I think instead of pushing cops around school zones to slow us down, they should push the parants to teach the kids not to run onto roads like idiots,

And especially around high schools, i mean cmon?
Like some teen would be that stupid.

I've seen a guy at my school get picked up, roll off the bonnet onto the windscreen then onto the roof then fall off.

Picked himself up, brushed his pants, apologised to the driver and walked off to school.

WHen we saw him walk off me and my mates started to crack up.
It was the funniest **** to see him walk off. Seemed like it happended in slow Motion too.

Another time dowm the road from school, one of the kids got cleaned up pretty bad.
Damn kids running out from behind cars.

It feels so slow going at 40Kph.

Only Victorians know what being a victim of revenue raising is all about.

Victorians aren't the only ones. In tassie our speed cameras aren't advertised at all and infact all our cameras are hidden. just yesterday i saw a camera on an overtaking lane on a straight stretch of highway - couldn't have been for anything but revenue raising.

but the point i think he was trying to make is that they could put the camera on a road that would be likely to take a life if there was speed involved unlike a straight stretch of road where it is safer to speed.

I agree we should not speed but it is revenue raising when they do that.

By the way i do speed, i have been caught, i still speed, and try not to get casught again. By the way i travel over 2000k a week so i havent done to bad to have 9 points left.

A kid died around here because he steped out from behind a bus. The poor bloke who hit him was doing about 40-50 (up hill), yet they put a big blody 40k school zone into a road that is capable of 90(speed limit of 60 - so you come down the hill and the revenue camera is hiding in the bushes).

stick to the speed limits and you wont have a problem with speed cameras.......

because 3km/h tolerances are so hard to stick by and all...

some of you lot have absolutely no idea. You cant teach kids not to be unpredictable. School zones are about the only sensible thing the law makers have done, that and suburban 50 zones..

you young uns will no doubt change your tune when you have little ones of your own. Who here would not be the first to kick up, if their little one was hit by a car exceeding the posted limit.. I know id fair on kill the driver. my kids are to be protected at all costs.. do any of you remember what its like to be a kid????

grow up and stop whinging about it. Instead, why dont you find out where all the schools in your area are, and avoid driving that way ??

paul

I don't care about School Zones, I just keep away from them, but parents really shouldn't let their kids near the road if they are that unpredictable. My parents kept me away from roads until I was taught my road rules and I never ran onto a road without looking.

As said above, it is just natural selection... although, I wouldn't want anyone to lose a child.

To all these people who defend revenue raising by saying don't speed... Most people who speed cop it on the chin and know they've done wrong. It's just the fact that the people who control the speed cameras aren't using them to slow drivers down and save lives by making them visable in dangerous areas. They are hiding them on long straight roads where there has probably never been an accident.

I got done doing 106km/h by a speed camera in a 100km/h zone going down a hill in the bush/country at 6am on my way to work. There is no people out there to even save, it was a straight wide road with no houses/driveways anywhere... Just a speed camera hiding behind a tree for people drifting over the speed limit because of the hill.

Anyway, I think it's not the fines that piss people off, it's the fact they don't appear to be trying to save lives with the speed cameras

QLD rules with their warning signs before camera... Victoria should put warning signs up everywhere, even if there is no camera, that would slow people down, but then they wouldn't make all their revenue

[ October 06, 2003, 23:39: Message edited by: Stone ]

I have managed to avoid a speeding fine so far.
My biggest problem with the vic rules is that they changed it to only a 3km/h buffer at any speed b4 they book you. this used to be 10%.
the problem is that for a car to be legal, the speedo only has to be within 10% accurate.
so i could be sittin on what i think is 100km/h, and they could book me for 110km/h because my speedo is 10% inacurate! but its still considered legal???
Its stuff like that that really gets me angry!

Well to be honest, a 40 "school zone" outside 2 high schools in my area is bloody stupid, i HAVE to drive through them as there is no other access into this area, it's not the 40 zone that gets me, it's the reasoning, i have no problem at all with the 40 zones outside the primary and infants school just down the road either, those young'ens don't KNOW not to run out behind a car, they go off the parents that actually tell them to run across! But putting a 40 zone for a high school is a bit rich, sorry, but if they are in high school and can't check the road before crossing - or for that matter - run in front of a car without looking - it's pretty bloody stupid.
Just for your info you cannot speed in an overtaking lane, you can't exceed the posted speed limit, everyone DOES usually, sometimes people get booked for it, but i mean, if you speed, one day you'll get caught for it, i'll *touch wood* admit i do a little over the speed limit in most areas, because 1. there's no other cars on the road and it's some odd hour to be driving or 2. because the road can handle that speed safely... if i get booked, it's my own fault, regardless, i'll accept that, i haven't been done in 5.5 years.. *touches wood*.......
I must admit tho having epping road (80 zone) to a 40 zone in school hours is a bit steep too, basically, because the kids now RUN across the road, because when people do 40 they know they can make it, till someone trips and dies in a 40 zone, then they'll make it a 20 zone..........
How about, instead of police going around with radar's and booking people for speeding, that they actually go on patrol's and book people for bad driving, lane changing without blinkers, people driving like dickheads, etc, they are the ones causing accidents... i don't know if the powers to be realise that speeding is NOT the cause of the accident, a BAD DRIVER is the cause, someone who cannot judge the situation and drive appropriately... more driver trainging and more concentration on turning bad drivers into good drivers is needed... After all, when was the last time you saw "bad driver dies in car accident because he's a tool", no you see "young hoon speeding dies in car accident".... in reality it's bad driving not speeders we should be booking!
Just my 2c

I agree with the school zones being 40 or 50k but what p1sses me of is the cameras in the 100 zones the are straight enough to do 120 or 130 safely.

The cameras in QLD dont put the speed camera sign out before the camera, they sit it next to the camera so you can go past and say sh1t look at that a speed camera, too late.

I have proabaly travelled around 600,000ks since i have got my license and lost a few points and had one accident where only my vehicle got damaged badly. I know when its safe to speed and when its not.

Another thing to consider is your vehicle, How good are all the tyres and suspension, if they fail when your speeding your stuffed. my tyres are starting to get abit thin on the ear so i have slowed down till i replace them but when i change them its a different story. you have to know your vehicle is going to fail aswell.

I dont mind the school zones.

The ones down here are slow down only if there are kids present.

But i agree its crap drivers who cause accidents!!

Ive been driving for nearly 4 years now since my L's

I do speed ccasionally *touch wood* i havnt been caught coz its only occasionally ill give it a quick blast.

Or if im in a hurry i might get a bit excited but i know my car and i know my limits so therefore usually im only ever speeding on the open roads.

But we get little try hards with points too prove goin past our house doing maybe 160Km/h sometimes i live on a long straight road but tossers like that r the ones the cops should be trying too catch.

But instead of cameras in town they stickem on the open roads just out of whyalla

Also the cops here put the camera then 20meters down the road put the sign saying "speed camereas save lifes" Bull crape they do in peak hour down here most ppl seems to be at least 10k's over the limit

[ October 07, 2003, 11:31: Message edited by: Rolling Thunder ]

I don't mind *fixed* speed cameras in NSW as they are well signposted, you'd have to be a tool to get done by one unless your speedo was WAY out.
But some of the other stuff is ridiculous. For example I use cruise control as much as possible around town etc to manage speed, so I can keep my eyes on the road and not on the speedo all the time. But coming down a steep windy hill I got done by a cop coming the other way up the hill for speeding (cruise control doesn't work well on hills). A few weeks earlier I got done by 2 red light cameras because I *didn't* accelerate to beat the lights (had a boot load of customer computer gear so I couldn't stomp on the brakes). I have NEVER been involved in an accident and it looks like I might lose my license for 3 months, which will make it very hard to get to work or do my job (onsite technician). I can only hope the letters I wrote get considered favourably.

Sure, doing 30kph+ over the limit, burnouts, etc etc should definitely be serious stuff to be caught doing, but not petty stuff like what I did.

School zone speed regulations should always be adhered to, and thats final. Children have smaller mental capacity, and do not comprehend traffic and roads until they mature in age. The high school argument is to a point valid, but you do see some stupid younger teenagers nonetheless. Revenue raising is a problem, however drivers who attain the ability to adhere to the speed limit show a true skill. Everybody gets the urge to sink the boot in every now and then, but when you observe accidents that add to the road toll (a large number due to speeding) it makes you rethink. A television commerical detailing the difference 5 kilometers can make in braking distance shows the dramatic increase in risk speeding poses.

In saying all this, I was booked for doing 79 kilometres/hour in a 60 zone. As everybody had told me how they got off with a warning first time being caught by the police, I was expecting a possible leniency from the officer. This did not happen and I lost 3 points in 1 hit and now only have 1 point remaining (4 points on provisionals). Dare I say this will be my first and last speeding ticket for a long time. I actually paid the ticket straight after i got it I continued to debate the ticket for the following weeks, but copped it sweet on the chin and learnt from my mistakes. You will not catch me speeding at all now, and I rarely did speed before the booking either.

So my point is that in my case and in some others, the fear of potentially losing something I hold very valuable (my license) will deter drivers from repeat offences. I still agree that petty offences like what Ribfeast explained is not worth being dealt with so harshly. I also completely utterly agree that hoons who do over 150 km/h on some roads should be targeted moreso. (I know some idiots who do these speeds nearly daily and have never lost a point!).

Cheers and thanks for listening to my long story, probably bored you all to the crapter

With all this talk about school zones lately I often wonder how any of us are alive ?
I mean, I often remember the Saving Private Ryan-esque carnage on the roads outside my primary school at 3pm, kids getting mowed down left, right, and centre - I'd say the only thing that saved my life was the crossing guard providing covering fire while i ran like hell...

Oh, no... wait - that didnt happen...
Well why did we survive ? OH... We were TAUGHT to respect the road rules...

RTA - preventing darwinism since 1998

[/rant]