Road Rules

I did not read all the article - But merging lanes should be straight forward. One of the lanes will have a give way line crossing it, if you have the give way line then the give way rule applies.

Cairns has a lot of LH Merging lanes ending with a Give Way line. I do not see many RH lanes with the give way line but they are out there

I have heard that there is a new merging rule that has just been implemented, and that you must allow vehicles to merge - I am sure someone will look that up for us - I am too lazy at the moment :-)

Cheers Tony

crikey i thought it was the bigger the hat and bull bar won the right of way !!!!!!!!!

There's two merging rules and they differ according to whether you are in a marked lane or not. Same is SA although I reckon half our drivers here wouldn't have a clue about it.

This link explains the two rules.

The rules are;

If you have to cross a line, you have to give way.

If the centre line simply dissapears (for traffic travelling the same direction) the vehicle in front has the "right of way"

I see idiots that drive down freeway on ramps at 50ks and wonder why they can't get onto the freeway when they stop at the end of the ramp!!

onus is on the vehicle entering a freeway enviroment to be at freeway speed and they will find it much easier to merge

There are PLENTY of poeple who think that putting a blinker on is their god given gift to do whatever they want, whatever the circumstance

The main rule around here is a bit 'rubbery.'..
that means if you can lay enough rubber to get AWAY from the other bloke,
u will be ok..........bit hard sometimes when u own a 91 troopy..lol

On the Pacific Highway north coast NSW if a b-double indicates he wants to merge right he does with no argument. If a car wants to do the same he doesn't.
Weird isn't it.
Stan

This whole debate is about tolerance and common sense. All I want to do is keep driving in one piece. If a driver wants to force the issue and break the law by trying to push in front of me I simply let him/her do it. Yes, there is a more than slight rush of testosterone at the moment but I let it ride (pun intended). If everyone took the same approach, realised that they might only be a second/minute or two later to their destination then maybe motoring would far less stressful for those who have to clean up afterwards - ambos. police fireys, EMS staff, etc.

NSWNSW
Scroll down to para 148

VICVIC
Scroll down to para 148

SASA
And again Scroll to para 148


All are the same (straight from the Australian Road Rules )

Ian

in WA it is the vehicle in front , I thought the stanard give way to your right applies but it doesnt

Its my buggest argument against staying left unless overtaking -if you dothat all you do is constantly contend with merging traffick so why would you?

I live in Qld but at the moment I am in Perth and find the lack of 'merging' lines confusing in that at the end of the left lane there is suddenly a great expanse of bitumen 'no mans land'.
One solution bandied around in Perth is to install red lights on the left merging lane. Apparently this system is used in NZ where the light goes on and off to let one car at a time into the right lane. Seems to me this would cause a bigger problem by slowing the traffic flow even more.
As others have said, some common courtesy is the name of the game.

I was under the impression that if I needed to cross a line at merging I had to give way. I find merging manners have improved of late anyway, particularly all
the good people that move to the right lane on dual carriageways, when safe, to
let me enter the left lane. All trucks will do it & most cars. The thing that annoys
me most is the wild array of signals that now happen on roundabouts, plenty
signal right & then go straight through. I suppose you just have to be alert.
....oldbaz.

If any of you guys have traveled across the Grafton Bridge from South to North will know what I'm talking about here.
After exiting a roundabout about 180 meters heading towards the bridge the left lane ends, it has the broke Give Way lines in the road. Most people stay in the right lane to cross over the bridge.A lot and I mean a hell of a lot use it as an opportunity to make up ground on the slow moving right lane and FORCE their way into the right lane.
Mid morning I am heading from south to north, as usual the traffic is at walking pace, I look in the rear view mirror nothing in either lane back to the round about, then a Garbage truck comes screaming up in the right lane, moves to the left lane with only about 50 meters to the merging line and tries to force his way in front of me.
I'm sorry there was no way I was giving way to him as he tries to cross broken lines to pull in front of me. This forces him to stop, which allows other vehicles that had caught up to me to leave him sitting at the end of the lane.
Call me what you will, but I have right of way and 9 time out of 10 I will allow traffic to pull in front of me at this section of road when the road is full.
But to move from one lane to the next to gain a car place in traffic, well, he found himself several car spots behind where he would of been had he sat behind me.
Rant over :)

Enjoy your weekend fellas.