Do you REALLY know the road rules?

SIX weeks ago I pitched a story to a local, community website about Queensland road rules and the apparent lack of understanding around them. I figured that with all the crazy, ignorant and arrogant drivers I see making stupid, careless mistakes there must be a story in it.

No matter who I have ever spoken to, drivers young and old, male and female, on L's, P's or Opens, all get pretty worked up and have multiple stories to tell about bad, inconsiderate and law breaking drivers.

Well The Courier Mail has just published a story on the matter after the Queensland Police Service launched a quiz to test drivers' knowledge of the road rules. For those of you playing at home I recommend you take the test – it’s only 10 questions and may be an eye-opener. You can take the test online here.

I found the comments under the story as important and interesting as the story itself. The main thing I took away from the story was that I have been indicating wrong on roundabout. Before you start throwing verbal darts at me, let me explain.

I took my driving test and obtained my license January 2010, with a perfect score. I was definitely NOT marked down for incorrect indicators. In my test I went through three roundabouts, two of which involved exiting via the second exit. I was under the impression that the rule was as follows: 
As you enter a roundabout, unless you are taking the first immediate left exit you must indicate right first. Then, just before reaching your exit, indicate left to let other drivers know you are leaving the roundabout.

I was taught this by my driving instructor and by family and friends who had lost points in their examination in previous years for NOT doing this. Furthermore, the assessor watched me do this on two of the three roundabouts and did not mark me down. This confirmed to me that it was definitely the correct roundabout procedure.

WRONG! I have been indicating incorrectly for over a year thanks to an ill-informed driving instructor, an ill-informed driving assessor and ill-informed advice of friends and family. Imagine all the drivers who thought I was a jerk!

I guess I can take solace in the fact that I’ve never wondered if it’s okay to drive barefoot (it is in Australia, but not in New Zealand). I might just do a quick re-visit of the road rules in general to be safe though.

So are you as good of a driver as you think? Take the test and load your results/comments here!

P.S. I scored 9/10