Thread: Truck Driver Tailgating?,...in the "Nanny State"..Yeah right.

Originally Posted by garrycol

In Multi Lane highways you will also see "slow vehicles keep to the left lane" as well as "keep left unless overtaking" - so slow in the left lane - normal speed in the centre lane and overtaking in the right lane - simples.

So, in this case, if you were the driver of the car, and you were, as in this case, in the middle lane, would you move over to let the truck by?
A simple yes or no will do,...my answer would be "yes".
Pickles.

After scrolling down forever I found this,

3.4.2 Roads with 2 or more lanes If the speed limit that applies to a road is 90km/h or higher or there are ‘KEEP LEFT UNLESS OVERTAKING’ signs installed, you are not permitted to drive in the right lane of these roads unless: n you are turning right or making a ‘U’ turn and giving a right turn signal; n you are overtaking another vehicle; n the adjacent left lane is a special purpose lane such as a bus lane or bicycle lane; n the left lane is a left turning lane and you are travelling straight ahead; or n the other lanes are congested with traffic.

In the situation presented in the original post the car was travelling in the Right hand lane as far as the truck is concerned because the truck was legally not allowed to use the right hand lane.

The interpretation of this rule is a bit "hazy" But any responsible driver would stay as far left as possible if they have no need to overtake, regardless of how many lanes are available.
Common sense and decency Should prevail But unfortunately on many occasions it simply doesn't.

Originally Posted by Pickles2

So, in this case, if you were the driver of the car, and you were, as in this case, in the middle lane, would you move over to let the truck by?
A simple yes or no will do,...my answer would be "yes".
Pickles.

Me. If I was in the car, I'd drive in any of the lanes to the left of the right hand lane. The law says I can. If I was in the truck, I'd move to the left and continue happily on my way.

To use the example some give here that the car should have been in the left most lane, why wasn't the truck in the left most lane? Had he have been, he would have enjoyed his drive unimpeded.

Yes

Irrespective of whether I was on a single, double or multi lane road, track, highway or expressway, if someone catches up to me then he is travelling faster than me and therefore if I let him pass safely he will soon be gone and I can continue without any worries.

Originally Posted by trout1105

In the situation presented in the original post the car was travelling in the Right hand lane as far as the truck is concerned because the truck was legally not allowed to use the right hand lane.

But the car was "a car" so the truck rules didn't apply to the car. The car was driving within the rules that applied to the car.
See what happens when we have different rules applying to different entities using the same resource. (To be inclusive think motorcycles and bicycles here.)
The problem here is not the car, but the rules, and the rules that applied to the truck that the truck driver decided to ignore.

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Yep. The left lane. Being the one left of the right lane.
...

Only problem with that is that it's so ambiguous that even a court wouldn't be in a position to deal with it.

if the rules say keep left, and there are middle lanes then a middle or central lane can't be consider The Left Lane.
if the middle lane was to be considered the left lane, then what's the definition of the lane to the left of this middle/left lane .. leftmost lane?

The situation would be insane.

Then you have to define left and right lane for the truck too. Considering that trucks are banned from using the right lane(definition here being that rightmost lane that trucks aren't allowed to use) .. so the right lane now from the point of view of the truck = the middle lane.
So now from the truck driver's perspective, the car driver isn't keeping left, as he's in the (truck) right lane!

The situation is so idiotic that they either need to remove the right lane ban for trucks.. so as to remove any possible ambiguity .. or left lane literally means left lane.
Middle lane can only come under a definition where it's called the middle lane, or central lane .. so 'keep middle or central' would have to become a new signpost to deal with the ambiguity.

A keep left sign by it's very definition literally means to keep left. Ie. if you can stay central, and there is a left lane available then they aren't keeping left .. not in the true sense of the meaning of the directions made by that sign.

I can't remember any signs saying keep left along the three lane section .. maybe further south at the two lane section .. but I don't regularly get that far down the road.

Which every way you look at it, the law isn't clearly defined and is much too ambiguous as it currently is.

That is, idf the law says keep left, and the meaning is really only meant to be keep left of the rightmost lane, then it should be clearly marked as such.
Keep left means move left, and if there is more left space to the left of that, then keep left again.

In those road rules posted earlier there is no clear cut stated requirement that keeping left is only applicable with respect to the rightmost lane.
The only reference to the right lane(ie. the right most lane) is that a driver must not use it unless .. all those considerations note down in the sub clauses.

if you take this silly ambiguity to it's fullest level of lunacy .. technically the driver of the car was using a right lane(as implied as a definition by your arguments).
That is, if there is a left most lane(here now described simply as the left lane) then the use of the middle lane ie. to the right of this left lane is maintaining extended use of a right lane.

And the situation had just deteriorated from a simple silly ambiguous one to a fully fledged idiotic confusion.

I think the best way to deal with the silly situation is that we need to collectively rally to have these stupid bans removed.
And this video only serves to highlight the reasons why.
People!
I've argued this in the speeding thread, people will always be people and they don't always adhere to social conventions(ie. in this case the truckie tailgating when we all know that this is a stupid practise)
if this ban didn't exist, the situation would have never arisen as an issue at all .. ever! in an ideal world where stupid road rules that make no difference to the movement of traffic(ie. right lane bans) the truckie woudl have simply sailed past the middle lane idiot in the far right lane and the guy taking the video wouldn't have possibly been speeding considering that the middle lane driver was at the speed limit and the video guy has caught up himself!

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

But the car was "a car" so the truck rules didn't apply to the car. The car was driving within the rules that applied to the car.
See what happens when we have different rules applying to different entities using the same resource. (To be inclusive think motorcycles and bicycles here.)
The problem here is not the car, but the rules, and the rules that applied to the truck that the truck driver decided to ignore.

That May be the case But do you seriously think that the car driver was doing the "Right Thing" by Not moving over to the vacant left lane to allow the truck to pass regardless of the road rules ?
I am Not condoning or agreeing for one second that the truck driver was doing the "Right Thing" by tailgaiting But wouldn't it have been a safer and wiser option for the car to simply move over to the left?

Friend a few years ago was talking about issues with "fast" and "slow" lanes. The copper informed him, quite forcefully, that there are NO such things as fast or slow lanes. The same speed limits apply in all lanes.
This was before the relatively recent, over 90k keep left unless overtaking rule was introduced (at least here in Qld).