Vicroads: Creating congestion to save lives

[EL_futuraistic]

HAHAHAHA LOL!

The Victorian Govt. and its associated departments are a never ending source of amusement.

BRACKS, TAX AND LIES

Im so glad i pay my $560.20 each year for VicRoads to play "the italian job" and to pathetically justify it as trying to save my life.......

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by pauljh74

The reason why alot of drivers stay in the middle lane is that if you saw how many people here are unable to smoothly merge onto the freeway at 80km/h+, you'd see why we stay in the middle lanes. If you sat in the left lane you'd need to hit the brakes every time you came up to an onramp. I see it constantly - car hits 60km/h-70km/h half way along the onramp, then stays at that speed. Then they merge, causing cars to hit the brakes to wipe off 40km/h, then the merging car accelerates slowly to 100km/h. Next onramp, repeat process. It's hard enough keeping the slowpokes from clogging up the right lane.

I know, this happens in NSW too. But driving skill and awareness can help. In the UK in this situation drivers move into the middle lane if they see someone coming down the sliproad - they do this as a courtesy so the incoming driver doesn't have to reduce speed and so they don't have to slacken their own speed. Then when its clear again they move back into the left lane. It all works well based on politeness and commonsense. Here if you're coming down a sliplane you get mown down by someone doing 110k who hasn't taken any initiative to move to the middle when its clear. In NSW also the sliplanes (like roundabouts) will be filled with vegetation insisted on by those f... greenies so that nobody can see a thing until its too late.

Here there's also aggression that you don't get in the UK. The other day I came in from a sliproad and this Mercedes van who was a long way back suddenly accelerated up behind tooting his horn, falshing his lights and slamming the brakes to teach me a lesson. Only trouble it was raining heavily. Last I saw of him in the rear vision mirror his van was doing the Blue Danube waltz all over the motorway and all the other cars had stopped in terror while he finished his Dancing with the Stars routine.

The other issue with those motorways in Victoria is they were probably funded by us all through the federal govt. Victoria's form on that is illustrated perfectly by the standard gauge railway from Melbourne to Albury. Given to them by the Feds in 1960 and allowed to run to ruin. There has been a train capable of doing Sydney to Melbourne in 10 hours since 1981 (the XPT). It took the Victorian govt about 15 years to let it cross the border. It is capable of doing 160kph between Wagga and melbourne. It does this from Wagga to the border then has to slow down to a rock n' rolling 100 the rest of the way. So its not like they're trying to encourage public transport either. I think they just enjoy being bureaucrats.

[pauljh74]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

This seems to also be part of the Vicroads mentality.

Refer to a post of mine on another thread:

I think I know the real problem why drivers want to stay in the RH lanes, at least here in Victoria.

It is the way "traffic engineers" design the entrances and exits to freeways, where anyone entering has to merge with traffic before they can get up to the speed of this traffic. This is because the run-up and exiting lanes are far too short. Therefore anyone in the LH lanes have to keep braking for these cars joining/exiting. Why not just stay in the RH lane and not be disrupted by these cars?

In England, the motorways are much better designed to actually promote driving in the LH lane. This is done by making the LH lanes continuous, so that entering traffic does not have to change lanes when entering. Traffic travelling in the LH lane can continue without having to worry about traffic merging into their lanes, and when safe, they actually merge left into the new LH lane. It is the RH lanes that end, merging into the next lane. Therefore you cannot stay in the RH lane endlessly.

Have a look next time, here in Vic, the LH lanes end, and its so frustrating having to change lanes all the time when travelling in the LH lane. Hence most like to travel in the RH lane.

Personally I think the "traffic engineers" here need to be sent overseas to see how it should be done. This also includes roundabout traffic management (another issue).

Some on ramps are a little short, especially the uphill ones, but so many people just seem to level out their speed well before they reach the freeway. I've driven my mechanics crappy 20 year old loan cars with 1.6 litres and a power sapping 3 speed auto and managed to hit the speed limit before the freeway. Most of the people easing up are driving larger cars with more than enough go to do the job without revving it hard.

[banarcus]

Victorians, turn this issue into a political one. The more the merrier, get your collective act together and make sure those who vote know what is happening on your roads. Email the media anything to let the wider audience, and more importantly, those who vote understand your silly government's silly traffice policies.