Been over here for 3 months now and love the place. However Aussies must be the rudest/discourteous drivers on the planet. The majority will refuse to slow down to let you in even when giving plenty of notice. Again most will refuse to stop to allow you out of a junction even when the traffic is crawling and most annoyingly if you let them in they simply refuse to acknowledge the favour. A minor gripe but hey have some manners on the roads folks.

Well you will have touched a nerve with a few on here They are the worst drivers I have ever encountered although amazingly a few on here will try to tell you they are in fact better than British drivers

I am an Aussie driver (as I learnt to drive here) and I always let people out. I always wave thanks when someone lets me in too (which happens a lot - to me anyway).

Driving is the single thing I dislike about living here.

It probably gets better in other places around Oz but here driving is a chore and a constant source of annoyance.

The thing is, most of the hassle is avoidable with a bit of patience, respect and common sense.

3 months eh? I've been here nearly 7 years and it still winds me up.

I can beat that, been here since 1962 on and off and it still annoys the hell out of me.


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I think that something like 75% of cars here are automatic which means people dont actually drive, rather point the car roughly in the direction they want to go and proceed completely oblivious to anything going on around them.

In the Uk the proportion is the other way round. With a manual car you at least have to pay some attention and be a little bit more aware.

In Qld at least the authorities really don't care how you drive as long as you are under the speed and alchohol limit. If they did care then driver training would be far more stringent. There would also be some sort of MOT test

Another thing is 4 litre standard car and 200 horsepower with rear wheel drive and 18yr old driver is not really a happy mix.

On balance I would say the NZ drivers are more aggressive than in OZ - they really do have small dick big car syndrome.

Scariest thing in OZ are the Roadtrains - coming across from Alice, you are doing 140k on a cart track, and there is a behemoth coming towards you, at 140k. You have no option but to go onto the gravel at the side of the road. A sphincter tightening experience - perhaps they should offer it as a service to prolapse sufferers.

Barry Sheene actually referred to Aussie drivers as the worst in the world.

I'm an absolutely shite driver as I have the concentration span of a newt so I love driving here. I just jump in my automatic landrover and point - like a cruise missile. I think there's only Oz and Egypt where my driving would be acceptable.

To be honest, I haven't had any problems with drivers in Australia, in either of the places I've lived.

Yes, sometimes they tailgate, but no more than I've experienced elsewhere.

I don't think I've ever had a problem merging, in fact I've commented on how easy it is to merge here as most people I've come across really seem to understand that merging one on one is painless and efficient. I also get acknowledged when I am courteous.

I fully appreciate that my experience is not the same for everyone and that I live in a parallel universe

He lived here on the Gold Coast at one point so was probably right

The rest of us are talking about driving.

I think he moved to the Gold Coast because his numerous steel pins were going rusty in the UK.

Wayne Gardener certainly crashed quite a bit!

On driving standards I don't see much difference to the UK, but UK drivers are definitely more courteous