Here's a new game you can play on the freeway – all you need is Cruise Control.
Simply drive onto the freeway of your choice in Perth (outside of peak hours), and if traffic is flowing well then speed up to the sign posted limit, put on the Cruise Control to maintain that speed and drive with awareness.
On any Perth freeway I'll bet you won't go a meagre 30 seconds doing the proper speed limit before you have to tap the brakes – not unless you're driving at 3 o'clock in the morning. And that applies to any lane – from the slow left hand to the cruisy middle to what's supposed to be the overtaking right lane.
The state government – whether headed by the left or right – has spent millions of taxpayer bucks over the years to improve Perth's roads and reduce congestion. New lanes, interchanges, angled on ramps, merging zones etc, etc.
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They can spout whatever figures they like about improved travel times. From what I can see and feel, all of that adds up to exactly jack squat when you actually drive on Perth's freeways.
That's because even when traffic is flowing like a four-year-old's sinuses, barely anyone does the speed limit.
Call me old fashioned, but when the speed limit is 100, I like to do 100.
Not 98. Not 90. Not freaking 80. But 100. Seems I'm in the minority...
The left lane is a limbo of slack-jawed yokels who may as well have horses and carts. In the middle lanes there's always some daydreamer loping along at 90, which forces you to move into the right lane to overtake, where you'll get tailgated by some gear head in a Jeep (it's always Jeeps, or white Land Rovers) wanting to do 140, and when you move back to the middle lane they scream past and tailgate the slow poke up ahead doing 95 and holding the right lane to ransom.
You can be coasting along at a decent clip and then have to slam on the brakes because people merging onto the freeway think 80 is really good speed to thread at, despite the on-ramp being specifically built at a downward angle to help them speed up to the proper freeway pace of 100 with the help of this magical thing called gravity.
Or, approaching any off-ramp, the fool in front of you suddenly remembers that's where they need to get off and they slow down to cross over every lane of traffic down so they can exit, leaving behind a swathe of pissed off commuters.
When I can actually do the limit I feel like I'm a hoon, passing cars as though I'm doing 160, till I look at the speedo and see that it's locked on 100. And then ten seconds later I'm tapping the brakes...
Now some people get a pass here. There are legitimate reasons people drive slower than the posted limit, whether it's physical or mechanical, even emotional. No worries. All the best to you.
But I see red when I pass by a brand new Mercedes doing 80 on the Mitchell when I know for a fact the 40-year-old behind the wheel arguing with 882 6PR could put their foot down and unleash horsepower that would comfortably lock them to the limit.
Going slow is dangerous. It gums up the roads. It makes people frustrated, forces them to change lanes, to weave in and out of traffic.
Above all, it's just a dick move. Especially if you are going slow in the right hand lane. There is a special circle of hell reserved for those people, where they have to endlessly queue up behind old ladies at a run down K Mart counting out pennies in slow motion at the tills.
The eternal question for Perth's freeways is how do we get them to flow better? Call me crazy, but doing the bloody speed limit (when possible) would be a nice start.
What do you reckon?
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