ACT underspent blackspot road funding

Funding for the Blackspot program is provided to the ACT Government based on projects that they nominate. There are specific critera the site must meet for it to recieve approval for funding under the program (which DOTARS was not recognising properly as said in the report). The $80,000 underspent means that the projects approved for completion came in under budget, therefore they are liable to pay the money back the the Commonwealth. If the projects went over budget, the ACT Government are able to request extra funding.

*throws money into bathtub* Yay……wait

Data are rarely as simple as “we did X, and Y changed by Z amount, and this is good/bad”. You might only reduce the rate of increase (or decrease) in Y, or even hold it steady. There are likely to be multiple factors affecting Y, not just X. There might even be factors working against X, and X simply offsets their effect somewhat. Y might even increase, because the funding for X isn’t enough to fix everything that affects Y.

The only stat I need about speed cameras is that they bring in bucket-loads of revenue, all taken from the pockets of dimwitted losers to be spent on law-abiding winners like me. Yay speed cameras! *rolls around in bathtub full of speeding fine money*

hear hear….just like speed cameras – fixed and mobile – where are the actual stats to back up their location and continued use.

Thanks for those figures, nothing like some hard data to add sanity to any debate. Now, do we have any similar data showing reduction in vehicle accidents so we can measure the effectiveness of this spend?

Cheers!

Hello,
I just thought I would offer some clarification of this issue as it seems there is a bit of misinformation going around.
The ACT is given $602,000 annually for blackspot works. Over the past 10 years, the amount spent on actual projects each year has been:
2006-07: $522,500
2005-06: $743,000
2004-05: $654,564
2003-04: $487,876
2002-03: $611,840
2001-02: $513,000
2000-01: $490,000
1999-00: $531,000
No stats available for 1998-99
1997-98: $880,000
1996-97: $480,000
As you can see, in some years the Government has overspent on Canberra’s allocation, and in some years the full funding has not been required to complete the necessary projects. This is down to the nature of the different projects undertaken – it would be slightly suspicious if the spending came in at exactly $602,000 every year!

Also, it is important to note that funding is rolled over from one year to the next, so the ACT is not ‘short-changed’ if the entire allocation is not spent in a single financial year.

As one of the above commentators said, it is important that the Government completes its projects, not that every cent allocated gets spent, and the extensive list of completed projects on the Auslink website (http://www.auslink.gov.au/funding/blackspots/index.aspx) indicates that this is happening.

I hope this has cleared up some of the confusion.

Actually, the question should be “would $80,000 have made any difference with respect to those goals?”. $80,000 isn’t a great deal when you’re talking about roads (just have a look at the budget figures and how much even small works cost). No doubt more could always be spent on road safety (as with any other field), but to insist that they spend all the funding down to the last dollar, just because it’s there, is exactly the sort of bureaucratic waste of money that people are always complaining about.

Did they achieve their aims and goals?

One of the things that really irritates me about governments is the ‘funding’ mentality. If they achieve their aims and goals with less money, why spend/waste what’s left? That’s MY tax money they’re wasting!

if they don’t even spend this pittance given to them to fix roads that are marked as being black spots, why the f**k are we adding a zillion new speed cameras?

I don’t mind taxes if they need the money, i just hate the lying and safety BS. The feds are just as bad with all the levies and surcharges.