Page 939 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 17 June 1992
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MR STEVENSON (12.08): Mr Westende's amendment Bill highlights a clear problem of people not keeping to the left-hand side of the road. When you look at whether or not it is a safety aspect, it actually is.
Mr Berry: What if they all will not fit there? What if there are too many on the road to be in the left lane?
MR STEVENSON: It actually is a safety matter as well. As Mr Moore mentioned yesterday, whenever they wanted to get anything through the school board they linked in the word "safety". Mr Connolly says that there is no safety factor. But what inevitably happens when people cannot move through in the right-hand lane is that they start swerving in and out. It is a common practice, and we certainly cannot deny that.
I think the idea of signage is, unfortunately, not all that workable. There are signs in many places, all over Australia, and they tend not to be agreed with. Most people do not have the general idea. They think that if they are driving along within a lane that is perfectly acceptable. I think Mr Connolly raised a very good point when he talked about the educative process. I personally agree with education instead of legislation, or certainly education before legislation. So that is a good point. I think that probably would do it over a period of time; not just through signage. There has to be a public campaign, letting people know why it is useful to move over to the left.
As for the suggestion that everybody would have to stay in the left-hand lane, that really is not a problem. We need to get past people who are doing slower speeds. It is safer for them. Sometimes when I drive I drive well under the speed limit, because I am listening to tapes.
Mr Connolly: But it is the old Valiant, Dennis.
MR STEVENSON: Any time you want to get down on the track with your new Ford and my old Valiant, I would be happy. Sometimes I am perfectly happy to putter along under the speed limit because I am listening to tapes. At that time I am very concerned about getting over to the left-hand lane. Sometimes I will pull off a one-lane road and get over into the gutter to let someone pass rather than have them sit on my tail or rather than hold up traffic. I am really quite concerned about this area.
Equally, when I am driving in the right-hand lane on the speed limit and someone is 20 kilometres or whatever below the speed limit, I find it quite annoying. It really is an impractical situation. I have thought about it for a long time. I have spoken to a number of people about it and many people believe that something should be done about it. I do agree with the principle of education instead of legislation, so I am in a bit of a quandary here. I know that people want something done about it, but - - -
Mr Connolly: We have never had the signs in Canberra.
MR STEVENSON: Right; I wondered. I have seen them in other places. I have been driving behind someone as they go past the sign "keep left unless overtaking", and I have usually flicked the lights on rather than sound the horn. So, as I said, I think there is a problem here as to whether or not we legislate, or whether or not Mr Connolly takes it on board to introduce an educative program.
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