The Signs

Driving in Melbourne can be both easy and hard. Let me elaborate.

The demerit system for traffic offences is fully carried out. If pulled over by the traffic policeman, you can't "settle" it by the roadside. No way. Try that and you'll end up in jail. So almost everyone drives within the speed limit, uses signals when turning or changing lanes, gives way to pedestrians and cyclists and best of all, nobody cuts queues here! Road rage is a rarety here.

And the cops mean business. Half the time they are in unmarked cars. So you don't know where they are. So that means you'd better be on your best behaviour while on the road. And therefore, it's easy to go around when everybody obeys the road rules and drives the same way.

Now the hard part. You really, really have to pay attention to the road signs. Trust me, they can be so different. A stretch of road of less than 1km in distance may have varying speed limits - 20km/hr, 30km/hr, 40km/hr, 45km/hr, 50km/hr and 60km/hr. Then you have to watch out for bicycle lanes, merging lanes, parking signs with different information, horses on the road (in the City).

You may also need to share the road with trams. I hate this. The markings confuse me half the time! Then of course, there is the tricky hook turns in the city where you need to temporarily park your car on the left of a junction before you can turn right! That spooks me all the time.

Well, you win some, you lose some. Enough said.