My wake-up call took the form of a wonderfully idiosyncratic example of the relaxed "devil-may-care" approach some of the denizens of the city state take to basic traffic laws and regulations.

While weaving my way through the picturesque streets of sunny Gungahlin, I was prompted to halt suddenly as a tradie's ute, pulling a very, very, long cage trailer, came to an abrupt and near total stop in front of me before swinging off to the left and into a Coles Express servo.

My first thought was that, as is often the case, the trailer's indicators were faulty and the message wasn't getting through to the lights at the rear of the articulated vehicle.

A quick glance at the back end of the ute indicated that either it had a serious electrical problem or I was being overly generous in assuming the master and commander of a rig that would have stood fair comparison with Drake's Golden Hind in the length stakes was doing the right thing.

Then the penny dropped: "Ah, Canberra," I thought to myself. "Welcome back to the land of optional trafficator use."

While I am not entirely sure a scientific study would bear me out, I am pretty certain that our excellent roads with multiple lanes and usually plenty of room to meander right or left as the spirit moves have created an environment in which, for many road users – and I'm looking at the taxi-driving, white-ute and van-man fraternities here – those amber-coloured things mounted on the corners of their vehicles are just painted on for effect.

Mind you, that doesn't explain away my two other pet hates on Canberra roads.

The first is the deeply ingrained culture of using turn-off lanes in roundabouts as de facto overtaking lanes. The second is the Le Mans-like habit of cutting in front of any motorist stupid enough to leave the stipulated space between themselves and the car in front. That is about eight car lengths at 60km/h. The basis for this is the need to have a two- to three-second breathing space for reaction time in case the car in front stops unexpectedly.

On the plus side, the dedication of many of our local drivers to minimal communication behind the wheel (with the exception of using their phones while driving) gives me ample scope to develop my mind-reading abilities.

I'm sure I'm far from being the only Canberra road user with some pet peeves. Share yours with Gang Gang by emailing me on david.ellery@canberratimes.com.au.