M1 Mentality

No, this has nothing to do with the active firing button on the mouse in game – shame on you geeky lot who immediately thought that! This is a brief reflection on the things I have observed and learned over the last five and a half weeks travelling 65km each way along the Pacific Motorway (M1) between home on the Gold Coast and work at south Brisbane.

*Just because you have half as many wheels doesn’t mean you can go twice as fast! The gall of some motorcycle riders completely overwhelms me at times. They hoon up behind you, zipping between lanes, near oblivious to the cars on the road. But when you indicate to change lanes and they’re just instantaneously near you (thanks to the 140km/h+ they’re obviously doing), they proceed to abuse you because you didn’t notice them. I’m sorry – ninja driving doesn’t give you God-like status to rule the road!

*Apparently you need to slow down on the approach to an exit ramp to inform drives behind you that you’re intending on leaving the M1; an indicator apparently does not do this.

*Never trust a car with pillows/crocheted blankets/hats/tissue boxes or dogs in the back window. Just, don’t.

*Everyone is numerically dyslexic. That 80 sign really says 110 in their eyes. I hope you lot get pinged for it. Twice. In one day. This really does irk me, especially when it’s through a region of road works, because after working on the roads for a few years, you learn that even 40mk/h is bloody fast for a 2 Tonne vehicle to be screaming past you. And whilst you may bitch that “there’s nobody working in the zone so why do we have to slow down?” it’s called infrastructure and unstable conditions – in case you never noticed, those orange and white barriers aren’t normal road features!

*And most importantly of all, my car is really comfortable, cruisy and just right for me! After taking delivery of my new Nissan XTrail back in November, I’ve had a chance to give her a really thorough run in. For a 4 cylinder, 2.5L CVT engine, she has speed with dynamic pick-up, grace, and efficiency all rolled in to one divine soccer-mum-SUV body! I’m currently pulling about 7.5L/100km, and for a 65L tank, that’s showing up to 870km potential per total fill.