How slow is too slow?

[Spammy]

Originally Posted by Sprint

I was told this some 10-20 years ago when I asked, it made sense to me but its one of those laws that are never enforced unless the policeman wants you is my understanding.

You cannot be doings 40kmh on a 100kmh for obvious reasons, there is merit to this under 20kmh.

How woudl that work when L plates were 80kmh limit and freeways are 110??

[xxx000]

what can be just as bad is drivers who sit right behind slow vehicles, on their bumper, and have poor overtaking skills.

Stay back allowing you to look ahead and watch oncoming traffic and when safe build up speed prior to crossing the centre of the road to overtake.

[Vesper Martini]

When I was a kid my Grandad had an old FF Morris truck from the 1950's that thing would definitely have held traffic up!,
They eventually replaced it with a TQ Bedford which wasnt much better. both had gutless backfiring Petrol engines. and were used 2-3 times a year.
I cant imagine anything being on the road these days being that slow

But its all about consideration on the road, keeping left and waving people past.

[MercurySilver]

so because i shopped at coles yesterday its my fault he's doing 45km in a friggin 100 zone

yup
i can see that

[mik]

As a rule I dont give **** about slow drivers/vehicles, I have a steering wheel and a reasonably fast car, I can wait till a passing opportunity comes and wizz past, and it's 3 times easier for me in a car than some poor bastard in a truck trying to get around him.
The ones that **** me off are the ones that speed up and slow erratically on that flat busy single lane road with almost no overtaking opportunity that goes for twenty kilometres, the best thing for this for me is to pull up have a coffee or a kip and kick the tyres/take a break .

[poppa smurf]

sounds like it's "road trip" time for me and a few old farts with our caravans just to annoy the youngun's again.

now what's the most annoying speed, 60 - 70 - 80. more than happy to oblige. the more behind us the merrier.

might get a few cockies with tractors to really give em the grit's.

way more things in life to worry about than a truck holding you up for an extra 5 minutes.

try passing them with a caravan on the back that takes miles to wind up.....

[jpblue1000]

Its all relative isnt it. I have a small hevily modified AWD hatchback that doesnt really need to slow for any corner while at the posted speed limit ( ore even above it) on pretty much any road I can care to remember. The great ocean road is a great example. reasonable speed limits 80-100 but most drivers areant happy at those speeds nor are their cars capable. Yet how many of them pull out of the way into the slow lanes? I find the performance varainat falcodores the worst.
You may be in a 'fast' car but you are still holding people up. In my younger days I once passed one up the slow lane oh was he a little upset, but couldnt keep up to express that anger.
Anyhow no point getting angry, just acknowledge whats behind or in front and get on with your lives, a heart attack becuase you were delayed 30 seconds is not worth it plus so uncool to crash of the road behind a slow driver clutching your heart!

JP

[Kil4Collingwood]

If I have nobody behind I'll happily cruise at 90 on a road like that, the tatura-Murchison road is much like that however because too many peanuts drive on these country roads without lights on I don't like overtaking unless absolutely necessary for that reason I'll do the 100 when I have traffic behind and if they're in a rush they can overtake and I'll wind back to 90.
When you do big k's you save fuel where you can but not when you're going to hold others up, I do set my cruise at about 102 on the hume though.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2

[dimka100]

I though slow drivers are there for us V8 and I6T owners to have a good hard squeeze on the loud pedal. After all cruising at a constant speed is kinda boring, but overtaking someone with all the noise and drama makes you feel all warm and cuddly inside

[Thornie]

going from my place into town there are only 2 overtaking lanes in a 20k drive fairly windy road and double white lines all the way and just recently got downgraded from 100zone to 80-90 almost every time I go into town I get stuck behind someone doing 20 kays under the limit then as soon as the overtaking lane comes up they nail the loud pedal, makes me want to run them off the road and beat them.

[mr smith]

Chill out dudes, first world problem.

[Mulga]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

She's not one of them crazy horse ladies with the horse float that pulls out on people on the highway, who then proceeds to slowly cruise up to 70km/h in her 200 series Land Cruiser then not move over for people to overtake?

No, she's actually a pretty considerate driver.......her rig is an SZ Territory, but I know what you mean.

[GREGL]

This reminds me of a fella who on the rear window of his fj trayback a sticker " I might be slower than you but I'm in front ". I laughed at the time but now.....

[new2ford]

Nothing to do with rules or entitlement to drive slowly - there are all sorts of situations that mean having to drive slowly. All it requires is attention by the slow driver to what's going on behind them and pull over when safe to do so to let following traffic past. It's called common courtesy which is the feature most lacking in Australian driving. A few truckies practice it, but almost nobody else.

It's the norm in Europe to move over on a single lane road if you see that you're slowing somebody behind you. You don't have to stop, just move onto the sealed shoulder where and when it's wide enough and safe enough to do.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Mulga

No, she's actually a pretty considerate driver.......her rig is an SZ Territory, but I know what you mean.

Thats good then, just half them them out here are a bunch of crazies out to annoy everyone.

[Mr G8]

I'm fine with slow driver's, hell I am considered a slow driver.. I set cruise control on at 101km/h and everything overtakes me. The one thing I do hate the most, and it happens a lot, is when a B Double truck pulls out in front of you when clearly he hasn't the required time to. I've had to slam the breaks on due to last minute turns by them

[Sprint]

Maybe on reflection what the policeman told me what his own set of rules but I myself have come to believe if your doing more than 20km under the posted speed limit you are becoming a hazard. Learners doing 80kmh in a 110 exluded.

[uniacidz]

Originally Posted by Sprint

more than 20km under the posted limit is illegal

Yep or similar to that

Yesterday had to sit behind some driver doing 43 in a 70 zone

It's frustrating as a driver, and seen others take risks to get round these slow drivers.

To me, if you can't do the speed limit or close to it, then don't drive

Luckily I have learnt some patience in my time, under duress mainly lol



Sent via HTC Velocity 4G + [HolicsROM v1.3] [Sweep2WAKE]

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by Mulga

I often see a mobile crane on the Hume hwy (which has a posted speed limit of 110ks) with a sticker on the back of the crane stating maximum speed 45kph. I have no idea what it's doing on this road driving at such a speed below the limit.

The Hume is dual carriage & he will be sitting in the left lane as the Law dictates so it will be easy to pass, so what is the problem?

[2011G6E]

Nothing like coming over a rise when you're doing 110 and being confronted with a caravan doing maybe 70kph...happened to me in the Celica a while ago. Not nice. Some people say "why would you go over the crest of a hill at 110 anyway if you can't see what's on the other side?".
Really? So...every time you're driving down the highway and there's a crest in the road you slow down severely and then speed up again? How about blind corners on the highway? Do the same? Keep slowing down every time you can't see a few hundred meters ahead? Don't be stupid...it's up to those people to sit at or as damn close to the speed limit as they possibly can.

Trucks are generally good out here and give you notice when it's safe to pass, but we do seem to have an awful lot of cowboys giving the few good ones a bad name. yes, I said "few good ones", as most trucks manners out here is atrocious. I'm probably being nasty...it's actually more like "half and half", and you can hear the good ones talking about the bad ones on the two way...they're just as frustrated with them as the rest of us.

Caravans are a menace out here on the Capricorn Highway too at certain times of the year...I followed one simply massive Bushtracker van a while ago doing 70 on the 110 section, on a day when there was a fair bit of traffic coming the other way. He had his right indicator on, and I knew there was a lot of side roads and farm turn in's in that area, so even when there was a gap in the oncoming traffic I patiently sat there for a while and didn't attempt to overtake in case he suddenly turned right in front of me...until it dawned on me that there wasn't any intention of turning right...his indicator was just "on" for no reason.
I called on the two way and identified him, and politely said "Hey mate, your right indicator is on in case you didn't realise". His answer was one for the ages...

"Well it's stopping you ****** from overtaking me...hahahahahah."

Honestly...

[zilo]

I don't care what speed other drivers do.

As long as they keep left unless overtaking or periodically pull over to let traffic past if in a slow moving vehicle.

I feel it's more dangerous to not pass a slow moving vehicle, I tend to get away from them ASAP as they are the focus of all sorts of "interactions" with both other road users and road conditions.

[FGII-XR6]

I this case it sounds like the truck was overloaded and that would be where any offence was being committed. I understand that there will be slow vehicles on the road but they need to be considerate of other road users and allow them pass where practical not hog the road.

[Iggle Piggle]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

Nothing like coming over a rise when you're doing 110 and being confronted with a caravan doing maybe 70kph...happened to me in the Celica a while ago. Not nice. Some people say "why would you go over the crest of a hill at 110 anyway if you can't see what's on the other side?".
Really? So...every time you're driving down the highway and there's a crest in the road you slow down severely and then speed up again? How about blind corners on the highway? Do the same? Keep slowing down every time you can't see a few hundred meters ahead? Don't be stupid...it's up to those people to sit at or as damn close to the speed limit as they possibly can.

Look, I agree with the point you are making...but I don't get why you weren't looking up the road ahead of you to have seen the caravan go over the crest and know that it was there. Surely he must have only just crested the hill if you have arrived on him just on the other side when your closing speed was only 40km/h.

Or was it a: "CAUTION, 5 left into blind crest jump, don't cut!" sort of thing???

Having said that I refer back to the first part of my post - I agree with the point you are making.

I'm not calling BS - I reckon the van would have likely been doing less than 70km/h, or possibly you don't take the Celica out on weekends to sit at or below the limit and may have been just every so slightly over 110km/h at the time

[SJG351]

Every year there are more cars on the road systems that can barely cope, increased traffic loads, public transport, accidents, speed cameras, bicycles, all these things make your journey more difficult, so, it is important that your own driving does not impede others without good reason, don't you think, or are you part of the problem?

[Olbucko]

You must always be on the lookout for slow vehicles, some people have to drive slowly on the highway, I am a contractor for Australia Post delivering the mail every morning. My wagon has an Australia Post sign on the back and a flashing beacon yet about 20% of cars and trucks will tailgate me, often overtaking on double lines, driving on the shoulder of the road is not an option, a lot of the roads here don't have one. I need to go slow sometimes because I have to pull off into gravel drive ways and letter boxes that can as little as 100 metres apart, sometimes kilometres apart. So the closer someone follows me the slower I have to go, even at 60 you can't just jam on the brakes and do a hard left into a gravel driveway, and then I have to turn back onto the road, often just over the crest of a hill or around a blind corner.

I am just one hazard on the road but necessary so look out for people like me and be considerate

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

Nothing like coming over a rise when you're doing 110 and being confronted with a caravan doing maybe 70kph...happened to me in the Celica a while ago. Not nice. Some people say "why would you go over the crest of a hill at 110 anyway if you can't see what's on the other side?".
Really? So...every time you're driving down the highway and there's a crest in the road you slow down severely and then speed up again? How about blind corners on the highway? Do the same? Keep slowing down every time you can't see a few hundred meters ahead? Don't be stupid...it's up to those people to sit at or as damn close to the speed limit as they possibly can.

Trucks are generally good out here and give you notice when it's safe to pass, but we do seem to have an awful lot of cowboys giving the few good ones a bad name. yes, I said "few good ones", as most trucks manners out here is atrocious. I'm probably being nasty...it's actually more like "half and half", and you can hear the good ones talking about the bad ones on the two way...they're just as frustrated with them as the rest of us.

Caravans are a menace out here on the Capricorn Highway too at certain times of the year...I followed one simply massive Bushtracker van a while ago doing 70 on the 110 section, on a day when there was a fair bit of traffic coming the other way. He had his right indicator on, and I knew there was a lot of side roads and farm turn in's in that area, so even when there was a gap in the oncoming traffic I patiently sat there for a while and didn't attempt to overtake in case he suddenly turned right in front of me...until it dawned on me that there wasn't any intention of turning right...his indicator was just "on" for no reason.
I called on the two way and identified him, and politely said "Hey mate, your right indicator is on in case you didn't realise". His answer was one for the ages...

"Well it's stopping you ****** from overtaking me...hahahahahah."

Honestly...

If I'm approaching a steep crest where you really cannot see over until you are on top I err on the caution side & slow down in case of that scenario you described, you got to think ahead otherwise you are going to be an accident statistic taking out some one else with you.

It is not just caravans out there that are slow, trucks & cars are just as bad.