It’s a good idea to avoid the highways during holidays, but not always possible.
As our kids get older we inevitably plan to take holidays at the same time they do. That involves facing heavy traffic on the roads.
My tips for avoiding traffic stress are:
1) Leave early. Hit the road before 7am.
2) Share the driving. Swap drivers every four hours.
3) Plan your stops and avoid unscheduled pullovers.
4) Don’t get agitated.
Going to Esperance we stop at either Norseman or Salmon Gums, but not both. Going to Perth we stop at Merredin or Tammin.
If the traffic is slow or you get stuck behind a road train it’s better to be patient and wait for a decent opportunity to pass.
As a young driver I was pretty reckless. I remember speeding for the sake of it, overtaking inappropriately and worse. I think that’s true of most young males and we can simply count our blessings if we survive from 18-25 without a serious accident.
×0
I remember one night while I was in Elanora that I witnessed something comical, but also very frightening. A car approached the roundabout I was walking near and proceeded to careen around it several times, nearly losing control of his car and flipping it. (It was late at night and there was very little traffic.) I was awfully close too. I worried for my own and the driver’s safety, but I chuckled at his arrogance as well.
The next day my friend and I saw another car at the same roundabout stuck to a utility pole (is that what you call them there?). Apparently, he too had taken the roundabout too fast, and he wasn’t so lucky. Fortunately, I saw that nobody was hurt.
I always tell people to drive safe, not just for their own sakes, but because you never know who’s out there being unsafe.
Twitter: mgorey
says:
I hired a car in Melbourne recently. They asked if I would pay an extra $25 a day to reduce my insurance excess from $2500 to $300 or something like that.
I took the offer for the reason you outlined. It’s other drivers you need to watch out for.