good manners on the road.

It's been around for years but seldom used these days.

Must have been a young cop. Maybe a later generation who know nothing about Oz. Like the two twits onMillion Hot seat tonight. They did not know the emu plume in the hat belonged to the Light Horse.

Yes It would be good to see it used again.

G'day Pete,

Strangely I was just discussing this with my workmate at dinner tonight.
I drive the Newell Melbourne to Brisbane & the Western Hwy, Melbourne to Adelaide many times each year & the standard of driving on the Newell far exceeds that of the Western Hwy.

I drove to Adelaide on the Western Hwy from Melb last weekend & as usual found some of the car & truck drivers road manners atrocious. I must say I rarely find the same lack of road manners when driving the Newell. Like you I find the Truckies very accommodating when overtaking on my way to Brisbane.

Cheers
Stu

I drive a naturally aspirated Troopy.
Never get to overtake anyone! LOL

Hi, THe cook is from Sweden & this is a common thing. Translated to Aust a left blink shows the road clear ahead. Not left on too long as that means a left turn. Trouble is that I have seen right blink used to show that it is clear to pass & been abused for not passing when for all I knew he was turning right.
If left blink used Swedish drivers say thank you with left, right, left, blink. Might be useful here to promote more courtesy on the roads. Bill

Yonks ago it was the right blinker 2 times to indicate it was safe to pass.

I remember it well as it always seemed to me that the left should have been flashed, as in "I'm pulling over so pass me".

Paul

I am not sure where this happened. I have a feeling it was on the Hume (of all places) and finished at Gundagai. Like Pete said - getting a little older.

A car started following us after we had slowly overtaken it and nodded my head as we went by as our eyes met. Not planned - it just happened. It stuck behind about 8 car lengths back and when he turned off at a service station he gave a wave and a couple of short flashes of the headlights after I waved with the blinkers as he was slowing down. Just to see if he was running with us. He was actually travelling WITH us. Excellent.

This courtesy can be nice but it is also a legal and moral minefield.
I remember just the other side of Tamwroth, heading North with a mate, a track carrying half a house at about 30-40km/h flicked his indicators just before the crest of a hill. Driver's arm came out the window, finger pointed, and I made eye contact with him in the mirror, you bewdy, I thought, he can see ahead and I can pass...

wrong

I will never forget he whites of the eyes of the car (a 1970s Toyota Crown) coming the other way as I squeezed between him and the truck mid-overtake

The truck was turning right

That was 20 years ago and one of the biggest lessons of my life

Yep since then - and encouraged by a few police mates etc - I take 100 percent responsibiity for my own overtaking/cornering/merging etc 100 percent of the time I NEVER rely on indicators, hand waves, radio contact (for instance when in convoy) or a passenger saying 'yeah, nothing coming'....

we were heading to brissy, from albury, two car convoy.
hand held uhfs.
we were behind a semi, i called him up as i kind of know the lingo.........
we wanted to get the all clear, next thing the semi pulls out, and tries to overtake the semi infront. didnt know of the other.
HOLY CRAP...... he got back in and i never tried doing that again.

misunderstanding is soo easy, he could have been driving 8hrs, and missread my message, or understand it.

we do use the uhfs in convoy to overtake though, yup a car could come off a side road, but we use it on the dirt mostly, try and keep the speed up, or dust, rocks down when passing.

Yep have to agree it is a practice that could work, but with no 'rules' as such, it is fraught with danger.

If I come out of a corner to a nice straight clear stretch of road, and there is a car behind wanting to overtake, I have generally thought it ok to give 2 blinks on the right to let them know it's safe to stick their nose out and have a look.

Pity a system can't be established . . . normal daylight isn't too bad to rely on good ol' drivers vision, but have you ever been stuck behind a truck doing 80 on the blacktop in light to moderate rain ?
The road spray is absolutely impossible to see through, even if all vehicles are sensible and have their headlights on.

I have used, and seen others using, indicators at night too, as a warning for roos.
One left or right blink to warn a car behind where the animal is.
At night I expect this might be less of a danger, because it is generally far easier overtaking at night.

i would never reccomend using indicators other than that of what your doing.
and the usual truck flashing you "in the clear"

too many different meanings, some think roos, ok to pass and so on.

this is the unknown language, does the other driver know what you mean.
are they thinking straight? do they have the power to overtake?, and have some in reserve in an emergency, to really get moving.

i dont, i just wait it out, yup sometimes we all lose it about the time thing, soo much in a hurry but what is 5mins, or half an hour to the average lifespan 80?
wait untill it is safe to overtake.
they catch you at the next town anyway, or traffic lights.