Aussies drive past them every day but hardly anyone knows what these little green stickers mean – and they could save your life

Thousands of Australian drivers are only just now discovering why there are ‘green stickers’ on roadside markers throughout the country.

And they could be central to keeping them safe on the roads this Christmas.

The little reflectors, which are placed on white posts on the side of some highways, signal there is a safe place to pull over coming up. When viewed drivers can then indicate their intention to pull over early and be prepared.

They appear on highways throughout Queensland, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria but not all of them as the rollout has been slower than planned.

MP Colin Boyce, the federal member for Flynn in Queensland, posted about the informal pull-over zones to remind drivers and said the green markers will likely keep people safe over the festive season.

‘Approximately 500 metres from a safe place to pull over you may see three green reflectors, 250 metres you may see two green reflectors and just at the safe place you may see one green reflector,’ Mr Boyce explained.

‘The idea is from road safety advocate and B double truck driver Rod Hannifey, alerting drivers that there is a safe place to pull off the road coming up. 

‘While the idea was originally intended for long haul truck drivers all road users can use them.’

What he didn’t expect was how few people knew about them.

‘A lot more people need to know about this, especially people with caravans,’ one woman wrote.

‘Would love this all over Australia! There’s nothing worse than driving of a night with a screaming baby in the back who wants a feed and not knowing if it’s a safe place to pull over,’ said another. 

‘This would be fantastic along all highways to give people the chance to prepare to go off the road,’ one more agreed. 

‘Especially when your kid is car sick and you’re on a 100km/hour highway, with steep slopes on the roadside and you’re desperately searching for somewhere to safely pull off the road before your kid vomits.’

However, some drivers criticised the method and described it as ‘primitive’.

‘It’s a great idea but why are we having to resort to this?’ One man asked.

‘Why can’t some of tax and vehicle registration costs pay to have proper signed and constructed pullover bays and overtaking lanes?’

Another answered: ‘The problem is it costs so much to build formal parking bays as they need to be engineered.

‘They need a environmental impact study, they need facilities such as toilets, picnic table, water supply, lighting, sewage management, rubbish bins.’

Despite the serious nature of the road safety message some people couldn’t help but make a joke out of it.

‘Now we just need loads of bright orange reflectors all the way along the road to indicate where all the potholes are,’ a driver said. 

‘It would be easier to put orange ones where there aren’t any potholes,’ jested another.

‘The roads would be a whole lot brighter,’ one agreed.