1. Right lane drivers
So, for my first rant, I thought it best to start with one of my personal favourites - the Right Lane Driver (henceforth to be known as RLD’s)
To clarify - I live in Australia, where we drive on the left side of the road. When there is more than one lane, by law, you are supposed to stay in the left lane UNLESS YOU ARE OVERTAKING SOMEONE.
However, most drivers where I live and where I have driven elsewhere in this country seem to be drawn magnetically to sitting in the right lane regardless of whether they are overtaking another car or not....
Why is this a problem? For several reasons.....the first is that the usual method of right lane sitting involves driving at EXACTLY the same speed as the car they are sitting alongside in the left lane - effectively blocking all traffic from going past. Even worse.......there usually seems to be an unspoken agreement between these two cars that they should STAY TOGETHER even if either of them speeds up or slows down.
The second issue is that these chronic RLD’s automatically go into the right lane whether there is a need to or not!! What the hell??? For example, on my daily drive there is a section of road that is single lane, which then expands out to two lanes at traffic lights, but then in about 300-400 metres past those traffic lights, the lanes merge again into one. The idea is that if you are a slower car at the lights, that other cars can bypass you before the lanes merge again. However, there is a brand of moronic driver who move into the right lane at those lights FOR NO FREAKING REASON. They will do it when there are NO other cars there, they will do it when there is ONE other car there that they have NIL intention of actually overtaking, they will do it if they are the slowest of 20 cars lined up at that intersection - again effectively blocking anyone else’s attempts at making a reasonable overtake.
“Wait a minute!” you might say “They probably have a good reason to be in that lane!” Good point!! What constitutes a good reason though?? “Them needing to make a right hand turn!” you say. Again, good point! However the chronic RLD sits in that lane even if there is NOWHERE to turn! On one section of road I drive every day, the distance between right turns is about 10-12 kilometres and I have seen RLD’s sit alongside other cars for that entire distance, blocking traffic, but still never turning right! Even if they DO eventually turn right, there is no reason for them to have say in that lane the ENTIRE way.....GRRRRRR!!!!!!!
So there you have it...the RLD....the scourge of Australian roads......oh wait, who am I kidding?!?! They are ONE of the scourges of Australian roads - more to come another time.......