Beyond their comfort zone? You must be kidding!
I'm talking about wide open country roads.
If someone in a newer car such as a commodore or BMW
is holding up traffic because he/she is not "comfortable" travelling at hwy speeds,
then I suggest they get someone else who is more confident to drive them.
All cars driving under the limit don't annoy me.
Older cars, trucks and buses I understand. After all. I drive an 850!
But not the drivers of newer cars that are well able to do the limit and more.

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'72 English Van...'72 Export Moke ...63' 850...KZ 750E1...'74 P76

from a city perspective (I'd go mad driving a mini long distance on a motorway) has anyone noticed lately there are a larger number of late model cars with no stop lights at all?

...and heres my 2 cents worth on less than considerate drivers...

On Sunday I was nearly flattened by a Audi 4wd thing who wanted to cut three lanes accross Alison Rd near Randwick Racecourse all to get their mangy mutt to Centennial Park so it can poo on everyones grass, and me and the mini were forced into on coming traffic on the goat track called Canterbury Road by a taxi. All this in the space of 2 hours.
All in clear weather.

I drive my classic cars with lights on regarless of conditions, so I'm guessing these other drivers must have to really concentrate on IGNORING other cars on the road. But then I'm forgetting THEY are the most important people on the road and serves me right for getting in the way.

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YDO005 1965 stock standard MORRIS MINI DELUXE

Damian - I don't see what sort of car has to do with it - new or old. Just because a modern car can travel easily at the LIMIT, doesn't mean that everybody driving one has to do the LIMIT. You're implying that the LIMIT is a required speed of travel, rather than the maximum you're supposed to travel at.
And I'm talking about wide open country roads too. If someone is uncomfortable driving at the maximum allowed speed, due to unfamiliarity with that road, inexperienced etc, a nervous person or whatever, I'd rather they drove at a speed that they feel safe at rather than push their own limits and become a risk to themselves and others.
My 2c worth.

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1969 Mini Cooper S MKII (1330)
1972 Honda 750/4 (his),1976 Honda 400/4 (hers)
1982 Honda CB1100RC (ours)

Damien
I agree entirely with Peter on the comfort zones.
I am in the RFS and we attend MVAs all he time. Its really frightening to see the damage done by a driver who is just not comfortable nor skilled at
100kmh but is driving at that speed regardless.

One case at mind is a city woman, in the wet, who saw a kangaroo on the side of the road and swerved as she hit the brakes. She spun off the road as the wheels locked and buried the passenger side into a tree as far as the transmission tunnel - she was alone thankfully but hurt never-the-less.

Twenty kilometres an hour less and the incident probably wouldn't have happened. Its not motorway driving - its wide open country roads and it dangerous. Not everyone has the same confidence, skills and temperment.

Damien - why dont you join the SES or RFS (or similar) and do some community work. Attend a few accidents and see if you are still as determined to do the limit at your limit as often.

Mike

This is all horses for courses though , the sign mentioned in Tasmania would apply to a lot of roads around here and other rural areas as well . Yes it's the upper limit and in a lot of places the road is unsuitable to do that speed . I get frustrated too by the motorists doing 80 on good parts of the highway but I also shake my head at the ones doing 100 and trying dangerous manouvers to overtake to continue doing 100 in areas I know are only safe below 90 (I spent several years on an SES rescue crew , I know how bad some sections are from being called to them many times and I drive according to the conditions there regardless of thecommodore or falcon on P plates trying to fit up my exhaust) . This is entirely different from the good freeways/dual carriageway highways that are about and they have their own laws (which I shake my head at people as well) , in NSW you MUST keep to the left lanes unless you are overtaking . Interstate (and local) people don't know or ignore that and sit in the right hand lane doing 90 causing traffic to bank up or people to undertake them and then break the laws themselves . Just another example of how a national set of road rules/licencing would be beneficial rather than each state having their own differences . More publicity would help as well perhaps , but definitly more driver training of some form , maybe incorporate it into schools . Would be a great chance for sponsorship by a manufacturer to give a big fleet discount to the education department and a suitable reserve teacher at each school trained to be an advanced driver trainer and teach the kids one on one or two or three at a time . I know it would be expensive but how much does the alternative cost , 5 kids rolled their Excel after the driver who'd been on her P's for a week tried to take a 60 kph corner at 110kph and nearly hit my ute that was coming the other way . They got out with various injuries but it could well have been 5 funerals from an inexperienced driver doing what she should have known better than to do .

OK , off soapbox now .....

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Dammit Mike , were you looking over my shoulder when I was typing that , we both basically said the same thing .

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Dammit Ian
You just repeated whay I said

However, young hotheads are just not getting the message and they are not infallible or as good drivers as they think.

I spent probably more money than I want to add up to learn to drive ( I actively raced cars for quite a few years) and funnily enough all it taught me was to slow down.

I sometimes am appalled at the attitudes of some on here in regards to intolerance towards other drivers and the self estimations of their own abilities.

I have repeatedly seen the advanced driving instructors take these hotheads onto a training venue and make absolute fools out of them.

It would be interesting to do a poll to find out just what the learned standard of driving is. I mean who has done advanced driving courses or competitive motorsport as against those who are simply choking the blacksnake.

Mike

...a personal bugbear of mine.

I had an argument over this with my (Aussie) father-in-law when we were driving in Europe last year. I was telling him how well disciplined most European drivers were when it comes to lane discipline where even if they are a bit lazy or slow to move back over, they eventually do and people NEVER (OK, hardly ever) overtake on the inside.

Anyway - I was saying that the rules in Aus/NSW were pretty-much the same but for some reason Aussie drivers just all sat at 100 in all 3 lanes and then the idiots just weaved around them in whichever direction they felt like.

He disputed that the road rules here said that the outside lane is only for overtaking and also disputed that 'undertaking' was illegal.

I looked it up again when we got home to find we were both half right - the outside lane/s is/are for overtaking (Australian Road Rule 130) and you should always return to the left afterwards. So it's not different state by state, this is a Commonwealth rule.

However - I was shocked to find that there is provision for overtaking on the inside:


...so basically it's up to the idiot doing the driving to assess whether it is 'safe' or not - smart rule
Oddly, now that I know it's not illegal (just a little bit stupid IMHO) I now find myself less enraged when some idiot almost wipes me out when he races up the 'slow' lane and then cuts across three lanes of traffic just as I look to return to the left after 'correctly' overtaking to the right....

It's legal to overtake up the LH lane in NSW on a multilane road, but not in the `Honda freeway' (breakdown lane).
It's illegal to stay in the RH lane (unless overtaking) when the speed limit is 90KMH or more. My neighbour got booked for that recently on the F3.

My pet peeve is people who just cannot merge seamlessly with freeway traffic by reaching the speed limit in the on-ramp. They dawdle, stop, look around, then wonder why people run up them.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

THERE IS A MORAL HERE!

A C-130 was lumbering along when a cocky F-16 flashed by.
The jet jockey decided to show off.

The fighter jock told the C-130 pilot, "watch this!" and promptly
went into a barrel roll followed by a steep climb. He then finished
with a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier. The F-16 pilot
asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that?

The C-130 pilot said, "That was impressive, but watch this!"
The C-130 droned along for about 5 minutes and then the C-130
pilot came back on and said: "What did you think of that?"

Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, "What the heck did you do?"

The C-130 pilot chuckled. "I stood up, stretched my legs, walked
to the back, went to the bathroom,then got a cup of coffee and a
cinnamon bun."

When you are young & foolish - speed & flash may seem a good thing !!!
When you get older & smarter - comfort & dull is not such a bad thing !!!

hmmm cinnamon bun....

I'm off to get a donut (or is it a doughnut?)

I once got off on a charge of 'careless driving' basically it came down to not driving defensively... that's what the solicitor and the copper said to me, if you're not driving in a defensive manner you are breaking the law...

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Daniel the concreter (for now)
1974 mini 1100, fully sick rims, disk brakes, new paint, air conditioning, cruise control,v-tech... wishful thinking

The military (back in the days before there one civilian employee for every two serving members) has/had a charge called "conduct predujical to good military discipline"

It was a beauty - it could be applied to anything.

The same should apply who jam on their brakes when somebody is following them to closely knowing full well that the car behind is going to be at fault.

My wife keeps on saying to me "why are you slowing down, you have right of way".

I keep responding to her that "Just because I have right of way doesn't help if someone is driving through the side of the car".

There are idiots on our roads for sure. Around this time of the year, and 2 months prior to this date, not exactly, Tasmanian roads fill with vehicles from the other island. If you were to drive on any main highway, or semi-main road, you could almost bet your house on it; Coming across a mainlander driving at 70km/h in the 110-100km/h zone. It gets way past comletely ridiculous.

Do they really drive on the righthand side of the road in South Australia?
Or does that just happen when they come over here?

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Sir Namibian CAMEL of MONGOLIA !!!
Vrilen Snyson Racing: Finding us all a Vrilen
Asparagus: Experience the versatility

i nearly killed two motor homes worth of mainlanders the other week because i came around a blind corner and they were parked in the middle of the road and i had the truck locked up with same amount of pressure on the butt cheeks, i got out and gave them directions and they rang my bosses in launceston and complained about the advice i gave them the wankers did not tell them why i did that

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busier than a 0ne legged man in a butt kicking competion