What is Going ON ??

[ozwinner]

Perhaps they should go to Swindon in England and learn roundabouts there....



To decypher what you are seeing - there are 5 roads, each with between 1 and 4 lanes all meeting at a colossal roundabout. (A total of about 14 lanes meeting!!) There are 5 mini roundabouts at each road entrance surrounding the central one. Cars navigate the small roundabouts in the normal direction, and go backwards around the centre one!!! :eek:

That is a classic, obviously deigned by someone who takes the bus all the time.

Al

[Guy]

Perhaps they should go to Swindon in England and learn roundabouts there....



To decypher what you are seeing - there are 5 roads, each with between 1 and 4 lanes all meeting at a colossal roundabout. (A total of about 14 lanes meeting!!) There are 5 mini roundabouts at each road entrance surrounding the central one. Cars navigate the small roundabouts in the normal direction, and go backwards around the centre one!!! :eek:

Lived in Bracknell for a number of years and there was only one set of traffic lights in the town, they were outside the police, ambulance fire complex. everything else was roundabouts. Couls always tell the out of towners, they usually had another car in the back of them. Everyone just glanced to the right and sliped into the traffic.
Mind you that one in Swindon is just as bad as the ones in Colchester.

[Ianab]

Make it compulsary for all new drivers to learn on a manual and drive one for at least 4 years, and have an engine capacity of 2 litres or less and nothing souped up either.

All that does is make cars like my 1600cc Corolla seem very desirable to the boy racers. It's stock standard , non turbo station wagon, but rated at 120kw and probably capable of 200kmph. I haven't found a road safe enough to wind it out. But you rule out my G/F who has a learners licence and drives a 3L Toyota Surf Auto. It's a prefectly safe vehicle for her to drive, and probably about the same Kw rating as my Corolla

No simple answer, but I agee, young people in cars that can do 200kph is not a good thing.

Ian

[Zed]

people will always die in cars until they are fully automated. I beleive this is true! otherwise its just blah blah blah...... we are humans - therefore stupid and arrogant = this includes bad driving.....

What I find most amusing is the homeboy dikcheads who have fast cars and dont do the brakes and suspension along with the engine. better temporary australians than motorcyclists!!!!

[E. maculata]

Cwap, I mostly agree with Zed:eek: , cause we just know that We are better drivers than that dipstik next to us , not much behind Brocky really y'know .
Like Zed sed we're human (well some of us are anyway) so we each believe it's not us, well it is even Zed, even I.

BTW Zed riding motorcycles.....fast... for 36 years, guess what?..... so far a permanent, but this could be temporary:confused: .

[Bleedin Thumb]

Of course, these stats change massively when you rebalance the population by the number of vehicles per capita.

For example, if you took the Phillipines where there are only 31 vehicles per 1000 people (cf Australia with 619 / 1000)

then it becomes 0.343% Phillipines cf 0.014% Australia.

So yeah, Australia isn't bad compared to those Asian countries listed.

Thanks Stuart for crunching those stats, you have way too much time on your hands or way too much info in your head.

I think your statement re stats changing after factoring population vs number of cars is the crucial point if you re-multiply the percentages back for say Phillipines to the Australian population you would have 67,107 fatalities per year as opposed to 1,716. I'd hate to think what Indonesia is. But having travelled a bit in the region I can believe it. SCARY

The only other country to scare me so much was Turkey where every bus driver seems resigned that this trip is to be their last:eek:

[DavidG]

You can not legislate against fools.
Case yesterday.

A 4wd approaching a traffic light before a roundabout, swang from the right lane to the left, went through the red light and made a right hand turn at the roundabout from the left lane against signs sayin "NO right turn from left lane".

What hope have we.......:eek:

[Stuart]

Multiply it in for the Chinese stats, and we'd have something like 500,000 casualties a year!

Obviously stats are taken with a grain of salt, but even with a massive fudge factor- if a country like Australia with quality roads, reasonable quality cars, etc etc etc still has as many accidents as it does, it is no wonder that countries without our advantages are deadly on the roads.

None of this is to say that we shouldn't be able to do a lot better.

If only the idiots could remove themselves from the gene pool, without taking innocents along with them.

[Wongo]

Roundabouts are fascinating

4 good drivers approach the roundabout from 4 directions. 4 cars enter and exit the roundabout at the same time. SWEET.

4 idiots approach the roundabout from 4 directions. All stop and give way to the others. DEADLOCK. :eek:

[Iain]

A bit like merging lanes, one galah stops and causes absolute chaos.
Having said that I 'once' travelled around Sydney on the bypass to Newcastle, very poor signage, saw a turnoff less than 100 metres away and no mongrel would let me cross to get off, and I had yellow plates too.
Just out of Traralgon I recall when the new bypass opened, wanted to travel to Melbourne and saw the signs indicating a left turn off the freeway, when you got closer you realised that you had to be in one of the two right lanes to effect a left turn via an overpass, that was character building too.

[Doughboy]

I am constantly amazed at how people decide that when it is wet they need to increase their speed by at least 10 km/h. I call it the shuemacher effect, the mindset that they need to get out of the traffic as quick as possible to avoid accidents. Interesting the way people look at round abouts and see an opportunity to overtake another vehicle just to make up one or possibly two car spots.

And motorbikes..... I am a rider and have been for 30 of my 36 years, on the road for 19, I am still amazed by the fact that there are so many temporary Australians out there. They go down between the traffic lanes at lights and generally use the road as their own personal race track, winding in and out of lanes to get to work that bit quicker. Do they realise that the average car driver does not look for motorbikes?

Add to that the fact Canberra uses hotmix bitumen that makes the roads super slippery in the wet I am amazed there are not more accidents on our roads.

Slow the hell down and enjoy the journey!!!!!!!

Pete

[Wood Butcher]

Interesting comments on Motorbikes Pete.

I have a scooter which is my town commuter and I am also a member of a couple of scooter clubs. You will find that most scooter riders are a hell of a lot more considerate that motorbike riders cause we know who will end up the worst off in a crash

[bennylaird]

I had a scooter and was too scared to ride it in traffic, thing could only mangage about 80kph. Mean't I hade to ride in the traffic rather than have enough power to get into a clear lane. Cars would never pass by changing lanes fully they would just ease by like they do with pushies.

[silentC]

I nearly ran one of those off the road once on Forest Road. It's one of those two lane roads where they allow people to turn right into local streets. You get used to tearing up the middle lane until just before you get to one of the right turns, then you charge across to the outside lane to go around the people turning right. I did that but this guy on a little step through had come up beside me in the left lane. I couldn't see him because he was on my blind side, sitting just off my left rear bumper. I came across as I always did only to hear this pathetic beeping sound. I looked in my mirror and there was this irrate individual on his little scooter. Oh well, probably just some uni student

[Bleedin Thumb]

I still remember the days when Qld had the give way to the right rule. You could be driving along the Bruce highway and some cockie would pull out infront of you from some dirt track leaving you with both feet on the brake pedal and a look of terror on your face.:eek: