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Today was an awfully weird day, on the freeway going to uni there was a girl that was trying to get in front of me, i was going the PSL and she nearly hit me if i didn't brake and she didnt pull out at the last minute, that could've ended badly.

Then as i got off the freeway and onto the street, i was signalling and wanting to change to the right lane, at first when i checked there weren't any cars anywhere near close then as i was changing lane i suddenly see this speeding purple ford coming right up i was like WWTTFFFF!!! and luckily i pulled away. He braked as well but that was another accident waiting to happen. Bloody speeders.

Then going back home from uni, this is another wtf moment except it didn't really affect me. There was a holden in the turning right lane to get onto the freeway ramp and there was a ute (i believe its called a pickup truck over in the states) in the lane going straight. The holden instead goes straight and the ute turns right when they're both in the wrong lane. I was thinking that was really weird.

But on a lighter note, my tank this time seems to be going really well maybe i'll hit 5L / 100km, here's hoping!

Thats quite a few close calls in one day! Well done on the FE though, despite everyone elses best efforts to ruin it for you.

ollie

Hi Seraph:

___Everyone must have been running late yesterday in your locale :( Glad to hear that tank is doing as well as it is too :)

___What is your average price for a liter of petrol in Perth nowadays anyway?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Glad no one was hurt! I bet the other drove away angry that they had to slow down, instead of glad they weren't smashed.

Does anybody really care about the Price of Petrol in Perth? I thought it was Peanuts? :)

Hi Nevyn:

___I am sure those living in Perth do :D

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Hi all. Just did a quick search and found this:http://www.fuelwatch.wa.gov.au/
That puts it at about AU$4.60 per US gal!

ollie

Yeah its pretty expensive over here relative to the states, we have a 59c (i think its around there 50 - 59c) fuel excise tax or something like that. Do you guys get subsidies for your fuel?

PS I love that fuel watch site, nice to know when the low petrol prices are. Though i've heard quite a bit of critique since it does lock in petrol prices for the whole day.

IIRC in Ireland the tax rates on diesel is about 56% and on unleaded it is about 70%.
Diesel is currently running at: http://www.pumps.ie/
It's a good thing i fill up every 3 to 4 weeks!!
(Sorry, i've gone off topic!)
Re: the wrong lane thing. It happens quite a bit here. I think it's due to a few things:
# Driver inattention (Lack of familiarity also falls within this)
# Poor signposting
# Poor road markings

The last one is a big problem. Apart from geographical restraints, i see no reason why most big junctions, overpasses, sliproads, roundabouts etc can't be the same.
I see it all the time and it happens me too when i go somewhere i have never been before. Between the poor positioning of signs and poor road markings, i end up looking like a doddery old fool in the middle of the road!
Most road markings i see are either worn away or you can't see them as they are covered in traffic. You have to know where you are going for it to work. Which doesn't make sense at all. Ah well......


ollie

Poor signs and lights can kill, imho.

Just little things could help. For example, whenever we're driving in an unfamiliar area, looking for our destination, it takes an inordinate amount of time looking everywhere but where you're going, trying to sort out what 100 block you're on, what's the name of that upcoming cross-street, and so on. Big bright signs suspended front-and-center and a bit in advance at all major cross-streets, id'ing the number of block and name of cross-street would be a big help.

And there are some poor designs: ambigious (or dead wrong) lane use explanations. Or poor planning: stretches where almost everyone has to change lanes, some going left, some going right, and in only a short stretch, before they get cut-off.

There's one traffic light in our metropolis I've encountered, on a side street into a major throughfare: it's angled just a bit too far, so that you can see the light for the other direction. I just about got sucked in by it once, when on the side street: thought I had a green light, when in fact it was for the main throughfare. Another time, when I was going through on the main throughfare, someone on that side street did get sucked in: pulled out right in front of me, and towing a boat on a trailer. I stood on the brakes and all was good, but...

Mendel call that misaligned light in to your city coordinators until they fix it, that's seriously messed up. I've never seen that before. Our if I did I probably just stopped when I should have go-ed or vice versa. - Dale

I might have, can't recollect. Good point.

Another one I just heard about: apparently somewhere in Ontario some highway construction crew super-elevated (banked) a cloverleaf turn the wrong way: you're whipping around this circular curve, leaning towards oblivion. It's probably remedied by now, but that got my funny bone ;)