Free tips on how to funnel into a tunnel

FROM MY CORNER ... with Ann Brunswick

Took the trusty LandRover down to the Gold Coast the other day for a much -needed servicing. It’s amazing what a good grease and oil change can do, because I was humming merrily all the way back to Brisbane. The car was purring along fine as well.

But now to the point of this column. As mentioned, maybe I was in a little bit of a restive reverie and not concentrating as well as I should have been as a dutiful motorist, but I missed the entrance to the Clem7 tunnel just to the city’s south. It’s the second time in a few months that has happened. I’ve since paid more attention while driving the same route, so to speak, and the large overhead road signs on the surface – starting from about a kilometre out – seem to give more than adequate warning of the need to drift over to the right-hand lane and take that rather abrupt passage down into the tunnel.
So is the problem only with moi? I don’t think so. Other entrances to the Clem7 have the message on the roadway as well, and I think that would be an excellent guide to those who are perhaps not paying attention – or indeed who sees the road signs high above them but suffer short-term memory loss.
I offer this suggestion for no other reason that the people who own the Clem7 tunnel can’t afford to lose one single potential tollpayer for any reason whatsoever.
I haven’t seen the latest figures but I understand the total vehicular usage for the tunnel for a week could probably be parked comfortably in Westfield’s Chermside shopping centre – and that’s after they put up the boom gates and started charging for long-term stays. So paint some logos on the roadway, dear Clem7 owners!
Because sometimes when I’ve concentrated and found myself in that tunnel, I feel as if I’m the only person using it. I never see any cars in front. My rear-vision mirror is similarly devoid of any signs of fellow motorists.
Certainly, I have often made the entire trip under our beautiful river and not once passed a single car coming the other way!

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While I’m on a little gripefest about the Gold Coast highway, I’ll mention another bugbear of any trip along that stretch of road. What’s with those 80kph and often then 60kph speed restrictions and the “road work” signs when there’s clearly no roadwork being undertaken?

Anyone who’s driven down to the border and beyond know the couple of sections I’m talking about . Mug me, as always, slows down at these speed-sign restrictions to do the right thing by law, and all you get for your trouble, particularly when the carriageway is funnelled into just the one lane, is other drivers right up on your still-very-attractive real end and angrily demanding that you get on with it.
Could I just kindly suggest that when road works are about to begin in the morning, it would be someone’s job to pull covers off those signs so motorists can obey them for a good reason. And likewise, late in the day or whenever in the night these roadworks stop, the last thing a designated worker has to do is to cover the restricted speeds up again?
Doesn’t that make sense, seeing there appears to be only one really stupid driver out there who tries to obey these signs and gets absolutely no thanks for it whatsoever?