Monday 9 March 2009

Finally the coppers say keep left

I said some time ago that the incessant right lane hogging on the northern Captain Cook Highway was wrong, discourteous and dam-well hazardous.

My story in early January provoked 30 comments, so it is certainly a hot topic.

Now the Cairns Police agree. After receiving a large number of complaints, included those that registered concern here on CairnsBlog, they have changed the way they want motorists to use the two-lane highway.

Although many strictly follow the rule that they don't need to move to the left lane unless they're doing 81 kph or over, Queensland Police have now reinstalled the 'Keep Left Unless Overtaking' signs.

According to the Queensland Road Rules:-
  • When you drive on a two-way road, the basic rule is keep as close as practical to the left. When you drive on a multi-lane road where the speed limit is more than 80 km/h, you must not travel in the far right lane unless you are:
    - overtaking
    - turning right
    - making a U-turn
    - avoiding an obstacle
    - driving in congested traffic.
    You could be fined for driving in the right-hand lane.
Cairns Police have said that the number of complaints from locals has been such that it was important to regulate and monitor the northern highway.

They have also stated that, unless its peak hour when both lanes are occupied, they will fine and award demerit points to those that stay in the right-hand lanes, unless passing. This will apply from the moment you leave the 60kph zone past the airport turn off, and enter the 80 kph zone heading North.

The amount of near-accidents, angry motorists tooting and unsafe left lane passing I've seen over recent month is a real cause for concern.

I'm delighted that they've listened to the community and returned the Keep Left signs that were there over 2 years ago.

Now stay on your side of the bed, okay?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Queensland Police didn't reinstall the signs, Mr. Moore.

Main Roads did.

This was because of a shift in signage guidelines by the now virtually defunct Minister for Roads, Warren "take my son, please" Pitt.

Perhaps the Cairns Post is being provided with details sooner because they consistently are proven more reliable than you? Ya think?

Russ Parker said...

As Unched said Mike, this has nothing to with the coppers. Do you think we run around changing road signage in order to catch someone out so we can write them a ticket? Believe me Mike, the driving habits of the average Cairns driver are such that I wouldn't have to look much further than the end of the street in order to witness any number of ticketable offences!

biggles71 said...

I sincerely doubt that QPS pay any attention to the signs either: at lunchtime today I passed the very same sign that is in the photo at the top of this page - with a QPS custom ute (I recorded the rego - and forwarded some feedback on their website) sitting in the right lane for several k's up the road - all-the-while the left lane was completely clear.

It makes an absolute mockery of the signs being re-installed, as no-one (apart from myself - and a handful of others) takes any notice of them anyway.