NRMA Motoring Blog

The road rules govern the interaction of pedestrians and motorists. While they are there to make the roads safe for all road users, they will always be the topic of debate.

The rules are put under even more scrutiny when a new rule is made or an old rule is amended to respond to the changing nature of vehicles, technology and the road itself.

But imagine, for a moment, that you are in charge. You can roll out the rules you want and scratch those that you don’t. Now is your chance to alleviate your frustration, get where you’re going on time and improve traffic flow.

It’s your road, so you make the rules.

If you were given the job of designing a road and the road rules that go with it, what rules would you make? What rules would you keep and which would you discard?

An NRMA Safer Driving School survey has revealed that supervisors – parents, friends or relatives – need to do more preparation before teaching learners to drive.

A survey of 413 supervisors has revealed that only 52 per cent read the RTA learners’ kit and only 37 per cent read the road rules before supervising a learner driver.

NRMA Group CEO Tony Stuart said supervisors should prepare for teaching just as much as learner drivers should prepare for learning.

“Learner drivers need to be taught properly from the start otherwise they may develop bad habits,” Mr Stuart said.

The survey also revealed that just over half of supervisors (51 per cent), thought their experience teaching a learner driver could have been better. They said relationships could be strained by the experience.

Mr Stuart said supervisors who want to have a better driving experience with their learners should take advantage of a keys2drive session. Keys2drive is a free driving session that seats the supervisor and learner in a car with an accredited instructor.

“A free keys2drive lesson provides supervisors with a practical coaching approach they can use with their learner and focuses on teaching young drivers to reflect on what they are doing behind the wheel.”

Supervised learner drivers are some of the safest drivers on the road. But P1 drivers are among the most unsafe – about four times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than a driver aged 26 or older.

Are parents good driving teachers? Do you read up on the road rules before supervising a learner?

Due to the recent poor weather, we’ve seen an increase in the number of near misses at pedestrian crossings, with pedestrians rushing to get across the road when raining and poor visibility for vehicles.

Of course, anybody who has been on the road recently will have noticed this being a regular occurrence at pedestrian, or ‘zebra’, crossings everywhere, irrespective of the weather. Nor are near misses always the result of a pedestrian rushing across the road without looking or because a car has failed to slow down.

Rule 81 of Road Rules 2008 states: A driver approaching a pedestrian crossing must drive at a speed at which the driver can, if necessary, stop safely before the crossing. Part 2 of this rule is that a driver must give way to any pedestrian on a pedestrian crossing.

Rule 81 also states that a crossing is an area of the road with white stripes on the surface and marked with a pedestrian crossing sign. All extra signage and road-markings at pedestrian crossings are safety features not required by law.

Should the onus be on drivers to take more care at zebra crossings or should pedestrians be more vigilant? Does more need to be done to indicate to motorists that there is a crossing ahead?