I count to 3 before changing to first on a green because there are too many red light runners on intersections without cameras and I don't ever want to risk getting T-boned. I sit there and watch them coming, knowing full well they are not going to stop on the red.
Sometimes I think traffic lights are safer than roundabouts at least. So many people just don't get roundabouts. Buggered if I can remember where it was, but on our recent trip up north we saw one car going around a roundabout the wrong way (How do you do that?), a woman stop on a roundabout to give way to a car waiting to enter the roundabout (she almost had a bull bar fitted to her rear end) and roundabouts in QLD sheesh.. blinkers going every which way but the correct way. But one of my pet hates is, the ones who approach a dual lane roundabout in the left lane, then sit and wait for all the right turning traffic on the inside lane of the roundabout to go before entering.
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Yes I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
Let's put this right up front - I have always advocated the need for mandated training and, at minimum, some licence endorsement for those towing anything above a 6x4 trailer - probably with some sort of 'graduation' as size/weight increases.
However, as so many on this thread have reported there are 100s of drivers - all trained and tested and given a licence to drive ... motor vehicles of all types, right from little Honda step-through motorcycles to road trains.
Has it reduced the amount of stupid behaviour on our roads? Are our roads completely safe because of this training and testing?
Until we change the 'culture' of the human being to realise they are in control of a very dangerous weapon and that this weapon requires responsible and focussed concentration and control, our roads will continue to be fraught with potential, and real, danger.
They breathe, walk amongst us, drive AND vote
OK OK OK ... I heard ya
Cheers - John
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2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE Auto - 2008 23ft Golden Eagle Hunter Some people feel the rain - the others just get wet - Bob Dylan
Rockylizard I agree up especially about towing I have said for years and will say it again here,
our new drivers are tought to get a licence,
they are NOT TOUGHT HOW TO DRIVE that is the point of difference
yes there would be a big expense up front but down the track it would be billions of dollars cheaper then hospital and rehab to put all new and some not so new drivers through a defensive driving course before you can get a licence to drive what is potentially a deadly weapon
Too many people think it is a right to get there licence it is not it is privilege that like any career and driving is a career after all we drive all our adult lives, it needs training and practise to be proficient at it, and that training should start at about 14 ( not on the open road ) after all most 16 year olds already know everything so it's too late by then
Again end of rant
Woody
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When the power of Love becomes greater than the love of power the World will see peace ! 24ft Trailblazer 5th wheeler n 05 Patrol ute and Black Series Dominator camper trailer ( for the rough stuff)
When I went for my motorcycle Learners at age 16.9, I was given an eye test only and then given my L plates and let loose.
3 months later I returned to get my P plates, I was given another eye test and told to ride round the block while the tester stood on the footpath, he said if you come back alive I will give you your P's. Now in NSW motorcyclists have to do a mandatory training course and are limited as to what they can ride until fully licensed.
I was as motorcycle courier when I was 17, riding round the city delivering copy to newspapers and magazines for the typesetter I worked for, occasionally a massive lead plate in my side box, I went down the road a few times, had cars open their doors on me and even roll backwards on a hill into me, but I survived, how I don't know and there were a lot less cars then.
I sold my Trumpy 4 years ago (I cried for a month), after a few instances on the road. A large tree branch fell on me which hit my tank and then my helmet. A week later a ute I was following lost a heap of blue buckets out the back at 100klm and I had to duck the blue capsules coming at me. A few weeks after that I got pulled over for doing well over the speed limit (the road had lovely sweeping bends) lucky he let me off, I realised without a licence there is no freedom.
I like my ute because I can hear the tyres on the road and hear the engine and I continue to drive a manual because that is how I stay focussed. I don't pretend to be the best driver in the world but I know my limitations and always stay within my lane, its easy to cut corners and that requires no skill.
Towing a van is going to need a new set of skills which I am eager to learn.
