ACT Government gouges motorists, hoards $55m surplus

My 20 year old car has numbers ever 20 and a notch every 2 (bigger ones on the 10s), and its been tested to be accurate. Thanks. Another reason not to waste money on a modern car when I can invest it in bicycles!

My speedometer at a speed of 100km/h is only accurately (with a number) marked at 80km and 120km.

This is a gap of 40km/h that the speed guage can travel before I know accurately how fast I am going.

I’m sure nearly every RA poster and lurker has the same design dial.

Since speed cameras are so accurate, the vehicle industry needs to catch up on this process and create more speed accurate vehicles. Never mind the bluetooth, bells and whistles – better designed vehicles is one that you tell it to go 100, and it does – exactly.

(I’m aware of cruise control – I’m talking more mainstream and user friendly)

Watching the speedo all the time to make sure we don’t go over a set limit is stupid and dangerous. With a leeway of five km this has become necessary. I have work out that dangerous sections of the road are those where cameras can be hidden. Exceeding the limit is quite often the safer thing to do as is attention to the road rather than worrying about an idiot restriction. Yes there are idiot drivers but speed is only one indicator. In the ACT we should be proud of the fact in terms of road deaths it is lowest in the world. Speed cameras have not had any impact on this it was that low before they were introduced. An interesting facts are that deaths doubled in the ACT year after introduction and John Hargreaves opposed them.

Hey, it’s not a compulsory tax, so I don’t care. If I don’t want to pay, I hit the breaks.

No point reducing the fuel excises, they are frozen at the moment anyway from memory, you just wont get the roads built. Plus we pretty much have the cheapest petrol in the western world, the prices are only going to get higher.

shanefos, waiting to vote. 😉

If we really want to help victims of crime how about we enforce the collection of fines levied by the courts. I’d love to know how many of these fines are actually collected. I’m sure we could raise the 500k by actually making the criminals pay up!

If you’re going to whinge about this, where have you been for the last few years when it comes to the Federal Government’s failure to reduce fuel excises?

Obey speed limits. Problem solved. Stop whinging.

How many of you kiddies really believe
that this new tax will go anywhere other
than consolidated revenue to fund whatever
is the new hippie project?

My problem is not with compensating victims, but with who that compensation is extracted from. Yes, if you have a crash and injure someone, or if you’re done for reckless driving/DUI, or if you’re caught excessively speeding the fines and/or sentence should reflect the amount of damage/trauma you have committed (or could have committed), but where is the justice in being slugged an extra fee for a parking fine?

The government claims it will raise half a million dollars from this levy – i’d wager a hefty percentage of that will come from speed cameras and parking tickets, not DUI/dangerous driving.

Does anyone have figures on the number and nature of traffic infringements issued per year?