I hear you Barry , I just reciently traded my 300kw - 515nm XR6 Turbo in on a brand new Great wall 4x4 at 100kw and 200nm , it just aint worth it these days , a sad fact on some roads , but I dont like it when a speed camera is set up 50 metres from a 60 - 100kph zone and snap's nearly every one , thats plain money grabbing . .
This happens a lot up here in the NT .
Brian.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barrykgerdes
On the local main roads of the north west of Sydney I generally travel at between 3 and 10 Kph over the limit. However I am overtaken by every one else (mostly young ? girls with P plates) and regularly get tail gated by other impatient drivers if there is no passing area.
The days of me travelling at 180-200 kph in a big v8 are long past.
The regulations states that the speedometer can be up to 10% out of calibration on the high side (reads a high speed than you are traveling). Low side tolerance is 0%. This way, if you speed, you are definitely speeding, no if's and's or but's about it...
Correct but not the whole story. That ADR (which is more complex than just a percentage) came into effect in 2006. In about another six years they will be able to say that the "average" car has an instrument in it that was built to that spec, but is now over a decade old. And of course, half the fleet was built to the older + - 10% spec and is even older.
As for "don't speed and you won't get caught", hasn't anyone kept tabs at all on how many times in vic they have had to bulk refund fines and almost certainly even reinstate licenses (the loss of which may well have cost jobs and bankrupted people) because of faulty or just plain inaccurate or unreliable cameras?
BTW, I have been driving since July 1989 without an infringement so the above is not supported by sour grapes. More by disgust in how road safety is managed at least in vic.
It's all about revenue, when have you seen them patrolling schools or hostpitals Anyhow the laws the law and why shouldn't you pay when the rest of do? It's only minor lol and i don't see it affecting anything work or life, so whats the issue? It happens to us all and its always only a little bit, its just a matter that its being 35 yrs since your being caught and your soar about it. Lol don't worrry you should i've herd me getting a fine for a camera which was placed on a down hill run which is invalided but would cost more to fight.
Was carefully keeping my speed under 60 in a 'built up' area whilst passing a traffic cop pointing a radar at me....and was wondering why the car behind me was falling behind.
Hmm, so turns out the speed limit is 50 in built up zones, even if the road is about 4 times as wide as an A road in the UK. Pretty sure it was right here I got done for.
Hi Dan,
I agree that is bordering on ridiculous. That is a safer road than to justify only 50K limit.
I was booked in 1993 doing 60 in a 40 zone. I had travelled on that road a hundred times. The limit changed from 60 to 40 one day. The signage was new and partly obscured by a tree.
The area had several judges living there. I assume that they had pressured that the limit be reduced. Yet the road is bordered by parks and houses and could accomodate 4 lanes.
Speedos these days are within 3% of stated, normally showing you over the limit. (This is correct size wheel\tyre dependent of course ). I use a GPS on the Legnum to ensure actual speed although even on the 18"' racing wheels it was within 3%. ( The fact that the GPS has a Lidar detector is quite accidental btw ).
I've worn a few tickets, just have to pay them and move on. With twin turbos, 4wd, AYC and 300kw it's a fact of life. Haven't lost my license yet and I save the real speed for track time. I've always been polite to the officers who have tagged me and been given some leeway in several instances. Wife has even taken pix of us chatting on the side of the road.
But having the extra boost and control that AYC gives has also gotten us out of several near misses from other hoons. So don't knock having the extra kw's, if I'd been in a Toymota Blobmobile a year or so back we'd both be dead after coming round a corner to another car head on on the wrong side of the road. We swerved and never even touched door to door.
Just use it wisely and take your medicine when you have to ....
I hear people say "money grabbing" and "revenue raising" a lot when they get fined for breaking the law.
So what alternatives do you suggest. Maybe loss of licence?
I hear people say "money grabbing" and "revenue raising" a lot when they get fined for breaking the law.
So what alternatives do you suggest. Maybe loss of licence?
Likewise you cannot say it isn't "money grabbing" or "revenue raising" . The state governments rely on this income so much that they are now booking people for being 1 km/hr over the limit which is rediculous given the error that speedometers are permitted to have from manufacture. Maybe a three strikes rule before you loose your licence would be a better penalty. Every driver has sped at least once in their driving time, it is a human error thing the government banks on.
I lost respect for the whole safety argument when Victoria Police decided to stop booking people a while back to gain their 19% pay rise, which the Victorian government quickly awarded to start the revenue flowing again
There wouldn't be any money for them to grab if you weren't caught speeding. Don't you guys see the irony? They're not stealing your money, you're giving it to them.
I hear people say "money grabbing" and "revenue raising" a lot when they get fined for breaking the law.
So what alternatives do you suggest. Maybe loss of licence?
Just remember, it is only revenue raising if "you" let it be.
On the local main roads of the north west of Sydney I generally travel at between 3 and 10 Kph over the limit. However I am overtaken by every one else (mostly young ? girls with P plates) and regularly get tail gated by other impatient drivers if there is no passing area.
The days of me travelling at 180-200 kph in a big v8 are long past.
Barry
Barry caught on a speed camera in Western Sydney....tut tut...
Just remember, it is only revenue raising if "you" let it be.
If they stopped using speeding fines to build up the coffers they would simply have to raise your taxes to compensate. They even include speeding fines as part of gov't gross income when they set the budget so they would need to get it from somewhere else. At least with fines only the silly or unweary have to pay. If you don't speed, you won't get fined and if you do get caught take it on the chin and pay up.
If they stopped using speeding fines to build up the coffers they would simply have to raise your taxes to compensate. They even include speeding fines as part of gov't gross income when they set the budget so they would need to get it from somewhere else. At least with fines only the silly or unweary have to pay. If you don't speed, you won't get fined and if you do get caught take it on the chin and pay up.
Mark
Agreed, one way or another we will pay. Since I rarely get done for speeding I am happy for everyone else to continue paying traffic infringements, so that I don't get slugged more tax.
If they stopped using speeding fines to build up the coffers they would simply have to raise your taxes to compensate. They even include speeding fines as part of gov't gross income when they set the budget so they would need to get it from somewhere else. At least with fines only the silly or unweary have to pay. If you don't speed, you won't get fined and if you do get caught take it on the chin and pay up.
Mark
Or, they drop the tolerances and start booking people at 5 km/h over the limit, like they do here in Victoria. They then place hundreds of "safety cameras" on the freeways and major roads to build up the coffers.
Let's be clear, this is no longer about road safety, we all know it. So trying to dodge a fine is like putting in a tax deduction.
The only way to dodge the fine in Victoria is to write a letter to the Police explaining that you've been a good person for at least the last 12 months, you have to admit that you transgressed and plead for sympathy. For the most part, if the infringement was under 10 km/h over the limit and you have a clear record they'll issue a warning notice instead and cancel the fine. If you get done within another year forget it and pay the fine.
As for those of you who say "I don't speed" etc. I can only assume you don't have a car or simply don't drive. If speeding is doing 5 km/h over the limit, then everyone who drives does it, unless all they do is look at their speedo all the time, in which case they'd crash at the first corner they encountered.
I meet people everyday on the freeway who claim to never speed, or at least that's what their driving habits tell me, they are sitting at what their speedo says is 95 km/h (in a 100 zone for instance), when in reality they are doing somewhere between 85 and 90 usually. They sit in the right hand lane and will not move over because they are doing what they feel is the maximum speed allowed. This causes other people (read me and the line of cars that has built up behind them) to move into the next lane and undertake them. Now, this may mean that I have to accelerate to get into the gap either left of me, or when I get around the right lane hog, to the right of me I may ever-so-slightly creep over the speed limit, sometimes enough to get booked by a speed camera. Who caused the "crime"? This is just as frustrating in a 60, 70, 80 or 90 zone. I have a car that can do the speed limit, I am capable of controlling the car at the speed limit, I would like to do the speed limit, no more, preferably no less.
I have calibrated my speedo with a high accuracy GPS device and the (few and far between) speed indicators on some major roads around Melbourne.
I don't think it's about whether you speed or not. I certainly do. I lost my license when I was younger due to accumulation of points for speeding. One time wasn't for speeding, but for not wearing a seatbelt while driving around the corner to fill the car up with petrol, probably 200m away from home. Not harming anyone but myself. But never once did I complain about it. I was over the limit, I knew that, I took my medicine.
I still speed today, usually up to 10% over the limit when it's safe. I have been caught. That's my fault. It's not revenue raising, it's me paying for breaking the law.
Don't know where you guys stand on drink driving. Perhaps 0.05 is just a fuzzy guideline too. Get caught and blow 0.08, write a letter to someone and get off. Or don't get off and complain about the limit being too low or revenue raising.
These laws have to apply to everyone. Some of us may have faster reflexes than others, or drive more aware than others, or perhaps we can tolerate slightly higher blood alcohol than others and still drive safely. But there's a bell curve that the law-makers need to consider for all drivers behind the wheel. I'm sure there's drivers out there that could drive at 30km/hr and still not be able to brake in time if a kid jumped out in front of them when the rest of us could easily have stopped. Gotta consider that. Can't have a speed limit for faster reflexes and different one for others.
I'm not even talking about elderly drivers, that's a whole 'nother conversation.
If you get in a car after drinking, thats a deliberate choice,
and if caught, you deserve everything you get.
Exceeding the speed limit by a few kph whilst maybe watching the traffic around you vs yr speedo is a totally different proposition.
Sure, chuck the book at excessive speed, and drink driving,
but wandering above / below a nominated speed limit whilst keeping station in a fast moving traffic flow is not in the same league.
How many of the speed fines are for this offence in "smoothly flowing traffic" on the major freeways.????
I speed pretty much all the time, at least 20 over most often. Never killed a kid yet.
Drink drive too. In the early days used that menthol excuse more than once to buy me some time. Some mates in the ED cooked up some alibis why I had to wait before getting the blood drawn. Even had my girlfriend at the time use hers once. And it isn't true what they say, about fooling the breathalizer with MJ eccies and ice, you can take my word for that. Nodoz and those handy little bumps they put on the sides of the road usually get me home at 4 am. Cut backs in the force, I'm never going to get caught.
Seat belts are for sissies. If my head goes through the screen who's it gonna harm except myself. And all my dependents. And anyone who ever cared about me. And all those tax payers who'll have to pay for my care for the next 30 years because I'm such a stupid ****up...
Jeez I'm a good driver.
Last edited by Miaplacidus; 06-12-2012 at 09:50 AM.
I hear you Barry , I just reciently traded my 300kw - 515nm XR6 Turbo in on a brand new Great wall 4x4 at 100kw and 200nm , it just aint worth it these days , a sad fact on some roads , but I dont like it when a speed camera is set up 50 metres from a 60 - 100kph zone and snap's nearly every one , thats plain money grabbing .
Anyhow the laws the law and why shouldn't you pay when the rest of do? It's only minor lol and i don't see it affecting anything work or life, so whats the issue? It happens to us all and its always only a little bit, its just a matter that its being 35 yrs since your being caught and your soar about it. Lol don't worrry you should i've herd me getting a fine for a camera which was placed on a down hill run which is invalided but would cost more to fight.
