27 June 2012

Road rage the worst of our worries?

| johnboy
Join the conversation
19
agreement signing

OK fess up. Who threw an egg at Simon Corbell’s car?

The Police Minister has announced the signing of another ACT Policing Purchase Agreement and it seems behaviour on the road is the big focus for the next year, along with response times:

“The amount of priority one (within eight minutes) and two (within 20 minutes) incidents responded to within national benchmarks, have been increased by 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, to revised targets of 75 per cent and 70 per cent of calls received,” he said.

Mr Corbell said the government was also acting on the Canberra community’s concerns about anti-social behaviour on the Territory’s roads.

“The ministerial direction I have signed today specifically addresses this concern with a requirement for ACT Policing to focus operations on anti-social and dangerous driving behaviours on Canberra roads,” he said.

“Another continuing key focus for ACT Policing will be to improve on great results in the fight against property crime.

[Photo Courtesy Simon Corbell’s office]

Join the conversation

19
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest
VYBerlinaV8_is_back10:08 am 29 Jun 12

shirty_bear said :

smont said :

Note to Simon Corbell: establishing a police presence on the roads would be a good start. 30 minute commute to and from work five days a week on major Canberra arterials, and I can say in all honesty I have not seen a single police car on the roads once this year.

Yep. All this bollocks they carry on with … there’s no substitute for seeing cop cars around to get tools to pull their heads in.

Absolutely. More marked police presence is what we need.

smont said :

Note to Simon Corbell: establishing a police presence on the roads would be a good start. 30 minute commute to and from work five days a week on major Canberra arterials, and I can say in all honesty I have not seen a single police car on the roads once this year.

Yep. All this bollocks they carry on with … there’s no substitute for seeing cop cars around to get tools to pull their heads in.

I saw a cop this morning. 🙂 He was in his car at the the northside exit of the Yarra Glen roundabout ready to pounce on those naughty people that use the bus/taxi lane there to avoid the queue of cars going through the roundabout the correct way. I wonder how many he got as going that way every morning there are a lot of serial offenders who think waiting in the correct lane is too below them. I mean there time must be sooooo much more valuable than ours…

Note to Simon Corbell: establishing a police presence on the roads would be a good start. 30 minute commute to and from work five days a week on major Canberra arterials, and I can say in all honesty I have not seen a single police car on the roads once this year.

helium said :

Tooks said :

kevn said :

How about they work on the pricks stealing cars before they worry about how those cars are driven.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/act-car-thefts-slip-below-national-average-20120625-20yt7.html

This says the complete opposite, that our rates are above the national average Jan-March ’12
“The Australian Capital Territory’s quarterly short term theft rate equates to 0.80 thefts per 1,000 registered vehicles or 0.57 thefts per 1,000 population. These compare with the national rate
of 0.65 and 0.50 respectively.

http://ncars.on.net/docs/quarterly/act.pdf

It is also odd that our rates are so high as I would have thought higher ACT income = more newer vehicles which are statistically stolen less, presumably due to immobilisers and harder to break into.

One is talking about 2011, one is talking about January-March 2012. Will be interesting to compare at the end of this year.

Tooks said :

kevn said :

How about they work on the pricks stealing cars before they worry about how those cars are driven.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/act-car-thefts-slip-below-national-average-20120625-20yt7.html

This says the complete opposite, that our rates are above the national average Jan-March ’12
“The Australian Capital Territory’s quarterly short term theft rate equates to 0.80 thefts per 1,000 registered vehicles or 0.57 thefts per 1,000 population. These compare with the national rate
of 0.65 and 0.50 respectively.

http://ncars.on.net/docs/quarterly/act.pdf

It is also odd that our rates are so high as I would have thought higher ACT income = more newer vehicles which are statistically stolen less, presumably due to immobilisers and harder to break into.

kevn said :

How about they work on the pricks stealing cars before they worry about how those cars are driven.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/act-car-thefts-slip-below-national-average-20120625-20yt7.html

I don’t really get why you translated “anti-social and dangerous driving behaviours on Canberra roads” into “road rage”. I define road rage as deliberate violent acts towards another road user, usually triggered by something that happened in traffic. And often involving a baseball bat or fists. Which does very occasionally occur in Canberra, but it is insignificant compared to the occurrence of the behaviours that could potentially cause people with anger management issues to snap.

What’s the point of asking police to focus on driving behaviour when the turnstile legal system lets criminals off with a light smack on the bum?

Actually, helium’s post has a really good idea. Pooh-bags caught doing bad things on the roads have to undergo a re-test to get their licence back. It’s all very well to pay a fine, but imagine if along with the fine, they had to prove their competence to drive. Now THAT would be a disincentive.

EvanJames said :

Road behaviour in the ACT just shows what people will get up to if allowed to. Tailgating, menacing driving, queuing across intersections, aggressive and anti-social driving, everyone’s noticed it. With the road rules being treated as road suggestions, it’s no wonder that a lot of people just do what they want to.

I agree, this is long overdue, but there needs to be some actual disincentive (so threatening with a knife is a similar penalty to threatening me with 2 tons of steel) and some chance (not remote) of actually being observed and penalised.

I predict more (marked and unmarked) patrols with camera equipped vehicles, maybe with RAPID.

I would prefer most penalties be non-monetary and there be some actual ‘learning’ (like classes/retests, or having a camera and tracker attached for a month, alcohol interlocks) or real ‘inconvenience’ (properly losing you licence and having to catch a bus, confiscated vehicles)

kevn said :

How about they work on the pricks stealing cars before they worry about how those cars are driven.

Yes we should stop vehicle theft, can we start by putting them in those ‘garage’ thingies that most people have but use to store crap and not left about on the streets and front lawns.

Fit an immobiliser to older vehicles ($139 from Jaycar) or a car alarm.

Take you keys with you at the service station (and everywhere else) because it’s sensible and also the law, this one “not remove ignition key (no-one in vehicle) fine $102”.

Secure/hide your keys at home when away.

kevn said :

How about they work on the pricks stealing cars before they worry about how those cars are driven.

I say go back to the public schooling system and end the 30 years of teaching public-school children to be selfish, undisciplined and dishonest.

“Mr Corbell said the government was also acting on the Canberra community’s concerns about anti-social behaviour on the Territory’s roads.”

Great. It only took the Labor government 11 years to get around to it. With that kind of initiative we may have light rail by 3114.

Waits for someone to say that the numbers are wrong, should be easy to start putting the missed priority ones as priority two’s and missed two’s as something else.

“Mr Corbell said the government was also acting on the Canberra community’s concerns about anti-social behaviour on the Territory’s roads.”
So they admit there is a problem but only now saying they will do something about it. Must be close to an election.

A good start to cracking down on dangerous driving is to get that bail refused!

How about they work on the pricks stealing cars before they worry about how those cars are driven.

I smell an opinion poll driven reaction in a pre election period. They can now say they are doing something thus neutering that Alister boy’s ranting.

Apparently the cops have also been directed to crack down on public drunkenness,anti social behaviour and alcohol fuelled violence.It’s about bloody time they got serious and adopted a zero tolerance approach to those idiots who can’t behave themselves.

Road behaviour in the ACT just shows what people will get up to if allowed to. Tailgating, menacing driving, queuing across intersections, aggressive and anti-social driving, everyone’s noticed it. With the road rules being treated as road suggestions, it’s no wonder that a lot of people just do what they want to.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.