Revealed: Tweed's top 10 most confused road rules
CONFUSION on the road is never a good thing and to combat commonly misunderstood road rules, Roads and Maritime Services has released clarifications to the public.
Senior Constable Chris Davis of the Tweed-Byron Traffic and Highway Patrol said he couldn't understand why people found the rules so confusing.
"A lot of them are commonsense," he said.
"People just forget about them, or are absent-minded or just lazy."
He said a particularly hard rule for people to grasp was indicating left to exit a roundabout.
"We pull people up for it and issue fines for it," he said.
"Indicating at round- abouts here is pretty shocking.
"The worst is when people indicate right when they're going straight through a roundabout - that just makes everything confusing."
Mobile phones have always been an issue in the Tweed and Snr Const Davis said people needed to realise driving with the phone in your hand on speaker phone was illegal.
"We're always getting people for phones but we always get more when we're in an unmarked car," he said.
Snr Const Davis said Bluetooth kits were a lot cheaper than the $300-plus fine given to those caught touching their phones not in the cradle.
Another big issue, he said, was drivers not realising they had to give way to pedestrians crossing a street they were driving into, whether it was marked with a pedestrian crossing or not.
"It's not something we see often," he said.
"But it's just the risk factor that's involved and the possibility of a fatality."
People hogging the right lane on a highway or motorway is another issue for Highway Patrol.
"It's a big one. People just sit out on the right on the highway," Snr Const Davis said.
"There's that many people doing it, it's not funny. It should be commonsense - if you're not overtaking, keep left."
He urged people to keep up to date with the latest road rules by visiting the RTA website rta.nsw.gov.au.
They were also encouraged to ask police for information and pay attention to notices in the media.
"People just need to wake up and do the right thing," he said.
Confusion
The top 10 rules that confuse Tweed drivers:
- Roundabouts
- Giving way to pedestrians when turning
- Mobile phones
- Merging
- Keeping left
- Using headlights and fog lights
- U-turns
- Safe following distance
- School zones
- Yellow traffic lights
