Canberra drivers

This is a generalisation.

I’m not sure whether Canberra motorists are generally very polite or inexperienced or just happy to operate at a slower pace than I’ve experienced outside Canberra. It’s quaint, though a touch annoying. Let me provide a few experiences.

I doubt there would be too many instances in other cities, when approaching a set of traffic lights if there happen to be two or more lanes and more than one car waiting at a red light, that you’d find a free lane. I find it quite amazing, sort of quaint, when approaching a red traffic light here in Canberra to see three or more cars stopped and waiting for the light to change to green, to see every car queued in the left lane. In most cities I’ve been in, if one of the lanes is free that’s where the second car positions itself. Depending upon how pressed I am for time, when approaching traffic lights I try to assess who’s parked where, trying to spot the slow vehicles from the faster ones and pull up in the lane that is likely to get away quickest. Perhaps it’s a Canberra thing, with fewer people in a rush, and I must say I’ve slowed down mostly, and I too keep to the left leaving the right lane free for anyone who wants to speed away. You could just call it a level of courtesy that you don’t see much nowadays. Of course, you can get around Canberra so quickly; there just aren’t the traffic snarls of the bigger cities.

Though, this sheepishness gets annoying at times. I have been spending some time driving slowly around the Canberra suburbs, looking at the properties as I go. This is on the side streets that are off the main roads, of course. I’ve been driving at perhaps no more than 15 or 20 km/hr at times. You can’t drive much faster than that if you want to have a look at properties as you go. So, when I do this, if I spot a car coming up behind me I move over and drive well to the left, as close to the kerb as possible to allow other road users who might come up behind me get by without trouble. And some do overtake me. Isn’t that what you’d expect? Very few drivers overtake without hesitation. But my experience is that the majority of Canberra motorists slow down and drive behind me. This is crazy. Why don’t the shoot past me too. I have to admit that a few of the roads in the Canberra suburbs are narrow, being little more than a car width, and in those circumstances I pull over and stop. But some streets are so wide they could have lanes painted on the road, and still the cars line up behind me as I dawdle along the road despite me being close enough to the kerb that I could almost be parked. Do they forget that they can overtake me on the opposite side of the road?