In the forums, as well as the Wanderer, we see a list of towns where grey nomads are not as welcome as they should be. Although this causes some outrage within our nomadingcommunity, it appears we have ourselves to blame in a lot of the cases.
It is common knowledge for anyone living in the regional areas that there are unwritten road rules that apply to the outback that do not apply in the more heavily urbanised areas.
To illustrate I recap a very recent incident.
Travelling north from Barcaldine on the bitumen road, just after rain when the shoulders of the road get a bit muddy in places.
A 4X4 with van in tow travelling south did not know the etiquette of driving in these road conditions. Instead of slowing down and slowly edgeing off the bitumen with 2 wheels, allowing vehicles from the other direction to pass safely, this driver opted to blind us with his high mounted Anti Aircraft spotlights as well as an array of LED superbright spotlights. Even during daylight this is a real dangerous manouver.
The southbound driver then flamed the airwaves on how as he had a van in tow, he had right of way.
Same day same location only a few kilometers north, another such incident.
We could hear on the two way radio a conversation of the semi trailer driver in front of us and a vehicle coming the other way.
The other vehicle driver said he had a van and could not get off the road. The truck driver replied that as there was a causeway coming up he could squeeze in and let him pass.
The vehicle did pass, it was a small van the size of a suzuki Jimni.
Again common courtesy would have been for the bongo van driver to slow down, pull over leaving 2 wheels on the bitumen, the semi doing the same therefore no danger to anyone.
I wonder if next time this semi trailer driver hears someone with a van coming the other way, will he pull over?
Semis especially loaded, have a much greater chance of tipping over on the shoulders, that most other vehicles, including caravans, where the centre of gravity is much lower, do not.
Even in dry conditions it is always important to give way to semi trailers for this reason.
Would it be possible to gather and publish these unwritten road courtesies ? We are seeing campsites closing and councils imposing more and more restrictions on our community. We do not need further conditions imposed us by state and federal road authorities.
Road etiquette, manners, common sense, local traffic conventions vary from town to town, state to state, country to country, nationality to nationality. Probably impossible to document.
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GRANDPARENTS & GRANDCHILDREN GET ON SO WELL TOGETHER BECAUSE THEY HAVE A COMMON ENEMY
If on single lane black tar and i spot someone coming from any direction, Has soon has i can I pull off the black top to the edge shoulder, I do so to save getting peppered by rocks and also never in such a hurry to get where I am heading .
If on single lane black tar and i spot someone coming from any direction, Has soon has i can I pull off the black top to the edge shoulder, I do so to save getting peppered by rocks and also never in such a hurry to get where I am heading .
Me too . I also put the blinkers on ASAP to signal my intent as it usuall takes me a while to slow down to a safe speed for pulling off the blacktop.
You do need to give a road road all the black tar not half the black tar , If you kept 2 wheels on the black stuff and the road train has to put one side of his rig in the gravel you will get peppered with rocks and your RV and tug will come off second best . Road train driver stay on the black stuff to save damaging your rig .
unfortunately many drivers lack any sense, let along common sense, whether or not they are nomads or not. You can pick these drivers in the aisles of any supermarket lol.
My other bug is the (usually) young, weekend drivers/nomads with a UHF radio who jump on it and dominate channel 40 with foul language and childish nonsense.
Last year we had 2 young family groups going through Wagga Wagga. There was a wife and kids in both vehicles (they were alongside us at some of the traffic lights) and these two 30s something male drivers were talking total nonsense - calling each other Batman and Robin, but also swearing their heads off.
Some of the many truckies jumped on the channel and told them to shut up, but they persisted. I'm guessing a Highway Patrol was on channel or a local truckie phoned the police, as about 5 kms out of town, the police were parked on the side of the road and pulled these two crime fighters over. Idiots like these and the ones that Kurt described tar all of us with a bad brush
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
My thoughts have always been that most of these one lane (or narrow) roads are development roads - they used to be dirt tracks, and we are privileged to be sharing them with the semis etc., that use them for their work. You can usually see someone coming for quite a distance, so plenty of time to pull off and let them pass ON THE TAR - thereby no stones thrown up at your windscreen etc.
Courtesy and common sense - blinkers to let others know what you are doing.
Another one is the people with caravans who cannot see behind them - the old saying - "if you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you" apply. and if you are in the slow lane on an overtaking area - have the courtesy to slow down - not speed up - let the ones who want to go faster, get past, especially trucks - try driving with 16 gears, and some nut pulls out - "because I have right of way" - isn't it that the dotted lines at the end of the slow lane mean - "merge with care". Nearly had an incident with this type of thing on the Bruce Highway few weeks back - we knew this bloke couldn't see behind him, he would speed up in the "slow lane" then just drive straight out at the end - one time he almost pulled out into the side of a truck - the truck was right beside his drivers side window before he knew he was there!
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jules "Love is good for the human being!!" (Ben, aged 10)
Jules In Qld the dotted lines at the end of the overtaking lane where the lane is coming to an end means give way to traffic in the fast lane. If there is no dotted line the vehicle in the lead has right of way.
Drivers Don't know rules of the road a lot of the times. Lanes merging into Yeppoon from Farnborough is a prime example. I get it near every day. People Just pulling out. OVER the short dotted line.. Dumb as.
few yrs ago. a dick did it to me when in Patrol. my bullbar took the rear side/corner out of his new Toyota
about a month old, as he kept telling me.
As he rang the law and tow truck.
I just showed cop the camera footage and the names I called him on tablet.
Drive more carefully in future cop told him.
"I could do you for Reckless/dangerous driving"..
Crossing lanes with negligence.
RACQ Mag this month, has a page on Priorities at connecting lanes. People should tear it out and stick in dash. I did.
Then with camera. Anybody does wrong thing. You'll have Camera. language. and copy of law to show the person, and law if necessary.
Like I've said b4 Everybody should do a revise of rules, regularly.
and a retest every 10 yrs or so.
The Roads would be a better place.
Another caravaner dead again yesterday. and accident on Bruce prev.
We ALL need training it seems. some more than others.
-- Edited by macka17 on Wednesday 27th of July 2016 09:10:15 PM
Like I've said b4 Everybody should do a revise of rules, regularly.
and a retest every 10 yrs or so.
The Roads would be a better place.
Nah macka your wrong on this bit its not that they don't know the rules they choose to ignore them, speed limit is 100, someone will want to do 120
Any fool if required to do a retest can study them to pass a test.
Our biggest single problem is road rules are controlled by the states until they are totally uniform we will have issues.
But back to Etiquette, back in the 80's I was towing a 30' van between Miles and Biloela, I came up behind a triple road train, I spoke to the driver on the CB and asked when it was clear could he call me through, he proceeded to put a row of tyres on the dirt and when the trailers had stabilized he called me through, prior to attempting to overtake I also put a set of tyres in the dirt so everything was stable.
After passing the truck I thanked him, as fate would have it I pulled up for fuel at a roadhouse just out of Biloela, just before we left the truck had also arrived, the driver came over and remarked how straight my van towed he thanked me for the courtesy I displayed during our encounter, because he had others both oncoming and overtaking driving with no regard for anyone.
You're right there.
But I take a truck drivers test every 10 yrs. For ME.
We all pick up bad habits. and Hopefully it pulls me back in line for a while.
A lot who took licence decades ago are normally a "little" behind on the rules.
I used to wheel those triples up the middle a looong time ago for John.
For every sensible/polite driver, there's a thousand couldn't give a ....
Back then though. a lot more had radio's and knew how to use them.
Once you got through the language barrier. (foul)
Education is the only thing that will cut the problems.
Compulsory class at a school every licence b4 renewal would be a start.
Just so everybody IS up to date with the rules. if not the etiquet.
Wishful thinking I know.
But I've had mine since '58. and seen a lot of idiots out there while commercial.
and private.
Specially with the number of oldies etc getting in front of large vans.5thers Motorhomes.
on only a car licence with 6x4 experience.
Something has to be done.
Sitting above them you can notice just how stupid some are.
A lot of these rigs are bigger than a lt of smaller commercial veh's. which people DO have to train and get hrs up on first. B4 letting them loose on road.
A 6.5ton rig with inexperience behind wheel.
CAN and do do a lot of damage when things go wrong.
And NONE of these 5th or large van towers. have ANY training Even verbally
on what to do and when. When things go wrong.
It's frightening when you think about it
Of to surgery. Pain managenent blocking. Hopefully.
I have to agree with you again macka17
And gun dog while I can see your point however I would like to think that if a retest was undertaken on a regular timeframe that eventually more people would chose not to ignore the rules and slowly there would be an improvement in driver behaviour
And it would also remove that element of younger drivers that think anyone over 60 should be off the road
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)
I agree wholeheartedly with all the views expressed above.
If you go for any job today you need to attend an induction course.. Perhaps when buying a new van or other RV or for that matter a 4x4 to tow it, maybe we should all be required to sit for a compulsory induction course covering this very topic as well as how to read a GPS and emergency radio protocols.
What no one has noticed was the issue of the aircraft landing lights and LED spotlights. It was lunch time when the road incident took place. We had already passed a 4x4 with van in tow only 500 metres beforehand. Both our vehicles did not need to leave the tar, although we both passed on the edge of it. The second vehicle chose to hit us with his 2 WWII surplus anti aircraft spot lights and an array of super bright LED spotlights, and stayed on the middle of the road. You ever been hit with spotlights aimed at your eyeballs? It was more by luck and a patch of rocky gravel that we did not end up as a road fatality.
