Sean Lander is a videographer at CarExpert. He’s additionally very, very pissed off.
Be part of me, if you’ll, for a second of creativeness. You’re driving down a rustic street, and the signposted velocity restrict is 100km/h.
Your cruise management and speedometer are studying 100km/h and all is properly. You’re taking within the sights, having fun with our broad brown land when all of the sudden, you come up behind some plonker doing 90km/h.
“That’s advantageous” you suppose to your self. “An overtaking alternative will seem shortly”, and you agree in for a couple of minutes of laboured driving. All of a sudden, the plonker begins pulling away from you.
“Nice, they realised they had been going slowly” you suppose, and also you cruise again to 100km/h.
Your cruise management takes over once more and life is nice. However the offending automobile retains pulling away. You frown, however flip consideration again to your podcast (the brand new CarExpert podcast? – Ed.).
Earlier than you realize it, the plonker is again to their previous habits and also you’re again all the way down to 90km/h.
This goes on, repeating like some bizarre glitch within the Matrix, till lastly you come throughout a damaged line and go away them behind.
That is with out query essentially the most irritating factor that may occur whenever you’re protecting a giant distance. Overlook individuals not indicating or tailgating, this takes the cake.
It’s much more irritating on a multi-lane freeway.
Whereas it’s infuriating having to always regulate your velocity, this observe does spotlight a giant downside. Inattention.
There’s little question this happens all around the world, however right here in Victoria it appears extra prevalent than anyplace else in Australia.
Victorians and car velocity have an attention-grabbing relationship. I grew up in New South Wales, which had – by comparability – a extra relaxed stance on dashing. Victorians dwell underneath an iron thumb of anti-speeding tyranny.
Only a breath over the velocity restrict will internet you a degree in your licence and some hundred {dollars} in fines.
Earlier than you say it, in a college zone any velocity is harmful, so sticking to 40km/h is a should. However whenever you’re doing 100km/h on a freeway and also you coast down a hill, getting booked for 104km/h is a bit insane.
Due to this, Victorians spend most of their lives underneath the velocity restrict. Nevertheless, complacency appears to be taking maintain.
Travelling in all places extra slowly than needed, drivers are spending extra time their telephones, adjusting their Spotify playlist or, as I witnessed the opposite day, consuming their cereal behind the wheel.
Mirrors are uncared for, as are street indicators and different automobiles. Drivers usually suppose they’ve a divine proper to be within the quick lane at a velocity they deem ample. If that’s lower than the signposted restrict, too unhealthy for the automobile behind.
Then for no logical motive, they hit the NOS button and rocket away. Whether or not they realise they had been holding up visitors or simply had a burst of vitality, this can be a common sight.
I’m not suggesting there be jail time for the offence, nevertheless it ought to include some consequence. The difficulty isn’t even about annoying everybody caught behind the plonker, the problem is much broader.
Automobiles are two-tonne bullets, but individuals don’t respect that reality.
Dashing shouldn’t be the primary precedence of enforcement companies. Driver attentiveness needs to be.
On the very least, if everybody used their cruise management and maintained a relentless velocity, we might decrease the carbon footprint of vehicles. And that’s good for everybody.
