Is Mise, do you have any more information on that – as to why NSW doesn’t want to introduce them?

Can they see the inherent problems with this stupid law?

Or are they just waiting to see how it goes in Qld?

Luddy I'm hurt. I am on side with you, & was defending you with that post.

Hell, in respect for your sensibilities I have even refrained from advising you to get an HSV V8 Commodore, & never be tailgated again. With one of those you simply drop back a gear or two, & leave your tormentor behind in a cloud of tyre smoke.

I was going to tell you I am never tailgated in my sports cars. That was until I had to drive from near Boonah to Beenleigh in the early hours before dawn yesterday. I was driving, as usual, as fast as I thought wise in relation to the speed limits, & was continually caught, tailgated & passed by a procession of tradesman type utes & light trucks.

This has never happened at the later hours I normally travel, so I can only assume these people know the law is not about that early, & drive at a speed more suitable to conditions than the speed limit. A speed I would never dare to use these days, as I need my licence.

My trip took me over Tamborine mountain at & before first light. I was amazed at the number of lycra clad fools, very red in the face even at 5C temperatures, struggling up the thing on those idiot cycles. There must have been a dozen or more in a few groups, with their little red LED lights flashing miserably.

They all looked so stuffed that I doubt any of them had the energy to activate a camera, even if I had been too close according to the new law.

I thought of you.

<< I was driving, as usual, as fast as I thought wise in relation to the speed limits, & was continually caught, tailgated & passed by a procession of tradesman type utes & light trucks. >>

Interesting you should mention that, Haz.

Some of the worst drivers out there are those that rely on doing a lot of driving for their jobs – tradies, truckies and taxi drivers.

You’d think that they would need to be extra careful, as losing their licence via the accrual of demerit points would be very serious indeed. And yet some of them really are the pits of drivers when it comes to speeding, tailgating and general impatience with and lack of respect for those who are sticking to the law or somewhere close to it.

It seems that they know more about the policing regimes than we mere ordinary road-users do…. or they know that the cops won’t pull over ‘working’ drivers, or they will get off if they do get pulled over because the cops just warn ‘working’ drivers and let them go on their way, or they get off if they take it to court, or get to keep their licence if they do accrue too many demerit points, because magistrates sympathise with ‘working’ drivers.

I don’t know what it is, but many truckies and tradies are pretty rank. Taxi drivers used to be very bad but they seem to have improved a lot in recent years.

What’s your feeling about this, Haz?

The thing is, it's no use whinging about "tradies, truckies and taxi drivers", when you, yourself, drive WAY too close to the car in front and refuse to obey the distance restrictions between your car and cyclists.

In other words, when a person is a bad driver, it's pointless whinging about other bad drivers.

I don't see many taxis out here Luddy, & I desperately avoid going into the city, so I can't talk about them.

The tradies & trucks are not normally a problem either. Out here they mostly travel just a little under 100, & don't mind being passed at all.

Actually I find the big interstate ones rather useful. I think they must have cruise these days. When there is no slow traffic getting in their way they usually travel at a couple of kilometers above the speed limit. I attach a mental tow rope to one, & follow 60/70 meters or so behind them. This takes all the effort out of speed control, making for relaxed traveling.

It was only this before dawn, early start traffic that was regularly catching me, & wanting to pass. I'd say they are used to driving quite quickly going in to work.

One cause is the fool increase in double lines all over the place. One stretch I use regularly has had 10 lots of dotted line overtaking places all painted to double lines over a few years. That gives 15 kilometers of country low traffic road, with easy passing spots, where it is illegal to do so.

What ever fool planners indulge in this stupidity probably don't believe this makes lawbreakers of many sensible drivers, when they find a farm truck doing 55 Km/H.

I also make a point of never leaving town around 3.00 PM. The school taxi mothers are without doubt the worst drivers we encounter on our country roads.

Hasbeen,

Around here there are stretches of road that have double lines where passing is safe and dips, blind curves and crests and combinations of crests and curves where there are broken lines inviting head on collisions.

There are dills in the department that says which lines go where.