Check that the vehicle is permitted
A freeway is identified by its signs. Some vehicles and activities are excluded because they cannot mix safely with fast traffic. The inspected national regulation excludes animal-drawn vehicles; pedal cycles; motorcycles of at most 50 cc, electrically propelled motorcycles and the specified pedal-and-motor class; motor tricycles and motor quadrucycles; specified mobility vehicles weighing no more than 230 kg; and tractors or haulage tractors.
The exception for a tractor used in freeway construction or maintenance is a work-purpose exception, not a general permission for tractor travel. A licence covering a vehicle class does not override the road-access restriction. The source review checked a 2013 proposal about tricycles and found it was a comment draft; it is not used to change the taught rule.
Join and leave without forcing a gap
On the approach ramp, observe freeway traffic and use the available lane to prepare a safe merge. The manual requires a driver already on the freeway who sees a vehicle ahead wishing to merge from an on-ramp to allow it to merge. Cooperate by making space safely; do not create a collision by swerving into an occupied lane.
The merging driver still needs a safe opportunity and must obey the ramp’s signs and markings. Once on the freeway, keep left and overtake to the right. Plan an exit early enough to avoid sudden lane changes, and follow the exit’s own restrictions.
Stopping, walking and hand signals
Do not stop on a freeway except when a sign or traffic officer requires it, in an area lawfully reserved for stopping or parking, or for a cause beyond your control. A shoulder is not a passenger pickup bay.
- Do not give hand signals on a freeway except for a reason beyond your control.
- Do not walk on the freeway in ordinary circumstances. A designated stopping area and a genuine unavoidable situation must be considered under their exceptions.
- Do not leave or allow animals on the freeway, or in a place from which they can stray onto it.
- If a breakdown forces a stop, get as far from moving traffic as you safely can and use the applicable warning-triangle procedure. Do not stand in a live traffic lane to attend to the vehicle.
Worked situation
You realise you have passed your intended exit. Do not stop, reverse, cross a painted exclusion area or make a sudden lane change. Continue to the next lawful exit and revise the route. A navigation error is not a cause beyond your control that authorises a stop in traffic.
Specified work and emergency exceptions
The regulation makes specific exceptions to the pedestrian and stopping prohibitions for authorised traffic work, rescue or salvage, freeway construction or maintenance, essential public services and the stated civil-protection activities. Emergency and breakdown vehicles have exceptions while performing the specified work. These are not general privileges for an ordinary driver who is in a hurry.
An animal may be carried in or on a vehicle or be within the designated reserved area under the rule; it may not roam onto the freeway. The older regulation also contains a narrowly worded service-personnel boarding provision. Such historical special cases do not make an ordinary shoulder a passenger boarding place.