Police Wrap - 22 January

TheScientist said :

, i still obey the speedlimit. why? because it’s the law

really TheScientist. do you really obey the speed limit because it’s the law? You would be the only one in Canberra to obey the speed limit. People that actually drive below the limit all the time are extremely rare in Canberra. On Gungahlin drive you will always be overtaken no matter how fast you are driving.

TheScientist said :

racing is not the same as driving on the street.

Agreed.

and while i fundamentally agree that in most situations there is little to no harm caused by speeding, i still obey the speedlimit. why? because it’s the law

Also agreed. However, broken legislation doesn’t magically mend – it requires your voice, your indignation. Blind Freddy could see that better, regular driver training would enable both higher speed limits and lower rates of injury and fatality, but until there’s enough whinge, nothing will change.

racing is not the same as driving on the street.

and while i fundamentally agree that in most situations there is little to no harm caused by speeding, i still obey the speedlimit. why? because it’s the law, and i don’t want to give the government extra $$. In canberra, most of the lights seem to go pretty well if you just go at the limit. otherwise there’s constant start-stop at every set of lights. why stress out about getting caught, or getting there first, when you can just enjoy a drive for a bit longer?

when i was a newer driver i didn’t see it that way until i got my first ticket.

but now, if you want to go fast, why not go to a track day where you can go REALLY fast, and not worry about other people or police?

oh yeah, because you wont beat that other guy to the next light, so there’s no fun in the speed….

sadly I didn’t explode, catch fire

Fixed that for you.

What is it with people and speed limits. When I used to race motorcycles I often travelled at 280kph and shockingly I didn’t explode, catch fire or change into a terrorist. IMHO it’s dangerous to travel below the speed limit if everyone around you is doing 20kph faster and vice versa. If there is no-one around then it really doesn’t matter how fast you are going. After all we are now travelling at 1669.8kmh relative to the sun.

harvyk1 said :

IMHO traffic enforcement spends too much time on the “easy to catch” offences such as speeding (either you where or you where not) and drink driving (either your over the limit or your not) and no where near enough time on bad drivers in general eg overtaking on double lines, pulling out in front of cars, failing to give way. In other words stuff which has a high risk of an accident occurring without the other driver doing something drastic (eg slam on brakes, swerve off the road or onto wrong side of road etc)

Granted it’s an “easy catch” area (downhill) but there are a lot of pedestrians and cyclists in that area going to and from Uni/CSIRO/Civic so the police are justified IMHO. In this area speeding is dangerous. Agree totally that not enough is done about bad driving.

harvyk1 said :

The only way this stuff will be caught is by placing a ton of police in undercover cars and have the roam the streets. It’s not unusual that see at least one good example of what I’m talking about in a day, so imaging what coppers driving around 24 x 7 could find?

I don’t think unmarked cars are needed, quite the opposite. A visible police presence will do more to prevent bad driving rather than police in unmarked cars pulling people over after they have committed an offence. Prevention is better than cure.

justbands said :

> One of the motorists – a 25-year-old man from Queanbeyan – found exceeding the speed limit on the Monaro Highway this morning (clocked at 105km/h in an 80 km/h zone) was the same one who was recorded at 158km/h in a 100km/h zone on the Monaro Highway on Saturday morning (January 17).

What an idiot. I wonder if he’s learning yet.

Give him the cane and I bet that learns him!!

JB \ Jazz, you need to put in an edit button, I noticed a couple of missing words \ letters in my previous post.

Up to 24km/h over the speed limit is a too fast, but lest we forget that Barry Drive is an 80 zone for half of it, which would mean only 4km/h, and until we become Victoria that’s considered within tolerances, so it’s more than reasonable to expect that even the car been pinged at 84km/h was not driven by an intentional speeder. (It’s not like 150 in a 60 zone).

I know the flip side is that as a driver we’re suppose to be 100% aware, but I’ve seen in more than one occasion people when passing a 60 zone sign, slowing down traffic from 80, a lot of people simply coast rather than actively brake. Given the slope of Barry Drive I know of more than one occasion where someone has been pinged because they slowed down too slowly.

IMHO traffic enforcement spends too much time on the “easy to catch” offences such as speeding (either you where or you where not) and drink driving (either your over the limit or your not) and no where near enough time on bad drivers in general eg overtaking on double lines, pulling out in front of cars, failing to give way. In other words stuff which has a high risk of an accident occurring without the other driver doing something drastic (eg slam on brakes, swerve off the road or onto wrong side of road etc)

The only way this stuff will be caught is by placing a ton of police in undercover cars and have the roam the streets. It’s not unusual that see at least one good example of what I’m talking about in a day, so imaging what coppers driving around 24 x 7 could find?

That’s for an ACT licence,,,this guy from Qbn obviously has a NSW licence.
Chances are they would have given him a court date or a large fine.

I knew a guy who lost his licence for a total 58years (for repeated offences)in NSW and was told if he was caught driving again he would be jailed.

He was caught again 3 days later in ACT and got a fine after going to court and was banned from driving in ACT.

The different state laws make it easy to cross the border and get away with stuff.