That sounds pretty silly on their part, but difficult to say without knowing the road or exact circumstances.
I think the number one curse on the roads by far is slow drivers hogging the right lane when they could just as easily be driving in the left lane. It's both highly inconvenient and dangerous. There are heaps of variations to this, with many just doing it from ignorance (it would seem) but quite a few also making particular effort to do it. I just can't understand why someone who has no desire to drive faster themselves, and could easily pull into the left lane, will sit in the right lane and make a conscious effort to stay beside a car in the left lane just so no one else can get through. Even worse, the moment a right lane becomes available they will pull into it and block it, with no intention whatsoever of overtaking anyone.
If I was put in charge of road rules, with unlimited power to change whatever I wanted, the first things I would do would be:
- Introduce mandatory defensive driving courses with periodic refreshers (focusing on awareness and risk, not driving skills). These courses would also focus on driving practices designed to minimise obstruction to traffic flows and the risk of accidents (like when d|ckheads stop on freeway on-ramps then expect to safely merge into busy 100kph traffic from a stand-still).
- Introduce graduated licences where you have to demonstrate certain degrees of competence to obtain higher levels (similar to scuba diving qualifications). No more licences from Weetbix packets. Higher levels would allow more freedoms but also incur greater responsibility (eg. in the case of an accident). You could potentially become a 10th dan black belt in operating a motor vehicle
. The driver's licence level would need to be clearly on display, both front and back, while driving for the benefit of other drivers.
- Get rid of road-side speed limits altogether (but keep a few warning signs where appropriate). They are mostly unnecessary and more of a hazard than a help. Maximum speed, and other limits, would be determined by licence level. Similarly, some other blanket limits and restrictions might be changed to be based on licence level.
- Get rid of fines as penalties. This would remove the incentive for rules to be set for the greatest revenue gain. Breach of licence conditions would be penalised by perhaps some sort of points system for smaller offences, licence demotion or cancellation for more serious offences, and something that involves the offender's time and effort (eg. community service work) for really serious offences (jail even if it's that serious).
- Introduce a zero cost method for all penalties to be appealed. With no fines involved, there should be no financial incentive to steam-roll a conviction.
Some of the rule changes this would result in might be:
- Making it an offence to unduly obstruct a faster vehicle. In many situations (but by no means all), tailgating would put the front driver at fault (although if it resulted in a rear-ender, the following driver may bear some of the responsibility depending on their licence level).
- In incidents involving more than one vehicle, the driver(s) with the highest licence levels would attract more of the responsibility, although it would depend a lot on the nature of the incident.
- Scrap probably three-quarters of the current road rules. Most of them are just common sense, and many are so petty that I'm sure they're just there to allow you to be fined for just about anything.
Of course there's no way any of this would happen, as it would cost the government money and lose them a massive revenue stream at the same time.
GP
