The road rules you might have missed

We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but next time you’re tempted to farewell friends with the old toot-and-wave combination, you might want to reconsider. Nationwide, sounding your horn unnecessarily is an offence. While penalties differ across Australia, illegal car horn use in NSW can result in a fine. This is because the horn is intended to act as a loud warning signal to let other drivers know about a potential hazard, rather than... well, a means to say see you later. 

The Australian Road Rules — specifically, regulation 300 for the use of mobile phones — clearly prohibits the use of an unmounted mobile phone while a vehicle is moving, or is stationary but not parked. This means that whipping out your digital wallet to pay for your Macca’s is a little contentious, but it depends where you are. 

Victoria are pretty strict. You’ll need to turn the car off and put the handbrake on to use your phone to pay at a drive-through.

New South Wales have a subrule that allows you to use the phone to “pay for goods or services that are required to be paid for in the road related area”.

And our friends up north in Queensland have a similar stance to NSW, allowing drivers to use their phone to “use a card or other thing to enter a road-related area” or to “pay for goods or services, if the place where the vehicle is stationary is a place where goods or services are lawfully paid for.”

This depends on the stretch of road, and the reason why. Australian Road Rule 125 states that a driver “must not unreasonably obstruct the path of another driver or pedestrian”. So, if you’re driving abnormally slow compared to other vehicles — for example, travelling at 20 kilometres per hour in an 80 zone — this would be illegal. This is because slowing down so excessively in a zone with a much higher speed limit, can not only limit the flow of traffic, it can become a hazard too.

Rule 297 of the Australian Road Rules clearly states that a driver must not drive if a person or an animal is in the driver’s lap. No matter how well behaved your pet is, this rule stands because pets are highly likely to impede your ability to have proper control of your vehicle. Instead, animals should be comfortably harnessed or restrained to keep you, and other drivers, safe on the road. 

There are 350 road rules listed in the Australian Road Rules, the national model that forms the framework of each state’s laws. Not every breach of the law carries licence point demerits, but most come with a fine attached.

Here are a few others to keep in mind:

• You must not reverse along a one-way street.

• Always stop fully at a stop sign. Looking left and right and rolling through a stop sign isn’t enough. Drivers must bring their vehicles to a complete stop behind the line.

• Splashing commuters waiting at a bus stop by intentionally driving through water will earn you a fine in NSW (and won’t do much for your likeability, either).

• If you’ve had a few too many drinks and try to sleep it off in your car, you could be breath tested and may need to prove you had no intention of driving.

• Playing games in the middle of the road — like street cricket — is a no-go. 

Of course, if you’re ever in doubt about what’s legitimately OK or not, head over to your state’s RMS centre for a rundown on the rules. Learner driver sample tests are also helpful to see how your road knowledge stacks up!