The Mysterious Case of the Accelerating Overtaking Lane Driver
There’s a special circle of hell reserved for drivers who cruise along at 80km/h in a 100 zone, only to suddenly discover their accelerator the moment an overtaking lane appears. And judging by the avalanche of comments I’ve been reading online, I’m far from alone in this frustration.
Look, I get it. We all have different comfort levels when driving. Some people are naturally more cautious, and that’s fine. But what baffles me – genuinely baffles me – is the complete lack of awareness these drivers seem to have about their impact on everyone else around them.
The pattern is so predictable it’s almost comical. You’re stuck behind someone doing 80 in a 100 zone for kilometres. You’re not aggressive about it, you’re just waiting patiently for an overtaking lane. Finally, one appears. You indicate, check your mirrors, and start to move out… and suddenly the car in front has found an extra 20km/h from somewhere. They’re now doing exactly 100. Or maybe 110. Just enough to make your overtaking manoeuvre awkward, dangerous, or impossible.
Then, as soon as the overtaking lane ends and it’s back to single file? They’re doing 80 again. It’s like clockwork.
Someone in the discussion raised an interesting point about road psychology – that people unconsciously speed up when roads widen because they feel safer. That actually makes some sense. Our brains are wired to respond to visual cues, and a wider road does feel more forgiving. But here’s the thing: if you’re capable of doing 100 in the overtaking lane, you’re perfectly capable of doing it on the regular single-lane stretch too. The speed limit hasn’t changed. Your car hasn’t changed. The only thing that’s changed is the width of the bitumen.
What really gets under my skin is the complete obliviousness to other road users. Driving isn’t a solo activity. We’re all sharing this infrastructure, and with that comes a basic responsibility to be aware of how our behaviour affects others. When you’re consistently driving under the limit and then speed up every time someone tries to pass, you’re not just being annoying – you’re creating dangerous situations. You’re encouraging people to take risks they wouldn’t otherwise take, pushing them to speed excessively just to complete an overtaking manoeuvre before the lane runs out.
And don’t even get me started on the merging situation. The number of times I’ve been on the M1 or Eastern Freeway behind someone trying to merge at 60km/h while traffic is flowing at 100-110 is genuinely terrifying. Those on-ramps exist for a reason – they’re acceleration lanes, not scenic viewing platforms. You’re supposed to use that space to match the speed of the traffic you’re merging into, not potter along and hope everyone else slams on their brakes to accommodate you.
The truck drivers in that discussion thread had some particularly interesting perspectives. When someone driving a B-double says they’re constantly encountering this behaviour, that should tell you something. These are professional drivers who spend thousands of hours on the road every year. If they’re noticing it, it’s not an occasional annoyance – it’s endemic.
One commenter mentioned they’d started using cruise control religiously, and honestly, I think that’s part of the solution. When you set your cruise control, you maintain a consistent speed. You’re not subconsciously speeding up and slowing down based on whatever daydream is floating through your head. You become predictable, and predictability is one of the foundations of road safety.
I reckon there’s also an element of ego involved in some cases. That moment when someone overtakes you seems to trigger something primal in certain drivers – a sudden realisation that they’re going slow, mixed with a defensive “how dare they” response. So they speed up, not because they actually want to go faster, but because they don’t want to be passed. It’s childish, really, but I’ve seen it happen too many times to dismiss it.
The infrastructure doesn’t always help either, to be fair. Some merging lanes in Australia are genuinely terrible – too short, poor visibility, weird angles. But most of the time, the infrastructure is perfectly adequate. The problem is the human operating the vehicle.
What frustrates me from a broader perspective is that this kind of inconsiderate driving behaviour reflects something larger about how we navigate shared spaces. Whether it’s people blocking footpaths while staring at their phones, or standing on the wrong side of the escalator, or yes, driving without any awareness of others – it all stems from the same place. A kind of tunnel vision where your own experience is the only one that matters.
The solution? More driver education, for starters. Proper education, not just “here’s how to do a three-point turn” but genuine training in road awareness, defensive driving, and understanding the physics of merging and overtaking. Maybe even refresher courses every decade or so, because clearly some people need reminding.
In the meantime, I’ll keep using my cruise control, staying predictable, and trying not to let my frustration boil over when I encounter the inevitable 80-in-a-100 driver who suddenly thinks they’re at Bathurst the moment an overtaking lane appears.
And to anyone reading this who recognises themselves in this behaviour: please, just pick a speed and stick to it. Or at the very least, if you’re comfortable doing 80, stay at 80 when someone tries to pass you. We’ll all get where we’re going safer, and with significantly less road rage floating around.