And yet there is plenty of advice around telling those towing NOT to attempt to pull over, particularly to let road trains overtake. Slowing to a speed safe enough to pull off the road actually causes traffic to slow more, and has been the cause of more than one accident and fatality. Better to keep going and when the truck pulls out to overtake, then slow down.
Look, I get as cranky as the next bloke, usually more-so, but I need to realise it's MY problem, not the other guys in more cases than not. Even unloaded on a multi-lane freeway people get the shirts because their cruise control is set to 110KPH and so is the other guy's, but one will always tend to creep up on the other. If one guy is using his speedo, the other GPS, there's another 5kph difference.
I'm old enough to remember when the Pacific Highway from Newcastle to Tweed was single lane the whole way, mostly no LH fog lines, ARMCO was a new thing, headlights were like dim candles, and there were bends sharp enough that some semi's had to stop and have two goes at negotiating. Dad smoked in the car, all trucks belched diesel, no-one had aircon except white-socked real-estate agents in LE Monaros, and we often bounced around on hot vinyl seats without a seatbelt let alone a dedicated child restraint. Lots of us died.... Yet I don't recall anywhere near the amount of 'road-rage' we see today even though road conditions are considerably better.
So-called professional drivers are no better than the average either in my opinion. Only a fortnight ago I saw a rigid-bed truck, with all the "We Value Safe Driving" stickers all over it, absolutely riding the rear bumper of a young female L-plater sitting quite legally at or near the L-plater speed limit. Seriously??? What message does that send? What if it were your daughter on her first outing onto public roads? "Professional" simply means you get paid to do it, not that you are necessarily any good at it.
I've heard V8 Supercar drivers complain about other drivers saying they are too slow and holding up proceedings? Really? Surely everyone is too slow except for the winner?
How many of us get cranky having to slow down a bit when we come up behind a loaded semi on a hill? Not many I'd guess. So why is that any different to when we come up behind a guy towing a heavy van going a bit slower than we'd like?
I guess what I'm getting at is that the biggest single factor in all this is ATTITUDE. Not road conditions, available power, skills, age, professional or amateur. These roads are in the public domain and so even if you use them to make a living, no-one has more or less right to them than the next bloke (except of course that Victorians in white commodores and
all QLDers should be banned from using public roads during daylight hours...............
goes without saying).
