Sean Lander is a videographer at CarExpert. He’s additionally very, very annoyed.

Be a part of me, if you’ll, for a second of creativeness. You’re driving down a rustic highway, and the signposted velocity restrict is 100km/h.

Your cruise management and speedometer are studying 100km/h and all is nicely. You’re taking within the sights, having fun with our large brown land when out of the blue, you come up behind some plonker doing 90km/h. 

“That’s fantastic” you assume to your self. “An overtaking alternative will seem shortly”, and you compromise in for a couple of minutes of laboured driving. Out of the blue, the plonker begins pulling away from you.

“Nice, they realised they had been going slowly” you assume, and also you cruise again to 100km/h.

Your cruise management takes over once more and life is nice. However the offending automotive retains pulling away. You frown, however flip consideration again to your podcast (the brand new CarExpert podcast? – Ed.).

Earlier than it, the plonker is again to their outdated habits and also you’re again all the way down to 90km/h.

This goes on, repeating like some bizarre glitch within the Matrix, till lastly you come throughout a damaged line and go away them behind.

That is with out query probably the most irritating factor that may occur if you’re protecting an enormous distance. Neglect individuals not indicating or tailgating, this takes the cake.

It’s much more irritating on a multi-lane freeway.

Whereas it’s infuriating having to consistently regulate your velocity, this observe does spotlight an enormous drawback. Inattention.

There’s little doubt this happens everywhere in the world, however right here in Victoria it appears extra prevalent than wherever else in Australia.

Victorians and automobile velocity have an fascinating relationship. I grew up in New South Wales, which had – by comparability – a extra relaxed stance on dashing. Victorians dwell below an iron thumb of anti-speeding tyranny.

Only a breath over the velocity restrict will web you some extent in your licence and some hundred {dollars} in fines.

Earlier than you say it, in a faculty zone any velocity is harmful, so sticking to 40km/h is a should. However if you’re doing 100km/h on a freeway and also you coast down a hill, getting booked for 104km/h is a bit insane.

Due to this, Victorians spend most of their lives below the velocity restrict. Nonetheless, complacency appears to be taking maintain.

Travelling all over the place extra slowly than essential, drivers are spending extra time taking a look at their telephones, adjusting their Spotify playlist or, as I witnessed the opposite day, consuming their cereal behind the wheel.

Mirrors are uncared for, as are highway indicators and different automobiles. Drivers usually assume they’ve a divine proper to be within the quick lane at a velocity they deem ample. If that’s lower than the signposted restrict, too unhealthy for the automotive behind.

Then for no logical purpose, they hit the NOS button and rocket away. Whether or not they realise they had been holding up visitors or simply had a burst of vitality, this can be a common sight.

I’m not suggesting there be jail time for the offence, however it ought to include some consequence. The difficulty isn’t even about annoying everybody caught behind the plonker, the difficulty is way broader. 

Vehicles are two-tonne bullets, but individuals don’t respect that reality. 

Rushing shouldn’t be the primary precedence of enforcement companies. Driver attentiveness must be.

On the very least, if everybody used their cruise management and maintained a continuing velocity, we might decrease the carbon footprint of automobiles. And that’s good for everybody.