Over the last couple months I've been driving my missus car (little blue Jazz with a seabreeze sticker) to Melbourne CBD from Chelsea.
I normally ride an R1 so traffic usually isn't an issue for me.
One day I had to merge on St Kilda road. The car behind would not let me in however I had no where else to go and they finally gave me the required space however the female driver were furious!

The female driver was so angry she SPAT on her own windscreen! I full bodied spit!!! They both kept yelling and treated the incident as normal


Yep, couldn't stop laughing for the day.

road rage is as useful as being filthy rich in monopoly. The sooner the Australian driving culture realise this the better it be for everyone!

Merging and changing lanes is often a problem.
You're supposed to turn your blinker on for three or four seconds before changing lanes, but all that does is give the driver behind, time to stand on the throttle and move up to block you out.
It's just so common that I've made it my usual practice to move up next to a gap, then put on my blinker at the same time as I move into the next lane.

You've even got to be careful not to make it too obvious that you are eying off the next lane.
Even if some drivers just get the impression you're thinking of moving into 'their' lane, they bunch up like they're playing bumper cars or something.
Just plain rude!

I suppose the upside of that is, on the occasions that someone actually pulls back and waves me into their lane when they see my blinker on, it really makes me feel good.
I give them a happy smile and nice wave, and feel happy,. right up until the next prick blocks me out.

And yes, in case you're wondering, I always move back to let peolpe in, sometimes to the annoyance of the driver behind me who was already bunching up behnd me expecting I would do the same.

Man, truck drivers here are the worst, but only in the lead by a small margin. However, the advantage of driving in a "me first" culture is not giving a **** when you drive as bad as they do.

Road rage is here pointless as nobody makes eye contact, or just bows and waves after they've just put your life in danger... then there's the passive aggressive stuff like overtaking and brake-checking you cos you upset them.

People are dicks.

Use your horn. I like to use my horn for the slightest reason.
Person on arrow not turning
Cyclist
Hot chick
Road workers
People who cut me off
Heavy traffic
Etc etc
The best thing about the horn is it doesn't upset you when you use it. The person who has committed the offence is the one left angry.
In the instance of hot scantily clad chicks the percentage of been given the bird or a smile and wave is about 50-50, until further research is done it is still inconclusive.
Remember out of all the buttons in the car the horn is the most underutilized. A lot of cars with 20000000 kilometres on them have brand new horns.
If in heavy traffic ie peak hour on freeway you will often get other people joining in, there not angry either there just joining in. Do it use your horn. If you honk and smoke a gadang garam at the same time you can also pretend your in indo,

Not here - you're the impolite ass for using the horn, they're just puzzled as to why you would demean yourself like that.

Doesn't bother me either - first reaction, hit the horn

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Kamikuza said..
However, the advantage of driving in a "me first" culture is not giving a **** when you drive as bad as they do.

One of the advantages of driving a 4Wd dual cab (or any other big SUV type car) is that you can just put on the flicker and start to move over into the available gap, most car owners will **** themselves and pull back letting you in.
Whats even better is when its a work car coz you care even less if someone bumps into you

Do the same here in my older-than-everyone-else model car. Works good
Funny thing is people will give you more personal space when in their car than they will in person - I've walked over or kicked shins of people determined to push past me as close as possible, but those same people will swerve into oncoming traffic if you creep an inch out of that driveway onto the road

It's fun exploiting cultural differences!

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grumplestiltskin said..

Kamikuza said..
However, the advantage of driving in a "me first" culture is not giving a **** when you drive as bad as they do.

One of the advantages of driving a 4Wd dual cab (or any other big SUV type car) is that you can just put on the flicker and start to move over into the available gap, most car owners will **** themselves and pull back letting you in.
Whats even better is when its a work car coz you care even less if someone bumps into you

I have seen that sort of behavior with 4wd owners not giving way. Sometimes they seem to think, I've got a bigger car, so they pull out in front of you at a T intersection. I see their point, you are going to avoid hitting them, but it is such poor form.

I guess, if you are a **** driver, this sort of thing is a necessity.

over in some parts of maui it is considered disrespectful to beep your horn at locals .l pretty much found that out the first day we arrived.

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Razzonater said..
Use your horn. I like to use my horn for the slightest reason.
Person on arrow not turning
Cyclist
Hot chick
Road workers
People who cut me off
Heavy traffic
Etc etc
The best thing about the horn is it doesn't upset you when you use it. The person who has committed the offence is the one left angry.
In the instance of hot scantily clad chicks the percentage of been given the bird or a smile and wave is about 50-50, until further research is done it is still inconclusive.
Remember out of all the buttons in the car the horn is the most underutilized. A lot of cars with 20000000 kilometres on them have brand new horns.
If in heavy traffic ie peak hour on freeway you will often get other people joining in, there not angry either there just joining in. Do it use your horn. If you honk and smoke a gadang garam at the same time you can also pretend your in indo,

Please PM me your address. I'll send you a new horn every Christmas.

Ditch the car. Ride a bike!

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Loftywinds said..
Ditch the car. Ride a bike!

As long it has 200 BHP at the rear wheel

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echunda said..

Loftywinds said..
Ditch the car. Ride a bike!

As long it has 200 BHP at the rear wheel

You won't need that much to have vastly more power-to-weight than your crappy car. Although I think the modern liter plus bikes come close...

And real men know torque is a far more important number anyway ;)

Well, my humble vtr1000 has 97Nm @ 7000 rpm (allegedly). Road rage gets left in my mirrors

Well I see it both ways...

I came to perth 9 years ago and couldn't make peace with the local drivers.. Spent the first 5 fighting the city traffic doing a job that had me driving all over in a company car.. I used to enjoy driving. Now the constant d#%kheads on the road has taken its toll on me. I've changed jobs and don't have to drive the city much at all any more. Got an old big 4wd that I'm not too fussed on 'scratching' and that's made my attitude soo much more relaxed... Don't wanna let me merge.. Fine have it your way.. Wanna pull out in front ?.. That's ok too.. Don't blame me when your shiny mer-bmw-whatever gets dented...or bulldozed :) you could have played nice.....
Perth... ****tiest drivers in oz by far... Just tryin to fit in :)

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grumplestiltskin said...

Kamikuza said..
However, the advantage of driving in a "me first" culture is not giving a **** when you drive as bad as they do.

One of the advantages of driving a 4Wd dual cab (or any other big SUV type car) is that you can just put on the flicker and start to move over into the available gap, most car owners will **** themselves and pull back letting you in.
Whats even better is when its a work car coz you care even less if someone bumps into you

I feel your pain echunda, i do that same drive each drive to the CBD from Seaford.. there are so many dickheads along Nepean hwy... Its seems to be worse on weekends though, especially when i drive in at midday...

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bobajob said...
Well, my humble vtr1000 has 97Nm @ 7000 rpm (allegedly). Road rage gets left in my mirrors

SP 1 or 2, or Super Chicken? Once you go V2 you never go back! Although the Rocket III is just another level of madness... I had a TL and while I miss the speed-of-thought overtaking, I don't miss all the weight and cumbersome cornering

I saw the best revenge on my way to work the other week.

Sitting at lights P plater in lowered ford falcon throws his maccas rubbish out the window.
Tradie in ute behind him jumps out grabs two beers out of his esky in the back shakes them up, opens them and tosses them in through the p platers open window.

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echunda said...
Over the last couple months I've been driving my missus car (little blue Jazz with a seabreeze sticker)

And there lies the problem.. When you drive a hairdressers car obviously people treat you differently on the road.

Do you think this would have happened if you were driving an old beat up falcon or a land cruiser.

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Lambroast said...
Perth... ****tiest drivers in oz by far...

I was willing to believe that, till I started visiting some of the other states. Some of the driving I saw in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney was no better than anything I've seen on Perth roads. Incidents like people racing to be car in front at merge points or jumping into a gap they don't fit into seem to be nationwide, from what I've seen.

In Sydney I witnessed for the first time someone fall asleep at the wheel, and cruise straight into the back of a car at a set of traffic lights. In Melbourne on the ring road, drivers seemed convinced the correct place to sit whilst cruising along, was over the white line halfway onto the hard shoulder.

I think a lot of the bad driver comes from what the individual sees as bad driving too. Not to say the driving in Perth is good, but I really don't think the other states are any better.

I see from the suggested videos that Australians are actually Asians in disguise... or maybe Russians.



I see the lane changing works great at 1:25 too!

^ 3 of the videos in particular looked painful but I really needed the laugh thankyou. Can you guess which 3

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pweedas said..
Merging and changing lanes is often a problem.

I'm surprised you say that Pweedas. I lived in Perth for a stint in the late 90's. Perth has the best road system in Australia in my opinion. Here in Adelaide, people are pretty good. They definitely let you in, which is pretty amasing since our roads are crap here. You would think everybody would be losing their temper (which does happen). The government and councils put the cities plumbing under the roads which always require maintenance, combine that with crappy city planning. Not uncommon for a serious (and totally avoidable) traffic jam to occur in Adelaide due to a burst pipe and incorrectly placed merger signs. Yet, drivers are still very polite and let you in under these circumstances.

PS/ If you want to see some funny youtube ****, google "the punisher" road rage.

crossing the nullabor years ago in a hiace ,mid summer we had 2 f**wit bikie hassling my girlfriend who was driving.
they kept driving up alongside the drivers window and talking s**t.
they didntrealize I was sleeping in back , but when i sat up ,opened the side window and passed out a warm can of coke the front bikie held out his hand to take it
.
.
...
then he realized i was shaking and opening it
.
.
.
.
. I still get a laugh when i remember them driving 50kms in that heat sticky and half blind into border village, where the WA police were waiting with a complaint from a passing motorist

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jn1 said..

PS/ If you want to see some funny youtube ****, google "the punisher" road rage.

The Russian bus driver?

We have pretty much the same application of rules here by the police, and drive recorders are everywhere - both our cars have them - not because of scams but because the police are useless, lazy dickheads and like to determine accident fault randomly.

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pweedas said..

I suppose the upside of that is, on the occasions that someone actually pulls back and waves me into their lane when they see my blinker on, it really makes me feel good.
I give them a happy smile and nice wave, and feel happy,. right up until the next prick blocks me out.

And yes, in case you're wondering, I always move back to let peolpe in, sometimes to the annoyance of the driver behind me who was already bunching up behnd me expecting I would do the same.

I do this a fair bit, and made a specific point of it on Thursday after reading your post. The bloke I was letting in couldn't work it out, he almost didn't make it before the lane he was in diverted down to Riverside (yes, that merge in Perth).

Nearly got someone in the tray of my ute on the way up the Great Eastern Highway into the hills from Midland yesterday. At the point where three lanes drops down to two - the two left hand ones merge - I pulled ahead of the guy I was next to to get into the single lane and it was like he didn't even see me. His bumper would have been inches from my towball all the way through the merge - then all of a sudden he dropped back about 5 car lengths. Must have given himself a hell of a fright.

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Kamikuza said..

The Russian bus driver?

Yeah, the Russian dude. Same here with the cameras in the cars.

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AUS175 said..
I feel your pain echunda, i do that same drive each drive to the CBD from Seaford.. there are so many dickheads along Nepean hwy... Its seems to be worse on weekends though, especially when i drive in at midday...

Well if you see either a white R1 with a booming exhaust or the little jazz with the seabreeze sticker, toot your horn!

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echunda said..


Well if you see either a white R1 with a booming exhaust or the little jazz with the seabreeze sticker, toot your horn!

I'd be more impressed if both had seabreeze stickers and booming exhausts

stephen

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sn said..

echunda said..


Well if you see either a white R1 with a booming exhaust or the little jazz with the seabreeze sticker, toot your horn!

I'd be more impressed if both had seabreeze stickers and booming exhausts

stephen

Don't know where I'd put the seabreeze sticker on the bike

The Honda jazz doesn't have the grunt to produce a booming exhaust note. If you took off the muffler it would sound like a Japanese man crying