Mandy&Cliff

Sorry to say, but the law is the same in the UK, the difference being, in the UK the Police do not enforce it for 2 reasons, 1.It is one of those laws that is in small print in a rule book somewhere and nobody has told the Officers about it. 2 It would be so difficult to police because there are so many cars and not enough parking spaces.
I did get a ticket for it once when I was parked in a culdesac in the middle of no where and at night.

psaint7

Just a quick question...

When you move to Oz what happens to your UK points?? I'm hoping you just get a clean slate!

arkon

I was agreeing with you and no not being sarcastic. I can't see why you thought I was. The roads here are bigger than the UK and there are less cars per square inch on them and mostly drive at or below the speed limit, yet the death toll is twice that of the UK. I have done a few experiments to see if I could deduce the cause and also to see exactly why they never let you out of junctions or parking spaces here. What I've done is to sit at junctions or exits to the car park where they are only doing about 30ish or less and whilst watching there faces nudged my nose out partly into their path. I've tried it a few times now to try and gauge what they are thinking. The look on their faces is a kind of being woken from a daydream and they are totally unaware you are even there.

I'm now convinced that Oz drivers aren’t rude or ignorant when not letting you out but basically completely oblivious to other road users and therefore not pre-empting any possible danger. Maybe driving in congested small roads in the UK with 3 times the population makes you more aware of other road users and therefore less likely to have an accident.

I know my experiments were only on a handful of drivers but each time the look was the same, I simply wasn't there and they only became aware of my existence when you block their path. I see the same daily on the pacific highway where the single lane goes into two and back again. The person in the slow left lane is almost never aware of any cars in the outside lane and just merge into the single lane from the left without looking and this is where all the deaths occur here.

OzSheila

Yes, count me on this one. Been back 6 months (after 14 years in the UK and no tickets/points) and last week got a ticket and 3 points for not wearing a seatbelt. Gave the cop a piece of my mind too - reminded me of why I left the bloody country in the first place! When will they wake up and start chasing the real offenders like the 18 year old P-platers that take great pleasure in fishtailing outside our house each Saturday night or the drivers who go straight thru the roundabout!!

Ready to burn the Aussie passport!

savanna454

Clean slate when you get your OZ licence but you'll accumulate them pdq unless you're ultra careful!

Ken

psaint7

Thanks, and there was me thinking of a Monaro!

annqldau

I'd never come across it until I got here was amazed had parked in an empty spot, inside the box and within the times and still came back to a ticket that's why we queried it...think they were being jobs worths. Like later poster said rods littered with rubber marks of the hoons and where are the police then? I know that's the same in the UK as it's lets photo or video the drivers but Oh No! we can't photo video the little thugs running riot as we may invade their privacy. We would all twist less if the police were fair all round and worked from the top down instead of the bottom up.

seang

just reading Bix da boss's good new earlier got me thinking.

regardless how long you have or have not been driving in the UK - how many people took a few lessons in Australia just to "get up to speed"?

annqldau

Nope just took the conversion questions as a total waste of time trying to 'get up to speed' here I could walk quicker.

savanna454

Love the monaro but the wife & kids wouldn't let me!

Liked the look of the commodore ss wagon 5.7l V8 but settled for a BA wagon which is still a 4l st6 only 182kw/250ish bhp!

They don't use estate here apart for land in excess of 3 zillion acres or thereabouts!!.

Seriously though wanted a cheap'ish aussie car but don't understand why they need such big motors with 100/110k limits and they're way behind on the brilliant turbodiesels they have in the UK which would actually suit their driving conditions quite well

kendra1

So it wont be your problem when you and your family are all lying in A+E with serious injuries, i cannot believe how bad some of the drivers are over here--talk about clueless :scared: , i imported my car from the UK and within 5 months someone went into the back of me, on the day of my crash there was 3 accidents in the space of 500 meters, one bad crash then another coz people were rubber necking , then mine coz everyone was stopping to look at the 2nd accident up ahead and the bloke behind me was reading paperwork, it was raining so i left 30 meters in front and in typical Ozzie style the bloke behind left 30 inches, then 2 days later going down South Road bank into Adelaide in the rain i had a Chelsea school bus (Land cruiser) inches off my bumper with the driver on the phone i went ape out of the window at her, coming round blind bends, if anything had of happened there was nothing she could have done at that distance. I now drive to the limit, and if someone gets too close for my comfort, i stick my rear fog lights on and give them the Middle digit out of the window. There seems to be no courtesy, and "Keep left unless overtaking" signs may as well be written in Egyptian Sand script, as people seem to sit in the right hand lane and leave the left clear for people to undertake, and then the path followed seems to be Manoeuvre-Mirrors(seeing they have just cut you up)-Signal (At the last minute ).
I chatted with a bloke at work about it and he was under the impression that because he was driving a big land cruiser with big knobbly off road tyres on it which were 1 foot wide he would stop better in the wet than anything else , it took ages for me to explain that the tyres are not designed for optimal grip on tarmac, only mud, and being 1 foot wide makes them more prone to aqua planing, and sliding in the wet on tarmac.
Sorry Rant Over i get carried away sometimes-- need more
Graham

JAWS

20 Years driving in the UK with only 3 points driving cars like Lotus, TVR Porsche etc I hour after getting off the plane in Brisbane 3 points driving a crappy hire car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6 months in, another 3 points driving a slow Jeep, I now drive with cruise on whenever I get on the motorway to make sure I don't speed.

I have certainly been cured of my speeding habit, the fines are worth avoiding.

I do find it strange however that it is socially acceptable here to drive around completely pi$$ed!

YoSemite

i had managed to get myself a few points in the UK.... caught twice!!

have been in australia since janaury - no points!!! I also did a skilled drivers course when I get over here, free thanks to insurance with AAMI.

yep.... feeling very pleased with myself, especially since I had a 1.3 getz in the UK and now have a 1.8 astra!!! make a concious effort to stick to the speed limit, and use cruise control on the motorway whenever it's safe to do so.

annqldau

As so many people from UK are being done for speeding think the simple solution is to have snail pace speed limit for the crap aussie drivers and have a speed limit of 20k over for the UK drivers who are used to higher speeds yet seem to crash less.

I never used to hear anywhere near as many crashes on the radio in UK or on the TV, this lot or hopeless at driving. I must admit I find going slower more dangerous as I'm going so slow here I stop concentrating out of boredom where going a bit faster you had to concentrate and watch what you were doing. Like fellow poster tend to drive on cruise most of the time now.

annqldau

UK will be as bad as Aus shortly... http://women.timesonline.co.uk/artic...9-2226998.html