Over the weekend I was flipping through a recent issue of Wheels magazine. It included an article VXR8 - HSVs to Blighty by Peter Robinson, in which some British motoring journos visit Australia to test drive the Holden (Vauxhall) VXR8.
In among the reviews of the car itself, this social commentary is found:
On the 90km drive to the Holden proving ground the Brits can't believe the sense of space, that there seem to be far fewer new cars than in the UK, or how comparatively little traffic exists outside suburban Melbourne. Which makes our snail's pace and dutiful obeyance of the speed limits all the more difficult to explain.
What's to explain? A 100km/h speed limit is not a "snail's pace" and "dutiful obeyance" is what road rules are for. Duh.
"Australians drive the way my father does: slowly," exclaims Car's Ben Barry.
And this is a problem, how?
"I'm amazed you're so compliant with it," says Chris Russon of the Trinity Mirror Group.
I'm amazed he's amazed that people might actually follow the road rules.
"I'm surprised by Australia's draconian approach to speeding," says Sam Hardy of Auto Express. "It goes against the country's laidback attitude to everything else.
Well, pardon me if I'm not "laidback" about dying or being permanently disabled in a high-speed collision.
That said, it seems to work with the vast majority of people adhering to speed limits (if not lane discipline) and most of them driving well. Makes a nice change from the stress of London traffic."
I fail to see why paying attention to the speed limit should be made to sound like a bad thing…
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Sigh. Drivers. After a couple of near misses on the weekend and one this morning I'm starting to wonder whether I don't need to travel armed.
Funny comments coming from the Brits, you'd think with all the cameras they have there that they wouldn't be able to get away with much speeding.
I wonder if there are a lot of "dummy" speed cameras in the UK? And as this appears to be well known, drivers probably just take a chance and ignore them…