What does this have to do with trucks? Trucks are obstacles to faster, nimbler traffic. As many a despairing motorist knows, when trucks slow down on inclines while travelling in the outside lane, or inch past other heavy vehicles, they increase congestion as traffic backs up behind them. The result: frustrated car drivers resort to overtaking on the left, sometimes in dangerous, last-minute manoeuvres.

For the harsh truth is that many Victorians are not particularly safe on the roads. Despite the prospect of fines, it's commonplace to see drivers talking on phones, taking pictures or watching videos; tailgating; snaking through traffic; and driving erratically as they encounter impediments or realise they're about to miss their exit ramp. Road safety experts and the police can do only so much to combat idiotic behaviour, but at least segregating and controlling trucks to some extent takes that variable out of the equation.

Currently, police won't punish truck drivers who continue to use the outside lane on the Monash, but they will apparently be in "discussions" with them. Subsequently, the ban will need to be policed and drivers fined for not adhering to it.

And while they are monitoring this, police should also crack down on cars "sleepwalking" in the right-hand lane. An existing provision of the Road Safety Road Rules, rule 130, requires drivers to keep left on a multi-lane road with a limit of 80 km/h or more, unless overtaking or turning right – a rule that is rarely enforced.

It is extraordinary that we need big signs on freeways saying "Keep left unless overtaking". This might not be as much of an essential habit for drivers as indicating when turning, stopping at roundabouts or giving way to traffic coming from the right on roundabouts. But not doing so causes unnecessary frustration on the roads, which, again, makes them less safe.