Re: NSW margin for error on speeding reduced to zero
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 11:29 pm
There are two topics being dealt with in this thread, the "discretionary limit" and the abilities of drivers.
I can understand and respect the theory of "lowest common denominator", but still some people on the roads couldn't even qualify as that. Being stuck behind someone else doing 15-30 under the limit on any road is a pain in the arse, but i bite my tounge when it's a smaller road as there is often little you can do. However when it is a main road and you are stuck behind said twat in the middle/right lane it is immensely frustrating. Moving left to get out of the way (if practical and safe) is all that I ask so i can get past you and we can both be on our way, thankyou. I'm thankful that only a fraction of my driving is in peak hour traffic, two mornings every 8 days as i return home from nightshift. Every other time, to or from work i don't have a problem and when I am on my rostered days off i do my damndest to try and be off the roads in peak hour unless i have somewhere to go and need to be on the road at that time. My condolences to you poor bastards whom have to do it every day, Monday to Friday as traffic at that times is frankly shit, just utter shit. Consideration on the roads is severely lacking as just like a large segment of people on the internet, they think they are anonymous and acting selfish or a cock towards others won't have repercussions for them. This attitude of self importance rather than doing what'll make everything work smoother overall needs to seriously be addressed. Training and education is the key to things like this, but i can't see anything happening in this regard, partly because of the assumption of people thinking they are better than they are on the roads and driving like nutters, rather than being able to understand their own abilities better and hopefully be able to make smarter judgement calls in what they do. Nothing is going to stop 19 year olds doing donuts in carparks or drag races along the M4 at 3:00AM, aside from tire spikes and a shitload of coppers waiting for them.
The second issue is government mismanagement and the short term gain getting in the way of the longer term loss. Sure the government can boast about the quantity of money they made by selling the airport, selling electrical facilities, selling Telstra. But they gave up a MASSIVE longer term stake in gaining revenue and being more financially stable to get a headline in a couple of newspapers, a few pats on the back and a nice big positive cashflow for that financial year. What about looking at the longer term, ten years, fiften years, fourty years? Basically because of the selling off of these assets, we the population get bent over and fucked up the arse with lower speed limits, more easily broken rules and a government (state or federal regardless) that is so cash strapped that these "easy" offences have gone from being primarily being a safety issue to being a core feature in next years budget. A prime example is the mobile speed cameras being run by a private company for the government. The RTA boasted that they had budgetted on netting 132 MILLION in the first year of the camera operations, and the money from that had been accounted for in the budget rather than being put to a more appropriate use such as allocated to a "road safetytrainingwhatever" budget. Further to this i personally think that although it sucks to be pulled up by a copper for doing the wrong thing, i would MUCH rather that than get a letter in the mail 2-5 weeks later saying "hey, you know that money you worked for? we want some because you screwed up a little while ago". I have nothing but contempt for the government with big fucking holes they have dug themselves with their eyes being fixated on the short term profit at the expense of our long term prosperity as a country.
[edit]A perfect example o short term gain, long term loss is the M5 East. The state was given the option by the contracted builders of increasing the lanes from 2 to 3 in the tunnel for a "mere" 10% increase in cost at the time of construction. The government/rta/minister for transport baulked at spending that (not insubstantial, but also wisely invested) money in favour of only spending on 2 lanes as it would be at least 2 maybe 4 terms before the shortsightedness would screw everything/everyone up. Now they are forced to contemplate spending at least the same, if not a LARGER quantity of money to either perform long term night-works to make it 3 lanes or to provide an alternattive to increase capacity somewhere, somehow.[/edit]
Thankyou for your time.
I can understand and respect the theory of "lowest common denominator", but still some people on the roads couldn't even qualify as that. Being stuck behind someone else doing 15-30 under the limit on any road is a pain in the arse, but i bite my tounge when it's a smaller road as there is often little you can do. However when it is a main road and you are stuck behind said twat in the middle/right lane it is immensely frustrating. Moving left to get out of the way (if practical and safe) is all that I ask so i can get past you and we can both be on our way, thankyou. I'm thankful that only a fraction of my driving is in peak hour traffic, two mornings every 8 days as i return home from nightshift. Every other time, to or from work i don't have a problem and when I am on my rostered days off i do my damndest to try and be off the roads in peak hour unless i have somewhere to go and need to be on the road at that time. My condolences to you poor bastards whom have to do it every day, Monday to Friday as traffic at that times is frankly shit, just utter shit. Consideration on the roads is severely lacking as just like a large segment of people on the internet, they think they are anonymous and acting selfish or a cock towards others won't have repercussions for them. This attitude of self importance rather than doing what'll make everything work smoother overall needs to seriously be addressed. Training and education is the key to things like this, but i can't see anything happening in this regard, partly because of the assumption of people thinking they are better than they are on the roads and driving like nutters, rather than being able to understand their own abilities better and hopefully be able to make smarter judgement calls in what they do. Nothing is going to stop 19 year olds doing donuts in carparks or drag races along the M4 at 3:00AM, aside from tire spikes and a shitload of coppers waiting for them.
The second issue is government mismanagement and the short term gain getting in the way of the longer term loss. Sure the government can boast about the quantity of money they made by selling the airport, selling electrical facilities, selling Telstra. But they gave up a MASSIVE longer term stake in gaining revenue and being more financially stable to get a headline in a couple of newspapers, a few pats on the back and a nice big positive cashflow for that financial year. What about looking at the longer term, ten years, fiften years, fourty years? Basically because of the selling off of these assets, we the population get bent over and fucked up the arse with lower speed limits, more easily broken rules and a government (state or federal regardless) that is so cash strapped that these "easy" offences have gone from being primarily being a safety issue to being a core feature in next years budget. A prime example is the mobile speed cameras being run by a private company for the government. The RTA boasted that they had budgetted on netting 132 MILLION in the first year of the camera operations, and the money from that had been accounted for in the budget rather than being put to a more appropriate use such as allocated to a "road safetytrainingwhatever" budget. Further to this i personally think that although it sucks to be pulled up by a copper for doing the wrong thing, i would MUCH rather that than get a letter in the mail 2-5 weeks later saying "hey, you know that money you worked for? we want some because you screwed up a little while ago". I have nothing but contempt for the government with big fucking holes they have dug themselves with their eyes being fixated on the short term profit at the expense of our long term prosperity as a country.
[edit]A perfect example o short term gain, long term loss is the M5 East. The state was given the option by the contracted builders of increasing the lanes from 2 to 3 in the tunnel for a "mere" 10% increase in cost at the time of construction. The government/rta/minister for transport baulked at spending that (not insubstantial, but also wisely invested) money in favour of only spending on 2 lanes as it would be at least 2 maybe 4 terms before the shortsightedness would screw everything/everyone up. Now they are forced to contemplate spending at least the same, if not a LARGER quantity of money to either perform long term night-works to make it 3 lanes or to provide an alternattive to increase capacity somewhere, somehow.[/edit]
Thankyou for your time.
