I remember when the Liberal govt in NSW said that they would reduce the number of stationary speed cameras. From recollection, I think they only took a few non profitable ones off while others remained. Yes the Stationary cameras have warning signs & also my sat-nav lets me know where they are too.
When I lived in Sydney some roads posted ridiculous variable speed limits ranging from 50-70kph. Some within a stretch of only a couple of kilometres. I wont mention the school zones. Even some roads & back streets, you use common sense on the speed you do. Some narrow streets were posted as 50kph but when you have cars parked on either side on a narrow street, you're doing less than that, especially when you take the pedestrian variable into challenge.
Highways (motorways) are a different kettle of fish. While some are asking for the speed limit to be raised on them, they tend to forget about the other variable which is wildlife. I'm sure we've seen photos on the net where someone has hit a roo & done some considerable damage to the car, injuring it's passengers & also the loss of life on the roo. Where I live now there's a ton of wildlife. Night time driving even at 70kph (90-100kph) zones with no street lights can be dangerous with wildlife hanging around. Even if you swerve & don't hit them, you end up in a ditch or your car hugging a tree with injuries or fatalities. I agree that modern cars can brake better than older cars, it's the reaction of the person behind the wheel that counts. I'm not saying that speed is a cause or failure, I'm saying that it's other variables.
Today while driving home from the supermarket, I was on a roundabout which I had right of way. An SUV driven by a female decided to run the risk & nearly took off the front end of my ute. Had I not braked with good reaction, I'm sure that the front end would have been off my ute & causing injury to myself, her & her occupants. But what peeved me off more than anything was, that she had her mobile phone glued to her head & she had young children in the back and not concentrated on what she was doing. You can put a million speed cameras on a 1km stretch of road to help keep traffic at the correct speed, but there is nothing properly in place to keep track of the mindless idiots that are on their mobile phone while driving & not concentrating what they are supposed to be doing. We've seen the ads on TV repeatedly about using your mobile while driving, but yet a lot of people use their phone whilst driving without the use of a bluetooth system or just plain pulling to the side of the road to answer a call or text.
Single minded focus on speed is always to blame when we see road fatalities during public holidays. You never see police say "Oh he/she answered her mobile & lost concentration".
My father borrowed my Vitara back in 2005 to pick my mum up from work. The weather was atrocious with heavy rain, lousy visibility, a few flooded roads etc. As my dad was driving to the conditions at the time & driving slow on Botany Rd Mascot, a young woman driving a Landcruiser with a bullbar slammed up his backside. Dad noticed that she was on her mobile & did not drive carefully in the bad conditions. Both my parents suffered injuries. When my father gave his statement to the police, he told them that she was on her phone, not concentrating on the current road conditions. The young woman & her passengers (who did not suffer any injuries) denied this until she was asked for her phone to confirm the timestamp of her last call. She got booked for negligent driving. From what dad told me was that the cop got peeved off at her for the accident she caused. It wasn't speed that caused it, but user error & the mobile phone in the hand variable. I don't know if she lost points from her licence but she caused my parents a lot of pain from their injuries.
if the speed limit on NSW highways are 110kph, that's fine, doesn't worry me. If they wanted to raise the speed limit on certain sections, that's fine as well, but you'll always find a user on the roads that are distracted by technology or by passengers in their vehicle. Use common sense & let those who want to get home to their families get there without mishap.
