Opinion: Speeding is bad, but breaking this road rule can be worse

While everyone knows to keep left unless overtaking, many Aussie drivers are confused about how to adhere to it.

Every time there’s a road accident bad enough to make the news, it's usually stated that “speed was a factor”.

While excessive speeding and general dangerous driving are never encouraged, driving well under the speed limit, not knowing how to corner or brake, neglecting vehicle maintenance, and keeping right when not overtaking are just as dangerous.

In several instances, arguably more so. In fact, “keep left unless overtaking” is the most under-enforced, yet still illegal move so many drivers make on the road today. Speed is one facet of a much larger problem: poor, lazy, or just plain bad driving. 

To be fair, it’s an understandable mistake to make. You’ve been weaned onto a diet of “speeding is the worst thing you can do on the road”, so overtaking someone doing 79km/h in an 80km/h zone by pushing your own speed a bit faster than the limit seems unthinkable.

The thing is, sometimes going faster than the posted limit is actually the safest thing you can possibly do. By overtaking quickly and efficiently, you’re minimising the risks, keeping the flow of traffic as uncongested as possible, and generally making every road user’s time on the roads less arduous. 

And we’re not suggesting you overtake somebody doing 70km/h at 200+km/h here. Just at a pace that minimises your time in the right lane as a courtesy to other drivers.

After all, 'keep left unless overtaking' is also a law, albeit a woefully ignored one. It’s right there on the signs and in the handbook. It’s not the fast lane, it’s not for sitting in and cruising, it’s for overtaking. Nothing more or less.

When the speed limit is 80km/h or above, any two-lane (in one direction) road becomes a driving lane and an overtaking lane combo. Take a look at all the reasons right-lane camping is bad in this video (it’s American, so swap left lane for right lane).

This is the argument used by right-lane campers. They stick to the speed limit and so often overtake incrementally. And yep, speed limits in general should absolutely be adhered to.

But occasionally, doing so is not the safest course of action. And sometimes, the posted limit is downright laughable for the road conditions.

But we’re not taught to drive to the conditions here in Australia; we’re taught to drive to the speed limit. The fact that you’re in a high-powered AWD car with great tyres, great brakes and great suspension is irrelevant. They have to make the speed limits for the slowest and least safest vehicles, right? 

Well, as it turns out, not really. Take this US study, which considered over 5000 crashes resulting in injury between 2005 and 2007. “Driving too fast for the events” was seen as a cause of the accident less than 5 per cent of the time.

The road rule applies on all roads with a signposted speed limit above 80km/h.

The two main causes were not paying attention to the road or “internal distraction”, with the rest made up of driver error, inability, or things such as falling asleep at the wheel. 

There’s also this study, which draws the correlation between lowering speed limits not affecting safety (or the actual speed of drivers) and the amount of traffic tickets being issued going up significantly. 

Or this argument that advocates (quite persuasively) for a tiered licensing system. You see, it’s not just about speed; it’s about driving safely, which people and vehicles have proven capable of doing at speeds above the posted limit. 

So, what’s a conscientious Aussie driver to do? Do we overtake at a glacial pace while keeping to the letter of the law and increase congestion (and danger to ourselves and other motorists), or do we overtake efficiently and safely and risk copping the speeding fine?

Either option means you’re likely breaking the law, particularly if the vehicle travelling in the left lane speeds up a bit. It’s just that one of the options has a lot more merit when you look at the issue from the bigger picture.  

Maybe we should demand more from our lawmakers? Maybe the focus should be shifted from us breaking the law to the law itself being broken? Regardless, please keep left unless overtaking. Everyone else thanks you. 

In the past 15 years as an automotive journo and 35-plus years of inveterate car-guy antics, Dex has worked across numerous titles and has even occupied the occasional editor’s chair when nobody was watching. He spends his downtime doing engine swaps (plural) on the nature strip out front and also once ripped a handbrake spin into a perfect car park. His parents remain indifferent.

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