28 September 2009

To Flash or Not to Flash?

| bigfeet
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For the last three weeks I have noticed the boys(girls) in blue out on Flemington Road in the afternoons and the mornings with a radar gun. They have been in a few different spots, both directions, and at different times, but I would say at least every third day I have seen them out there.

I reckon this is great. A visible police presence and people being pulled over immediately, not getting a ticket in the mail six weeks later.

But for 500 metres before you get to the radar one out of every four cars coming the other way is flashing their lights to warn you it is there.

So what do Rioters think?

    –If the purpose of a speed trap is to make people observe the speed limit, then flashing serves that purpose. You should always flash because it makes people check their speed

OR

    — Flashing just giving hoons a warning that there is a radar ahead, but it’s safe to speed anywhere else. You should never flash because you are helping a criminal get away.

Speed traps

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[ED – Having overcome my disappointment from the headline (I had hoped we had young women contemplating exposing themselves for some reason) I can’t help recall driving the New England Highway up near Tamworth. Rounding a bend doing 140 I discovered a police car coming the other way. I hopefully hit the anchors and was rewarded by a light flash and no other sanction. Around the next bend there was a speed camera, which I avoided only thanks to the friendly police of Tamworth.]

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What do you mean ‘you people’?!?!?!?!

haha you people are funny. One minute your complaining about the silly twit that sped past you at 150 clicks, or feeling sad for the poor girl that died in a car crash that was travelling at more that double the speed limit and the next minute your flashing people to warn them about speed traps.

Lets face it, getting a speeding fine is crap, but if you don’t speed then there’s no problem. By warnign motorists your helping people break the law.

It’s like helping distract a checkout chick whilst some random steals a few Mars Bars, that you don’t even get to eat!!!!!

I’m not one of those who push the “only revenue raising” argument for radar, cameras etc. Generally it is pretty clear what the speed limits are and there’s no excuse for going over (despite the fact I often do).

However, the laws against flashing headlights are ridiculous. If police and govt want us to slow down, surely a warning to other drivers is a good thing. But I’m interested that it is the engaging of high beam that is the problem. I had thought it was something to do with obstructing police. I wonder if you would get booked flashing your headlights to warn of an accident or similar.

Pandy said :

Flashing is illegal? What law is that? How can you dazzle someone in broad daylight? What if I merely turn on and then off my lights quickly without engaging high beam?

There us a law for dazzle (rule 219 ARR) and also for using high beam within 200 mts of another vehicle (oncoming or in within a vehicle in front) rule 218 Aust Road Rules – ARR The world is your oyster if you choose to find a loop hole beyond those rules.

Flashing is illegal? What law is that? How can you dazzle someone in broad daylight? What if I merely turn on and then off my lights quickly without engaging high beam?

Bundybear said :

School zones are a whole different world, anyone who speeds in a school zone, thereby putting kids at risk, should receive a stroke with a cat-o-nine-tails applied by a seven-foot front rower for every kph over limit.

If I ever get someone on my rear end when I’m doing the 40k speed limit, I drop my speed to 30k’s & if they still don’t back off, down to 20k’s. If they haven’t learnt their lesson yet, I stay 10-20k’s under the limit when we leave a school zone.

I only ever flash if I know that the Police vechile is a Traffic Officer or an ACT Government owned speed camera van (even the ACT Police warn drivers for these). But if it is normal, honest General Duties Police Officers, out on Patrol, I don’t warn people.

But if I see one of the pussy drivers hooning it around, I’ll randomly flash my lights at them & look in my rear vision mirror as they slam on their brakes & laugh at the odd occasion where they loose control for a brief second & just miss the street sign.

Funnier when you pull on the handbrake. No brake lights then.

Reaction is much better

canberra bureaucrat said :

Tailgating is very annoying. When people tailgate me, I want to pull over in my pretty little subaru and biff them over the head with my pot plant.

I know how much pressure to put on the pedal to activate my brake lights without actually engaging the brakes.

I often touch the pedal when someone is tailgaiting me. It’s fun to look in the mirror at them trying to react.

Anyone not paying enough attention ahead to notice a speed van from a mile away while they’re speeding deserves to get caught, really.
(That van could be some kid ready to run onto the road without looking, so if you didn’t notice the van..)

The same people probably don’t pay enough attention going the speed limit, either.

canberra bureaucrat10:01 pm 08 May 09

By all means sit above the limit where the conditions suit, go slow for school zones, get booked or whatever.

Just don’t endanger others, and don’t tailgate. Tailgating is very annoying. When people tailgate me, I want to pull over in my pretty little subaru and biff them over the head with my pot plant.

Sgt.Bungers said :

I always flash for radar guns and speed cameras, or any other hazards on the road which would otherwise result in a driver braking hard if they hadn’t received advanced warning.

Never flash for RBT’s though.

I don’t warn for RBTs, came across one in Kambah on Wednesday (someone flashed me as a warning, useless as they were patrolling the other direction anyway) and they were doing both speed and RBT, I didn’t warn any other driver.

I will warn for any speed camera van as they are revenue raisers. Depending on the location of radar guns I may nicely warn. I will never warn for school zones, it is the the one place I will never speed at all myself. Drivers speeding in school zones should be shot.

I flash to warn, except if it’s a hoon-mobile or an idiot with their foglights/headlights on in broad daylight.

I also randomly flash city-clogging 4WDs and other idiots driving around with lights on in broad daylight.

I don’t ever bother flashing Subarus, which are the new Volvos and driven by this generation’s complete potplants.

I always flash for radar guns and speed cameras, or any other hazards on the road which would otherwise result in a driver braking hard if they hadn’t received advanced warning.

Never flash for RBT’s though.

I also randomly flash drivers on the country roads around Bungendore who are going far too fast. Don’t have to do this often, usually once a month, and almost always on Macs Reef Road to someone who’s just cut a corner slightly wandering onto my side of the road so they can maintain 110-120 in a 90 zone lined with driveways, intersections, school buses/children, horses and kangaroos. Always, without fail, you’ll see brake lights come on in the rear view mirror. Win.

I flash, for anything that requires warning… a breakdown, a crash, a dead roo on the road, or even cops. But I don’t flash hoons about cops. And actually, on the rare occasions there are cops on the Captain’s Flat Rd, I don’t flash for that either, as they’re doing something useful.

Generally I always flash on 70km/h+ roads, mostly on others, but never in school zones or the road that goes past my house (50km/h). I call it tough, love.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy12:58 pm 08 May 09

Couldn’t agree more. Drifting along the parkway at midday at 110km/h is a completely different story to hoofing through school zones. Kids are known to be unpredictable, and school zones are one speed limit I do agree with.

School zones are a whole different world, anyone who speeds in a school zone, thereby putting kids at risk, should receive a stroke with a cat-o-nine-tails applied by a seven-foot front rower for every kph over limit.

colourful sydney racing identity said :

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

I’m no saint when it comes to speeding, I try to behave for the most part, but am more concerned with driving to the conditions than monitoring the speedo

Same here.

I always flash to warn other motorists. Those who take delight in seeing others getting booked are sad little people.

I must be one of those sad little people. I take great delight in seeing people who drive unsafely or above the speed limit getting pulled over.

+1

me, too. Especially in school zones.

#11

Here here.

It’s what Canberrans were born to do.

colourful sydney racing identity12:06 pm 08 May 09

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

I’m no saint when it comes to speeding, I try to behave for the most part, but am more concerned with driving to the conditions than monitoring the speedo

Same here.

I always flash to warn other motorists. Those who take delight in seeing others getting booked are sad little people.

I must be one of those sad little people. I take great delight in seeing people who drive unsafely or above the speed limit getting pulled over.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy11:03 am 08 May 09

I’m no saint when it comes to speeding, I try to behave for the most part, but am more concerned with driving to the conditions than monitoring the speedo

Same here.

I always flash to warn other motorists. Those who take delight in seeing others getting booked are sad little people.

hellspice said :

i thought it was illegal to warn others ?

Not illegal to “warn”, but it is an illegal use of high beam.

chewy14 said :

DarkLadyWolfMother said :

I tend to randomly flash when I know there are no speed traps around. I do my bit to help in little ways.

When people do this and I find out that there is no speed trap, I drive faster to make up for the lost time.

It’s actually safer to drive really fast, it means that you’re on the road for a shorter period of time, and hence there’s less chance of you having an accident (if you were driving slowly, there’d be double the amount of time in which an accident could occur).

This is even more important when it’s raining or foggy: you should drive as fast as you can and get home as soon as possible. After all, you can’t have a car accident sitting on the couch and drinking beer, can you?

Before y’all cross into territory previously covered:
http://the-riotact.com/?p=10220
“NSW introducing fines for drivers flashing lights to warn motorists”

i thought it was illegal to warn others ?

I generally flash to warn people of speed traps, although I sometimes don’t if a car coming the other way gives me some reason the suspect they are a d1ckhe@d! Like a spoiler on an excel…

DarkLadyWolfMother said :

I tend to randomly flash when I know there are no speed traps around. I do my bit to help in little ways.

When people do this and I find out that there is no speed trap, I drive faster to make up for the lost time.

@#3 Love it. I’m might start doing that too. I’m no saint when it comes to speeding, I try to behave for the most part, but am more concerned with driving to the conditions than monitoring the speedo – I love my cruise control because on the few times I’ve been pinged it’s mostly been because of speed creep on the highway. Flashing expands the range of the speed trap, and like weeziepops said, they don’t care about the revenue, it’s about slowing people down in a bad area.

DarkLadyWolfMother said :

I tend to randomly flash when I know there are no speed traps around. I do my bit to help in little ways.

Is that why Canberra drivers go around with their lights on when it isn’t foggy?

xyro said :

and the mighty old patrol uses 25-30 litres per 100 kays over 95! Ouch!

Egads! That’s horrible, surely it shouldn’t be anywhere near that bad.

DarkLadyWolfMother9:26 am 08 May 09

I tend to randomly flash when I know there are no speed traps around. I do my bit to help in little ways.

i was a bit dissapointed with the content after great expectations with the title too!. But i always flash, I never speed (not since I was 22 or so) anyway so the flashing does not help me. I like money too much to drive over the limit, and the mighty old patrol uses 25-30 litres per 100 kays over 95! Ouch!

I always flash, on the assumption that the point of speed traps is slowing people down and not raising revenue. Plus it’s kinda like stickin’ it to The Man…

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