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?

On Monday April 12, motorists were stuck in gridlock on the F3 Freeway after a crash involving a B-double fuel tanker at Mount White.

The crash occurred just before lunch time, however, a contra-flow emergency plan was not put in place until late in the evening. Traffic was backed up for a significant distance during the evening peak hour.

NRMA Motoring & Services President Wendy Machin said the RTA’s traffic management plan for dealing with incidents on the F3 needs a major overhaul.

The NRMA’s analysis of the F3 traffic management plan has found:

The RTA’s traffic management plan was also supposed to enable the RTA and State emergency services to quickly distribute bottled water to stranded motorists.

“Instead, NRMA patrols on the freeway encountered many distressed motorists and provided bottled water of their own accord,” Ms Machin said.

According to the RTA website, the F3 Freeway is the main link between the Central Coast and Hunter regions and Sydney, with more than 75,000 motorists and 7000 freight vehicles using it each day.

What needs to be done to avoid extended delays on our roads? Were you stuck on the F3?