Recently Alphington Grammar School was in the news because people have petitioned for the gates to be left open since Alphington Grammar School has built access over Old Heidelberg Road. I wondering if Alphington Grammar School was closed off from the Darebin Creek Trail and it certainly looks like it is with quite a high fence.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Practical driving test videos with a synchronised map of the route.
I don't know about you, but I was very nervous for my practical driving test many years ago. In hindsight, when the driving instructor was telling me where I was driving was possibly part of the actual practical driving test route, I really had no idea what he meant. With dashcams it's now possible for drivers and instructors to share actual video footage of the practical driving test and I feel, those videos can take away some of the mystery of the practical driving test.
In addition I find many older people like myself don't realise the road rules have evolved over the years and watching people take their practical driving test can often show things we don't know or could do better. For example, I find older people (including myself) think when you turn from one road (say from single lane or slip lane) into a road with multiple lanes we have to stick to the left lane and then move across to the right lane when it's safe to do so. This often means the car behind you cuts you off trying to go around you. Knowing that I can go into either lane makes for safer driving for me and knowing the rules takes some of the stress out of driving. Even for more experienced drivers checking out practical driving test videos can teach them a thing or two.
The practical driving test videos can all be found on YouTube but the problem I've found is to find them. There's a lot of videos and many are just people trying to get you to watch their video. The aim of the Practical Driving Test site is to link directly to real people doing the actual practical driving test. This is good for the creator of the video too as they get all the credit for the video including any potential revenue or subscribers the video may generate.
The one thing I found from watching the videos on YouTube is I wanted to be able to see the actual route taken for the practical driving test. Just driving along turning right and left doesn't really give me the context of where the drive was located or where the person drove. For that reason I've created a map of each drive which shows the route and the route is synchronised with the video. Using the map it's possible to click on a location on the map and start watching the practical driving test video from that point in the video.
I hope others find watching practical driving test videos as interesting as I do.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.PracticalDrivingTest.com.au
www.PracticalDrivingTest.com.au
Sunday, May 08, 2022
How to safely navigate a roundabout VicRoads video.
There is no doubt to me that some roundabouts are poorly placed. To me if the traffic level is appropriate a roundabout can aid the flow of the traffic, but once the traffic level gets too great, you get people racing to get through that take risks, not giving way when they should.
How to safely navigate a roundabout - YouTube
The above VicRoads video I thought was quite reasonable, however there's one thing that's not made clear, or the cars are acting contrary to what they're advising.
The statement is, "Unless you're travelling straight through you should indicate left when you leave the roundabout to let others know what you're doing - just like you would when you left turn on any road".
In the video you'll see cars travelling straight through in all directions and some indicate and some don't.
What's also weird is three of the four entry points into the roundabout have arrows, but the left to right entry point has no arrows. Having no arrows is a disaster waiting to happen as the car in left hand lane could turn right and the car in the right hand lane could go straight ahead.
Back to the main point in the video. It isn't explained why some cars going straight ahead are indicating left to exit the roundabout yet we're told "unless you're travelling straight through you should indicate left" which implies if you are travelling straight ahead you don't need to indicate.
According to the following link which I believe is for Victoria's road rules, people should indicate if it's practical, but what one person considers practical another may not.
Reviewing the above video we see the following cars going straight through the intersection.
0:29 Yellow truck, indicates, going left to right
0:32 Yellow motorbike, indicates, going right to left
0:38 Red truck, doesn't indicate, going top to bottom
0:42 Green car, indicates, going left to right, yellow car, doesn't indicate, going right to left
0:49 Green car, indicates, going left to right
0:56 Red car, doesn't indicate, going right to left
0:59 Blue car, doesn't indicate, going bottom to top, green car, indicates going left to right
The only pattern I can see if if the car is entering the roundabout and there's no arrows indicating direction, then the if the car is going straight ahead, the car indicates left to exit. For cars going straight across if there's arrows they may or may not indicate. It's just a pattern. It doesn't mean it's right.
In general I feel I indicate correctly when exiting a roundabout, but trying to indicate left to exist when going straight across is difficult as you can't indicate too early otherwise cars on your left waiting to enter the roundabout may think you're turning left at the first exit. So by the time you reach the cars waiting on the left and then indicate to exit left when going straight ahead you're giving almost no advance warning to anyone. Just perhaps a single cycle of the indicator which could be easy to miss. Having said that, I still attempt to indicate to exit if possible.
Kelvin Eldridge
Friday, May 06, 2022
Ben O'Shea from Perth Now spotted mobile speed camera 50m before 100km/h speed sign on Mitchell Freeway onramp.
I found Ben O'Shea's article in Perth Now interesting as Ben saw a mobile speed camera set up about 50m before the speed limit sign on a Mitchell Freeway onramp. Unfortunately I don't know which onramp which would have been good to know.
I was under the understanding the guidelines in Victoria stated mobile speed cameras shouldn't be set up within 200m of a change of speed limit sign and thought the same may apply across Australia.
However there's two things to note here. First, there's the law and there's guidelines. If I'm correct, basically the law states we can't exceed the speed limit and that's all we can rely on if we went to court. You're at the mercy of the court and I wouldn't be too confident. I did have a parking fine dismissed before getting to court for the third time because the distance between signs didn't meet the Australian Standard, but that's only because the Whitehorse Council withdrew the fine (after nearly two years).
When we see a speed sign ahead we all speed up. Strictly speaking we'll often be breaking the law and if you do that you can expect to get fined. It's weird how you can't be at the speed limit when you're speeding up approaching the sign but you have to be at the speed limit when slowing down approaching a sign. Although what is reasonable to some would be taken advantage of by others. Some people would speed up just as they approach the sign and others would speed up hundreds of metres before the sign.
More and more the government is tightening down and things we used to do (or still do now) can potentially end up getting us a fine. Remember the good old days when you'd use the momentum of the hill going down to help you go up. Environmentally friendly but now we have to brake continuously to make sure we don't exceed the speed limit and accelerate as the hill rises again, only to have slowed even further due to gravity and friction before the acceleration kicks in. It really is all very petty but that's the way it is.
You know the law and whilst you may not be happy with some of the laws, stick to the laws and stop donating to the government's coffers. Ultimately it's your choice.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au
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