOT
AND
ANYONE GOING FASTER IS A MANIAC.

 

Thanks for that. I'm glad to hear I have been doing the right thing in QLD.
Even if I'm the only one )

In the UK you move back to the left lane on all roads and all speed limits.
If you hog the middle lane you will be the object of much honking and
abusive gentures. Especially since trucks are not allowed to use the right
lane, and are not allowed to pass on the inside, so they just have to follow
the middle lane hog until he gets the message and moves. Thankfully, this
does not happen very often.

This motorway system also works much better as the speed limits are not so
strickly observed, so instead of everyone doing around 100kph, you have
traffic travelling at a greater range of speeds, so the traffic doesnt tend
to move as one block, everyone is passing everyone else all the time. And
the right lane needs to be kept clear for me passing on my bike )

cheers
Jack

 

Also if you overtake a truck, you do indeed change lanes back in front
of the truck when you're done... and then slow down.

 

mmmm... and before slowing, you need to ensure you've first changed back
into that trucks lane allowing no distance at all for the drivers
reaction time.

This approach is indeed safe since ensures the truck driver, or in fact
any other driver is already off the go pedal and probably already braking
in some way when you slow down.

 

OK - EVERY foggie wanker I've challenged on the matter craps on about
their foggies being driving lights.
That indicates any and all of several things.
1. They are dumb as dogshit and don't know the difference.
2. They do know the difference and are lieing scum.
3. They're Wankers.

Interestingly, it would be a reasonable thought to linke the foggie stuff
to the rules relating to driving lights. And vice versa. We really need
that to be there writ large.
That is, the definition of a driving light in terms of the fact that they
are actually designed to be used with Hi Beam. Cross referencing that and
the foggie matter removes all justification in (1.) and (2.) above.

There's **** nothing that can be done about (3.) since the sport of
birching in the public square fell out of favour and has consequently
been banned.

 

There we have it.
A recipe for wastage of public money, and some good old fashioned
stupidity as a bonus.


Of course, the wastage of having a left lane virtually void of traffic
could be countered by not bothering with acceleration and deceleration
ramps. Common-or-garden-variety right-angle turnouts would do just fine,
since in JackWorld the only people using the left lane (of three or 4)
would be those entering or leaving the freeway.

You miss it and others do too - that bit about if you're on a freeway,
the only traffic moving faster that you are SHOULD BE on your right, and
ONLY on your right.
That means you should be able to carry out a lane change to the left
simply by checking ahead, indicating, and doing it.

In TobyWorld, that's what happens, since there's no traffic moving faster
on anyone's left.

That's the bit that should be in Jeremy's treasured manuals but GovCo
would never ever allow it.

By the way, In TobyWorld, that's the ONLY rule on the books relating to
lane discipline on our freeways.

 

Half right.

The only keep left situation that has an exception is the below 80
crapola rule for multi-lane roads.It's a wheeze that simply indicates
GovCo has built a road that might be a tad narrow, for which they won't
increase the SASL.
*Even_with_that* , failing to keep as close as practicable to the left
is STILL on the books everywhere, and IMHO you can be nailed for
disobeying that on any road, anywhere, anytime.