Government emphasis on speeding offences

[Calaber]

All State Governments have campaigns running throughout the year to catch speeding drivers. Signs are erected along roads at regular intervals reminding you not to speed, "check your speed","what speed are you doing now?", "Speed Cameras used in NSW" (or whichever state you're in), "Heavy fines, loss of license." The list goes on. Anybody would be forgiven for thinking that speeding is the only offence committed on our roads.

Speeding is not the only factor in fatal accidents and I believe that the emphasis on policing speeding ignores to some extent, other dangerous practices which are very common and can have serious or fatal results.

I reckon the policing of roundabouts is pretty well non-existent, even where acknowledged dangerous conditions exist. Tail-gating doesn't seem to get the attention it should, especially on highways and motorways. Poor lane discipline seems to go unaddressed too often.

What unsafe or dangerous driving behaviour other that speeding do you guys reckon should get at least equal attention to what speeding does in your State?

[DavidPartay]

I've been saying this for years, but people don't listen because they're already brainwashed.

The problem is that speeding is the easiest thing to police and raises the most revenue.

I have more problems with people failing to indicate, merging without looking, cutting people off, pulling out in front of people, stopping at an intersection with the car sticking into the lane, cyclists running red lights. Never really had any issues with people speeding, although I've seen less than half a dozen times in the last 5 years, someone have a close call on the freeway when trying to get ahead of the slow people causing bankups.

[minux]

I'd just like to see as much emphasis on correct driver training as they have on wipe off 5 it will save your life crap.

Won't ever happen though, how will governments make money if drivers are trained correctly?

[old mate]

merging without looking and not indicating. as a motorcyclist, you really do see how some people just DO NOT LOOK, and you have to avoid them however you can even if that includes running off the road into drains.

i had one experience a month ago where a person in a landcruiser 200 series was sitting at the end of a driveway which was onto an 80kph street. i looked the driver right in the eye and he obviously didnt see me as he pulled out onto the road. i had already backed off to about 60 ish before he pulled out, and there was a car coming the other way.

so i went off into the drain and just held onto it, and I get the finger from the guy in the cruiser. nice.

and i am also a road cyclist and most drivers dont realise that on a two lane road you can be two bikes wide with a distance of 1.5m between handlebars (if a car comes behind we will go into single file so we dont get run over) so i get abused at least twice from car drivers each time im on my bike.

driver attitude needs to be rectified, and dangerous driving practices need to be tackled harder than they are. driver education needs work too (aka car control).

in fact, i am an advocate for compulsory licence testing each 5 years for vehicles, and making the test a lot harder.

A LICENCE ISN'T A RIGHT, IT'S A PRIVILEGE.

[DavidPartay]

You don't need a license to ride your bike on the roads, so a little due courtesy to those of us in cars would be appreciate.

Bicycles riding two abreast is dangerous and frustrating towards the lineup of cars behind them.

Cyclists wouldn't get abused if so many of them would actually do the right thing and be considerate of those of us in cars who can go faster.

[old mate]

yes thats true you don't need a licence to ride a bike on the roads, and i don't see why you would need one TBH.


but as a cyclist who gets abused WHEN doing the right thing, it isn't very nice. i can understand how car drivers get annoyed when cyclists ride 2 abreast, but then if the riders in your example were any sort of rational thinking people, they would merge to a single line to make it easier for the other road users to pass.

but i guess its a case of the minority of them wreck it for the rest of us. like most things in life.

[minux]

and i am also a road cyclist and most drivers dont realise that on a two lane road you can be two bikes wide with a distance of 1.5m between handlebars (if a car comes behind we will go into single file so we dont get run over) so i get abused at least twice from car drivers each time im on my bike.

While it is not illegal to ride 2 bikes wide(in a bike lane) if you are on a road with no bike lane you MUST NOT be in the way of any motor vehicle using the road.

[Chris E]

If people actually knew how to drive it would save so many more lives than the anti speeding bullshit. Our current driver training system is an absolute joke. I was lucky as I grew up around cars and motor sport so could already drive well at an early age.

However majority of my friends really have no clue what they are doing. They know you press the pedal on the right to go forward, middle to slow down, and the clutch to move the gearstick (not that they have a clue what it does). They knew the road rules and did their learners hours in perfect conditions.

A few examples. A female friend of mine got her license, but had never driven in the rain by herself, she dumps her foot and doesn't even realise that the wheels are spinning or the consequences of it. Afterwards I still need to tell her every time we take off to go easy on the throttle to avoid wheel spin.

A mate of mine got his license just recently, and he managed to last night scrape (hardcore- he took out half of it) against a rock wall in my front yard while leaving my house, and I live on acreage so there's really no explanation other than he doesn't have control of his car.

If you want to get a gun license, you need to know all the parts of the gun and how it works, how come if to get a car license you don't need to know anything about the car?

It's all just to expensive/to hard for our lazy ass government and while they get their pay cheques they really don't care. It's a load of crap. The speeding is just an easy thing to enforce and make them good money.


/End rant

[pow3rslave]

the only times speeding really pissed me off is if it's beyond the drivers control (eg can't hold it round corners) or if it's combined with some other offence (random lane weaving on the freeway) i guess they can't really police the first one, but it does shit me to see people in my area break almost every other road rule, but speeding is the only focus.
stuff like parking too close to intersections, ignoring 'keep clear' sections of road and changing lanes in intersections/across solid lines are so common now that people don't think twice. the big one that gets me is people who drive in the emergency stopping lane at the end of the freeway. yes it becomes a lane, but it's still signed emergency stopping until then. all it takes is one car broken down and there'd be a pileup.

[old mate]

While it is not illegal to ride 2 bikes wide(in a bike lane) if you are on a road with no bike lane you MUST NOT be in the way of any motor vehicle using the road.

is that an actual law? as i was unaware of that, or is it just a common practice?

[minux]

is that an actual law? as i was unaware of that, or is it just a common practice?

Its part of the road safety act.

[old mate]

this?

253.

Bicycle riders not to cause a traffic hazard
The rider of a bicycle must not cause a traffic hazard by moving into the path
of a driver or pedestrian.

Penalty: 1 penalty unit. ($110.12)

i think that this rule could be wrongly interpreted though, is it stating that if the cyclist moves into a position that is hazardous to drivers or pedestrians that they will get fined, or is it that if a vehicle being driven that creates a hazardous situation which includes a cyclist, that the cyclist must move?

education must be improved on all sides, i think it would help with all the conflicts, so people know exactly where they stand.

[burnz]

up here in the central coast the police are very active on the freeway fineing drivers for not keeping left.
about time too, $200+ fine ought to help fund the states coffers.

[D-Man]

i would like to see a percentage of EACH road fine go to a fund that is for repair of roads and so forth.

say 10% or so. or not only road repairs, but something like better driver ed etc.

[kane88]

Yeah, good luck with that...

[Darren_L]

I don't believe driver education is going to help much at all.
Once people get their licence, they start sliding into their own bad habits. And as the years go on those bad habits get worse.

A pet hate of mine is how people forget from their driving school days, being told to move to the left hand side of the road when turning left, and move to the r/h/s of the road when turning right. The amount of people I see making big wide swooping turns is unbelievable. It's like they are trying to turn a 36 metre road train into a corner. Dangerous part is when the person in the car behind spots the car in front of them with the left hand indicator on. The car behind moves to the right hand side of the car to pass (assuming they are turning left as the indicator would suggest), but then has to make an emergency stop as suddenly the car turning left, swings wide to the right in order to turn left, effectively cutting the car off behind it who is trying to pass.

And as the passing vehicle you are permitted to be adjacent to a vehicle in the same lane, providing that vehicle is turning.

A good example of a basic rule that we all learnt in driving school, yet I see even P platers doing the road train corners.... So further education isn't really the key, ENFORCEMENT is. Get a ticket, lose some points and it's amazing how quickly you will learn and remember.

[fourstar82]

On my way home from work the other night, I was heading down the Eastern Freeway sitting on 100 and got stuck behind someone doing 90 in the right hand lane. I couldn't move over either as there were a couple of cars in the next lane going about the same speed. It just infuriates me! It happens more often than not as well which makes it worse!

Just on driver training, Vic Roads ran a campaign a while back targeting learner drivers to practice in all conditions. I forget how many hours exactly they specified.

[Grennan]

I don't believe driver education is going to help much at all.
Once people get their licence, they start sliding into their own bad habits. And as the years go on those bad habits get worse.

Thats why their should be mandatory retesting. Instead of just renewing your license every X years you should have to resit your test.

[STEALTHY™]

Won't ever happen though, how will governments make money if drivers are trained correctly?

/thread right here

[somerandom]

in fact, i am an advocate for compulsory licence testing each 5 years for vehicles, and making the test a lot harder.

A LICENCE ISN'T A RIGHT, IT'S A PRIVILEGE.

I am advocating for compulsory push bike licenses, and if you don't vote you will lose it. Also impound law for push bikes, as there are too many hoons on bicycles.

[old mate]

I am advocating for compulsory push bike licenses, and if you don't vote you will lose it. Also impound law for push bikes, as there are too many hoons on bicycles.

ah righto, thats fine but what age will you have to get a licence? what is the reasoning behind a licence for an unpowered vehicle such as a bicycle, and i suppose skateboards and those ghey alloy scooters will be under the same rules.

explain a bicycle hoon for me? a rider that doesnt stop at red lights etc or what?

[Calaber]

Can somebody please explain how this thread became a debate on licensing push bikes?

Back on track please. It has nothing to do whatsoever with licensing bike riders. If you want to discuss that, start your own fresh thread.

[old mate]

fair call.

[danja]

Calaber,

I would disagree that speeding is the only thing police go for, it's just one of the most common detectable offenses. Drink (and more recently drug) driving has long been clamped down on. Roadside and mobile RBTs have been commonplace for many years. Police on patrol will pull over people they see running red lights, racing, speeding, doing illegal U-turns and all sorts of other misdemeanors, they can't be everywhere though.

Speeding probably appears to eclipse everything else because its also enforced by speed cameras - most traffic offenses can't be captured by automation, certainly not reliably.

I don't see a bias in the priorities, more a pragmatic approach.

[Calaber]

Calaber,

I would disagree that speeding is the only thing police go for, it's just one of the most common detectable offenses. Drink (and more recently drug) driving has long been clamped down on. Roadside and mobile RBTs have been commonplace for many years. Police on patrol will pull over people they see running red lights, racing, speeding, doing illegal U-turns and all sorts of other misdemeanors, they can't be everywhere though.

Speeding probably appears to eclipse everything else because its also enforced by speed cameras - most traffic offenses can't be captured by automation, certainly not reliably.

I don't see a bias in the priorities, more a pragmatic approach.

I agree that alcohol related offences receive significant attention and that they are often related to speeding. Between alcohol and speeding offences, you probably have the vast majority of traffic offences detected by police and acted upon.

I guess my original post should have been a bit more specific, because others have highlighted common offences which I didn't list, which also seem to be "ignored" and some of those offences either directly cause serious accidents, or are contributory factors.

My point was that the police often have campaigns to address specific driver behaviour, but most of them relate to speeding (and booze, as you say), and all roadside warnings ever seem to do is tell you to slow down. I read an article in an English motoring mag a few years ago where they author visited Aus for a driving test of some new car. Tnheyh made the comment that authorities in Australia seemed to be obsessed by speeding, because of the huge number of reminders/warnings/speed limit signs that dotted the roadside.

I try to keep within the speed limit as a normal driving habit, just so that I don't get caught by a hidden camera, radar or lurking HWP car, but the bad driving that is so prevalent in my area involves much more than just speeding.

You're right that the police can't be everywhere (I spent many years trying to explain that to people when I worked for them), but my feeling is that other serious traffic offences never seem to get the attention they deserve, because the cops are so heavily engaged on specific targets.