driving in australia

singaporeans should be very much at home driving in australia because we, australia and singapore, share the same road system as our colonial masters - right-hand drive. i agree with ivy that driving in australia is a less stressful experience compared to driving in singapore as most australians do not drive in a 'kiasu' manner. of course, you do run into the odd 'boy racers' and the 'bull dozers'.

no one flashes headlights or sounds the horn at you if you choose to travel on the right lane at your own pace. as a result of stricter enforcement, most motorists keep within the speed limits. should you mistakenly form up in the wrong lane and need to make a change, most drivers will forgivingly let you slip into their lane.

i was most impressed when an emergency vehicle came to a traffic light stop. three vehicles which were in its path, drove across the line and moved to the sides to allow the ambulance through. after that, the three cars moved back to their original positions as the light was still red.

when driving in australia, you need to know the difference between a freeway and a highway. a freeway is like our expressway where there are no traffic lights. on freeways, the speed limit is usually 100km/hr whereas on highways, speed limit is 80km/hr. highways are not necessary wide roads; some highways are single carriageways.

however, highways which intersperse with freeways can be interstate highways, like the hume highway, 880km long, which links sydney to melbourne. then there is the 1784km princes highways which link most of the states in australia.

melbourne also has a money charging system quite similar to our erp (electronic road pricing). they call it the citylink tollway. whereas we have a unit fixed in our vehicle, theirs is a etag, an electronic transponder, a portable device which can be transferred from one car to another.

in melbourne, if you drive in the city itself, you need to learn how to make a hook turn. when you need to make a hook turn, you move quickly to the leftmost lane. generally, hook turns are made when turning right when you are sharing the road with tramlines to your immediate right.