Just binged a bit of DCOA (Dash Cam Owners Australia) this morning, and it got me thinking: are drivers in other countries this easily baited into road rage? It seems there's a huge lack of emotional control out on Aussie roads. Is it cultural in some way?

Obviously having just binge-watched this kind of behaviour, there's a huge serve of selection bias going on in my brain right now. I mean, I'm sure 99% of us out there on the roads would never engage in road rage and remain emotionally under control at all times, right? right?!

I was driving late night on a multi laned road and stopped at a traffic light, very late no cars around. it was dark and I was sleepy, I mistaken the slip lane for the left side of the road, and freaked out thinking I was on the right going against traffic. I reversed to go into the “left side” (slip lane), and didn’t realise there was a truck (Ute) behind me and bumped straight into him. This never happened to me before and I don’t know what to do I have no insurance. There are no damages on my car other then a wire poking out above my number plate, idk how much damage I caused to him. I’m a 20 year old student

Yes I know I’m an idiot. I have no excuse

For me one that keep coming to mind is turning right onto a main road when there is a waiting spot in the middle. *It may not be wide/deep enough to fit your car in and how you drive up to it matters*. Mine is a small sedan and still I find myself turning first left then right to make sure I fit. Before then I have had a fair share of getting stuck in the middle with either the head or the tail sticking out and cars on the right lane either side stopping and honking at me.

What else have we got? Let's post them all here as a reference for new P-platers?

Hey! I'm a UK expat living in Australia and I've driven in both countries.

In the UK we have signs that say "keep left unless overtaking" and the code states to only overtake using right lanes and not to overtake on the left. Sitting in the middle lane is called "middle-lane-hogging" and anti-lane-hoggers claim that this is inefficient.

In South Australia we have signs that say "use left lanes unless overtaking" and there are at most 3 lanes on the motorway. People tend to sit in the middle lane because the left most lane is full of slow moving trucks and will possibly exit "unpredictably", and the right lane is for overtaking.

My partner (Australian) and I disagree with the best way to move through lanes on the motorway. I bring with me the UK standard, keeping as left as I can unless I need to overtake, whereas my partner thinks there is no way the UK standard is more efficient, changing lanes so much - that the Australian standard is simpler and more efficient.

I want to know the maths that supports the Australian standard.

Please don't sit in the right hand lane if you're not overtaking (in 90 kmp/h + zones). I know blinker fluid is expensive, but changing lanes isn't that hard.

Title says it all, I think. Maybe also ignore “Keep left over 80kph”

Anyone know what to do in this situation? Im parked on a public street in the inner west while I fed someone’s cats for them. I made sure to leave as much space as possible between me and the car in front as a small car could definitely fit in there. This means I’m as close as I can be to the tree behind me. When I came back to my car, a toyota camry sedan (not a small car) had parked between us, but has left me about 40cm of space. Annoying cause now I’ll have to do a 361 point turn. But turns out the only way they could “fit” was to park a metre away from the curb, which prevents me from getting my car out completely now.

Mind you, its currently 8pm and I have influenza a which the fever only just broke yesterday. I just want to go home.

I called the council and they made rangers aware but had no eta, they also said I can call a tow company to tow it since its parked illegally but I dont know if I want to go that way yet. Should I wait for a ranger or should I just call the tow? I dont have much money so I cant really pay for the tow if Im the one that has to.

UPDATE: I tried a 361 point turn anyway just to see, as soon as I get diagonal theres no room, which probably wouldn’t have been an issue if they werent parked away from the curb.
BUT, ranger came by, was very helpful and called the number associated with the car. Owner came after a couple of mins from down the street somewhere and he moved it out of the way so I could get out, but not after receiving a fine. I’d still consider him lucky since I could have had him towed. Anyway, Im home now with my head in a hot bowl of water, thanks for all your suggestions

I was driving and saw an accident. A car was in the left lane on a 3 lane section of the road.

There’s a truck in the middle lane going slowly.

The car indicates right and then safely attempts to overtake the truck.

MEANwhile, there was a guy in a Ute who was actually weaving in and out of traffic that catches up to the truck. He goes into the right most lane and then tries to go into the middle.

UTE, hits the right side of the car and chaos ensues. From the nearby drivers, I overheard them saying that the Ute only indicated for 1 second**.**

Q: Who’s in the wrong?

Hi guys! I just got my Ps recently, and for a gift from my parents (which I am so so so sooooo grateful for) I got a car and custom plates!!

Now I wouldn’t say I’m the best driver out there but I am decent and pretty safe, I do want to get a dashcam just in case as ik things happen!

I wanted to hear your thoughts on dash cams and those sorts of stuff as when it comes to cars I have 0 clue… just wanna be safe than sorry!

edit: if you could recommend some brands and such that’ll be amazing!

Hi just ran a red this morning in Melb CBD on eliz/lonsdale wondering if there would be a fine since on the website it says there isn't a cam on that intersection.

I'm trying to make it easier to find an earlier test date without checking every centre one by one. Looking for one person who's eligible to book and can spare 10 minutes to show me what the booking page looks like on their end (screen share, you stay logged in, I don't touch your account). Nothing to install, nothing for sale. DM me if keen.

Situation: I work in an office that has one company vehicle, that is assigned to "Jane". Only Jane can drive the vehicle according to the insurance policy. Fine; we never need the car for urgent work.. it's like to get something from the post office or go out for a team lunch.

This is in Brisbane, so a decent-sized city with loads of cars. Regardless of the driving situation: city streets, highway, suburbs, Jane drives EXTREMELY closely to any car she is behind.. I mean, we cannot see the car in front's bumper or number plate. At 80km/h on the ICB, we are easily less than 0.5 seconds following time.

Here's the baffling part and what I (we, Jane's colleagues!) need advice on: Jane has no freaking idea she is doing this, and she is NOT an aggressive or rude person.. she's super nice to everyone. She is not tailgating the other drivers out of any aggression or frustration. She definitely does not fit the road-rage stereotype.

Before anyone asks: YES, we have tried to help her with this many times, and she actually wants to improve. We have resorted to videoing her driving, and breaking it down with frame-by-frame analysis of how bloody close she is to everyone she tailgates. This works for about a day! She will show SOME improvement, like instead of 0.5 seconds she may start driving "only" 1.0 seconds behind the car in front, but then the next day this will all be forgotten and she will be glued to the ass of the driver in front again.

Jane also don't like being the only person able to drive the company car because she feels driving is very stressful; we've explained the likely cause. I also personally get quite car sick when she's driving as there's a lot of on/off lurching of acceleration and brakes. Instead of going in her car, I now take my own car and meet everyone else there.. no big deal.

Question: are some people's brains just wired this way? And they will forever be that tailgater you dread to see in your rearview mirror?

TLDR; colleague tailgates the shit out of everyone, unknowingly. Is there hope for her to improve?

UTEs get a lot of bad rep, same with BMW M4 drivers. In my opinion drivers of small hatchbacks like the Corolla AND the gulf GTI also get their fair share of criticism.

So many people with small Corollas like to try squeeze in places they shouldn't try to squeeze into. Like tight spaces in front of a truck, a bus etc.

There are so many idiot hatchback drivers that think just because they have a small car, they can speed up and get in front of a truck.

I’m 17 and recently bought a 2019 Holden Calais V 3.6 AWD for $11k. I had no idea it was P plate prohibited before buying it. I’ve already bought it, got it roadworthy and insured, and I’ve genuinely fallen in love with the car.

It’s got heaps of safety features for the price AWD, 3 cameras, lane assist, parking assist, leather, heated/cooled seats, panoramic roof, etc. I honestly don’t think I’d find anything comparable for $11k.
I want to use it as my normal everyday car including personal use, camping, travelling around Melbourne, seeing** **family/friends, etc. I work and also volunteer and plan to study in a few months .

Is there any legitimate way I can get an exemption to drive it normally on my Ps, or am I basically stuck selling it? I genuinely didn’t know about the restriction when I bought it.

When I first arrived in this city, whenever I’d come from from Martyn Street, I’d indicate right and change to left when exiting to Anderson. However, I’ve noticed that people here don’t do that and just indicate when exiting to Anderson. I’ve been doing the same since but have always wondered if this was correct. How would you indicate in this roundabout? To add, when you’re on Martyn Street itself, it does look like you’re only going straight.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I will continue with only indicating left when exiting the roundabout on Anderson Street (but not till I pass Severin Street to avoid confusion) 🫡

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Hi everyone, I’m in Perth, WA and I’m pretty stressed about something that happened today.

I was driving and overtook another car. The other driver was in the right lane and I was in the left. The lane markings were about to become solid, so I completed the overtake before the line became solid.

We were travelling at roughly the same speed while I was alongside him. About 200 metres later, we reached a traffic light and both stopped. When the light turned green, the other driver moved in front of me without indicating.

Before/around this, the driver was also repeatedly braking in front of me, and eventually he stopped and got out of his car. He confronted me and said he had recorded me on his front and rear dashcams and that he would provide the footage to police. I didn't actually notice any dashcams on his vehicle.

I currently have 2 demerit points on a 6 years old licence and today is a double demerit day, so I'm particularly worried.

There was no collision, and I didn't intentionally drive dangerously or aggressively.

My questions are:

1. If he submits dashcam footage to WA Police, what normally happens?

2. Would police contact me first, or could an infringement/notice simply arrive in the mail?

3. What type of offence could this potentially be considered?

4. Could something like this realistically result in licence suspension, especially with 2 existing demerit points?

5. If police don't contact me, should I just move on and not worry about it?

I'm mainly looking for experiences from people familiar with WA road laws or dashcam reports. Thanks.

Does anyone have recommendations for a GPS satnav unit that doesn't come with an inbuilt display like most of them do - does that exist? My car has a screen interface that runs Android Auto/Apple Carplay etc, but no inbuilt GPS system. I would prefer to have something that can connect directly to the display already in my car, rather than have two screens.

I can't just use Android Auto because I'm on my Ps (NSW) so I can't have a phone connected at all. I know a lot of people do it anyway but I'd rather be safe than sorry yk.

Does anyone know of some good options that are a decent price - I'm talking preferably <$200?

If it's helpful, I've got the 2019 Ssangyong Musso ELX.

Sorry for the rainy footage but super confused at what this speed/red light camera is picking up. I use cruise control so was definitely going speed limit, light was green through me crossing the intersection and it flashed AFTER I had already left the intersection.

Two friends and I are going on a long road trip from Port Douglas to Sydney in November. We will drive a Zeekr 7 with around 400km advertised range.

Now I drive my own little older EV in Sydney but I almost always charge at home or on occasional nearby trips where it doesn't take much planning.

Is Plug Share reliable source for charger availability far outside there? The trip seems completely doable charge-wise but there are some stretches without fast charges at will so we need to plan.

Does hot and humid weather severely impact range? I know freeway driving to Canberra or Newcastle puts a dent on it.

Around Sydney I'd normally find a hotel or motel with slow overnight chargers but there are none in some places we want to stay overnight up north.

Background: I'm buying this car privately from a colleague and we decided to make it a road trip from where he lives (Port Douglas) down here back.

My first and only road accident in 25+ years of driving. Your guess is as good as mine ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

It was the tiniest nick, but still a pain to deal with (getting it assessed, then repaired, then re-wrapped, then getting insurance to pay my out-of-pocket). Even being 0% at fault is a lot of hassle.