Suggestion: Compulsory periodic road theory tests

[jules21]

Please show me those figures, preferably in addition to our international ranking. There's a new Bentley Continental GT in it for you.

can you make it the one with the tan leather trim? and the champagne chiller in the centre console, my lady enjoys a drink at the races and no one wants to sip warm champers. are they still doing sunroofs? one of those - factory fitted please. i can pick it up during business hours, i like to keep my weekends free.

[The 2nd Womble]

Ah, the old Per Hundred Million Kilometres Travelled chestnut...

[jules21]

Ah, the old Per Hundred Million Kilometres Travelled chestnut...

you're going to welch on the deal aren't you?

[queequeg]

Hehe the irony was intentional. Overtaking on the left is fine on multi-lane roads. If there are two lanes and the speed limit is 80km/h or less, cars can drive in either lane and you can overtake them in either lane. If the speed limit is greater than 80km/h, cars are automatically legally required to drive in the left lane unless they are overtaking on the right or turning. If you're overtaking on the left on a two lane road in a 90km/h limit, something illegal is happening.

arkle

Taken to the logical conclusion, if you are driving on a 6 lane road, you may only overtake whilst in the far right lane, otherwise you are potentially overtaking on the left of anywhere from 1 to 5 lanes of traffic.

[The 2nd Womble]

Ah, the old Per Hundred Million Kilometres Travelled chestnut...

you're going to welch on the deal aren't you?

Yes.

[arkle]

Hehe the irony was intentional. Overtaking on the left is fine on multi-lane roads. If there are two lanes and the speed limit is 80km/h or less, cars can drive in either lane and you can overtake them in either lane. If the speed limit is greater than 80km/h, cars are automatically legally required to drive in the left lane unless they are overtaking on the right or turning. If you're overtaking on the left on a two lane road in a 90km/h limit, something illegal is happening.

arkle

Taken to the logical conclusion, if you are driving on a 6 lane road, you may only overtake whilst in the far right lane, otherwise you are potentially overtaking on the left of anywhere from 1 to 5 lanes of traffic.

This would be true but only if the posted speed limit were more than 80km/h, and even then there is an issue with the rule:

Stupidly enough, on a three-lane road with a 100km/h limit the automatic legal requirement to "keep left unless overtaking" only means that cars have to be in either the left or centre lanes unless they are overtaking. This means that they can be in the centre lane and you can overtake them in the left lane without anyone breaking a law. I prefer the UK rule that prohibits all overtaking on the left (or underpassing as they call it) regardless of the number of lanes on the road. It seems safer not having to worry about cars coming up your left side.

arkle

[gorilla monsoon]

Ah, the old Per Hundred Million Kilometres Travelled chestnut...

Yes, and even then the figures are not flattering for Australian drivers, are they?

[jules21]

Yes, and even then the figures are not flattering for Australian drivers, are they?

there are a mere handful of countries who lead us. those countries have much higher population densities, which means their roads can affordably be engineered to higher standards than ours.

excluded from that chart are 100s of other non-OECD nations around the world who would all (or damn near it) fall way short of our record. we are first rate and i want my Bentley.

[jules21]

[The 2nd Womble]

The keys are in the ignition. Just remember the ignition is now under the seat.

[The 2nd Womble]

Yes, and even then the figures are not flattering for Australian drivers, are they?

there are a mere handful of countries who lead us. those countries have much higher population densities, which means their roads can affordably be engineered to higher standards than ours.

excluded from that chart are 100s of other non-OECD nations around the world who would all (or damn near it) fall way short of our record. we are first rate and i want my Bentley.

Given the distances between things and stuff here on interstates compared to many of these countries, the figures have us lumped midway between those with much higher national traffic volumes that are more representative of each other. That makes our position worse again. The distances many of us travel help is to look better than we do.
If you were able to show this graph as Per bla bla bla Travelled Within Our Most Awesome Cities In Oz Ey, we'd look like right muppets.

[high_tea]

Hehe the irony was intentional. Overtaking on the left is fine on multi-lane roads. If there are two lanes and the speed limit is 80km/h or less, cars can drive in either lane and you can overtake them in either lane. If the speed limit is greater than 80km/h, cars are automatically legally required to drive in the left lane unless they are overtaking on the right or turning. If you're overtaking on the left on a two lane road in a 90km/h limit, something illegal is happening.

arkle

Be that as it may, it doesn't follow that the speed limit has any effect on when you can and can't legally overtake on the left. There may well be illegality, but it's not necessarily on the part of the overtaking driver.

If I was going to set a test on the Road Rules, this is exactly the sort of question I wouldn't ask. Not because interpreting the rules is hard (although this sort of pedantry makes it harder than it has to be) but because the important bit is the general rule: don't overtake on the left. The rule is for safety. The exceptions are for convenience, and basically reflect common sense.

[jules21]

The distances many of us travel help is to look better than we do.

beg to differ. how does travelling greater distances "make us look better" - i presume you mean to argue that risk is more closely linked to other measures, such as number of trips.

the opportunity for a road collision is proportional to distance travelled - if you drive 1km, you may need to negotiate 1 hazard, whereas if you drive 1000km, you may need to negotiate 1000. it's not that simple of course, but that's the gist of it.

the key difference between australia and some other countries, such as sweden, is the lack of road engineering. many of our roads are lined with trees and with 100 km/h speed limits. we cannot afford to put wire or concrete barriers up on all of them. some of those other, more densely populated countries can - at least more so than us.

that means we are handicapped and our road safety performance is better than it appears in the chart i posted.

[The 2nd Womble]

It's also proportional to the amount of traffic on that road with you.