What is it about long stretches of parkway in Canberra that makes people forget how to drive properly?
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Or does the prospect of driving 100kmh just bring out the worst in people?
Some put pedal to the metal and take a power trip, while others seem to fold up and become scared of the world.
Either way, every time there's a crash on the Tuggeranong Parkway, too many people have to know about it.
And every time it happens, I wonder whether - or when - I'll be next.
If we lived in a sitcom, there are mornings where the camera would zoom in on my panicked face as I shout "noooooo", then pan to a shot of cars up ahead, banked up a short suburban slip-lane, congested with traffic.
![The Tuggeranong Parkway on a good day. Picture by Keegan Carroll The Tuggeranong Parkway on a good day. Picture by Keegan Carroll](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/9gmjQxX8MpSQh6J68NHMnY/ee8c8922-6ac5-4b5d-bd4a-ec72d53c7559.jpg/r0_256_5000_3334_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
If you know, you know, and for any Weston Creek commuter, a line of stopped cars snaking up out of sight off Hindmarsh Drive onto the Tuggeranong Parkway is a sure sign your drive to work, if not your entire bloody morning, is shot.
It means that somewhere, either up ahead or way off to the south, there's been a bingle. It probably involved three or more cars, someone may well be seriously injured, and at least one lane will be closed off for hours.
Meanwhile, within minutes all the surrounding rat-runs will quickly fill up and become their own micro-jams, as drivers spot the issue and try to correct their course.
And there's really nothing you can do, other than place a (hands-free) call to the kids' school and advise them said kids will be late.
And remind yourself that it could easily be you, stuck there with cars snaking past extra slowly to give you a pitying or enraged gawk, while you catch your breath and call the insurance company.
That, at least, would only be the best-case scenario if you're rear-ended during the morning or evening commute.
There is something about Tuggeranong Parkway that turns already aggressive drivers into outright nutcases, and over-cautious drivers to numpties who instinctively slow down on parkways as the cars zoom impatiently around them.
But I sympathise with both camps. There are long, claustrophobic stretches of the parkway that are hemmed in with concrete barriers on both sides, with the effect that drivers just want to get away as quickly as possible.
Aggressive drivers make things more stressful, although is there anything worse than someone driving too slowly when you just need to get home?
ACT police are rightfully frustrated that people can't remember their manners, drive in a forward motion in adherence to the speed limit, and just respect the fact that no one, really, wants to spend more time on the Tuggeranong Parkway than is necessary.
Why, then, haven't they introduced variable speed limits, as foreshadowed back in 2021?
Back then, road safety experts maintained that reducing the speed limit by 30kmh along the parkway, at certain times of day or in bad weather, could help to improve traffic flow.
That was now almost three years ago, although reports at the time suggested work would begin in late 2021.
Twenty minutes from anywhere?
Science is yet to satisfactorily explain the phenomenon that is Canberra's 20-minute commute - the concept that most things are no more than 20 minutes' drive from anywhere else.
When we moved from the inner north to Weston Creek, I was worried we'd be giving this theory a run for its money, but in fact the move more than confirmed it.
Thanks to the parkway, the drive to Civic is markedly faster than it was from the inner north, and we obviously have the 100kmh speed limit to thank for that.
But do we, really? Would it make a huge difference if the speed was 90 or even 80kmh?
It would still get you efficiently from one side of the city to the other, and all the better if you can do it on public transport.
And if it means the difference between a 17 or a 15-minute commute, and a reduction in avoidable rear-endings and out-and-out bad driving, then why hasn't it happened yet?