“Indicating to pass” is insane and needs to stop
This makes no sense at all. Why would large vehicle drivers do that? It’s the job of the people behind them to patiently stay behind and make their own decision on when it’s safe to pass.
This is why we have the mantra “don’t be nice, be predictable”. Being nice and letting people through out of turn makes it dangerous for everyone.
Road trains are fucking massive. They take a long time to pass even if you break the speed limit by 20 km/h, and they obscure your view of the road quite substantially. It’s near impossible for a driver to safely pass a road train without the truckie’s assistance on some roads. The fact that drivers mostly know truckies will do this means they are less likely to attempt an unsafe overtake which could endanger both them and the truckie.
I live in an area in regional Victoria where you’ll get behind one of these guys for a 5-10km stretch.
And I grew up in regional NSW where it could be more like 15-20km.
If you’re on the asphalt you overtake if you can see it’s safe to do so as usual, or if the operator can clearly gesture to you, unmistakably, with a hand signal that it’s safe to go around.
I’ve never heard of the right turn signal thing.
I’ve seen it a few times when travelling. I think that the best way for a slow vehicle to indicate that it is safe to overtake is to indicate left (near-side, passenger-side, kerb/shoulder-side, whatever) and merge onto the shoulder. This is what the majority of tractors do in my local region.
This provides those following better visibility of the road ahead and allows them to make up their own mind.
Also, those following, just be patient. The only reason why the tractor would be deliberately driving slow to annoy you is because you a being a dickhead. Don’t be a dickhead on the road.
I’m in rural sa and many trucks will indicate to let the person behind know it’s clear, especially over a crest.
I swear this is like the third time I’ve seen an article with almost this exact (OG) title, spaced like 6 months apart. And I’m currently feeling absolutely crazy for my inability to find those articles.
