Lowest road toll in 90 years - why?

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Originally Posted by Chops

Personnaly, I would credit the toll with with a major speed decline.
I do a few miles up and down the Hume, and I think our truckies here will agree, people just dont seem to be going as fast as they did,, it even seems noticable in the last twelve months.

I've had my Defer now 2 years, but when I had the V8's, I'd set cruise 10-15klms higher than the speed limit, and it was nothing to have a heap of cars either doing similar, or trying to keep with you,, (I'm guessing they figured I'd get caught first, so they'd be safe,,).
These days, even in the Defer, rarely am I passed by other vehicles,,, and I'm sitting on the speed limit :eek:,,
It just seems as if no one wants to go fast anymore. Wether its because of the cost of fines or they're becomming responsible,, who knows. But they're slower now, thats for sure.

When I was picked up the other week with the broken turbo hose, talking to the tow truck driver, he said that with all the safety gear in cars now a days, there are much fewer "compound" type injuries as compared with 20 years ago. So, in old times, people had massive skin breaking type injuries, whereas today, theres very few. This is due to all the airbags in vehicles now. This seems to do the job in low speed accidents, but in high speed,, the body just cant withstand the forces at work.

I agree with John about newer cars and going faster than one should because you do feel safer.
I came out of a Toy75 ute which at the time handled ok, and then went into the D1. The D1 handled so much better, and this made you feel safer and inadvertantly drive faster. The unfortunate thing about going faster, is that they dont really make "you, the driver" any better a driver. The corner just arrives quicker :eek:

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I also spend a bit of time on the Hume, it's quite amazing the difference in driver behavior before and after the Federal Hwy joins. I'd agree with the statement that they are driving slower but not that they are any safer. All that happens now is the idiots with the blue and white plates sit side by side at 107 Km/h and scowl at anyone who dares to come up behind them in the fast lane.
The speed traveled seems to vary with the time of day as well with the slower drivers being on the roads at the times that you would expect those for who a trip to Sydney is a major undertaking. We went to Woolongong on the weekend and the traffic was much better behaved and flowed more smoothly on the return journey on Saturday afternoon than it did on the way up on Saturday morning.


Regards,
Tote

I would class a Discovery on physical size, not mass, as a sub-compact like a Camry. Full size cars are ones like top end Cadillac, Lincoln Town Car, Ford Crown Vic, big Benz's, Rollers, Bentleys and so on. Commodores, Falcons, Chrysler 300 are compact cars.

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Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Actually in NSW not paying a fine (even a parking fine) gets your registration cancelled, you then end up with driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle. A massively more costly exercise than the fine for less than 10KM over the posted limit.

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Been there, done that,,, and I was fuming when I finally paid it,,, same as above, what right does a council have to essensually suspend your licence. Having said that, I can at least see the aligment of parking fines in the scheme of things.
I suspect something that most people are'nt aware of, is whilst you have 21/30 days (whatever it is) to get your car re-rego'd, once you do go to pay it, you then have to go through certain channels to pay the original fine,,, this can then hold you up depending on time/geography, which can then leave you having to get a Blue Slip for total "new" rego because your time is up. :mad:
As said,,, a much more costly exercise. :eek:

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Originally Posted by ScottW

Same in Qld, not paying a fine (including council fines such as a parking fine or dog not on a leash) gets your licence suspended, meaning you are then driving unlicensed and uninsured for something that may not even be related to driving.

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How can a council justify what is basicaly suspending your licence due to a fine for a dog??

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Originally Posted by Tote

I also spend a bit of time on the Hume, it's quite amazing the difference in driver behavior before and after the Federal Hwy joins. I'd agree with the statement that they are driving slower but not that they are any safer. All that happens now is the idiots with the blue and white plates sit side by side at 107 Km/h and scowl at anyone who dares to come up behind them in the fast lane.
The speed traveled seems to vary with the time of day as well with the slower drivers being on the roads at the times that you would expect those for who a trip to Sydney is a major undertaking. We went to Woolongong on the weekend and the traffic was much better behaved and flowed more smoothly on the return journey on Saturday afternoon than it did on the way up on Saturday morning.


Regards,
Tote

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Some I have encounted in the last few months have been totally painful. Some will pull out to overtake a truck, but then wont actually pass, or take a ridiculasly long time to do it. Or as you say,, just cruise together at 105, and sometimes even less :mad:
I do miss my V8,,,

I'd say luck is as much a part of the lowest road toll in 90 years, as much as all the good points discussed in this thread.

Perhaps fewer young people living in the bush may have some baring. But they still stop at the local, sink several, and walk out with a box. I watched at least 4 do it just last week. I can testify country back roads are still as windy, pot holed, uneven, and with failing patched edging as they always have been.

I also watched from a good distance 4 cars tail gate each other for several hundred kilometres at 100km/h coming home yesterday. One roo, one tyre blow out, or the like and I was in for a good spectacle.

The little kings of our weird democratic and free society will brag they have achieved greatness with the road toll. But I'd say 50% luck.

The fact that they suspend your licence for not paying some piddly little fine like 5km/h over the limit is just more proof that governments have been allowed to get away with excessive harassment of the poor old motorists, who have been treated like suckers and exploited umercifully. The fact that a huge number of drivers are currently unlicensed is mostly nothing to do with road safety, but is simply because people either won't, can't or aren't aware that they have fines to pay. There have been many cases of people not even receiving fines in the mail, maybe because they moved or their dog ate it, and not even knowing that their licences have been suspended. This has nothing to do with road safety, its simply another example of harassment, I reckon.
Americans fought a war to be free of British harassment. The miners at Eureka revolted against government atempts to impose a crippling mining tax on them. Edward Snowden fled to Russia to expose the way Americans, and all of us, are being spied on by our own governments. Wikileaks has exposed many other examples of how we the people are being lied to by our governments.
Does personal liberty mean nothing nowdays? When will we mushrooms finally get so fed up that we decide we're not going to take it any more?

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

The fact that they suspend your licence for not paying some piddly little fine like 5km/h over the limit is just more proof that governments have been allowed to get away with excessive harassment of the poor old motorists, who have been treated like suckers and exploited umercifully. The fact that a huge number of drivers are currently unlicensed is mostly nothing to do with road safety, but is simply because people either won't, can't or aren't aware that they have fines to pay. There have been many cases of people not even receiving fines in the mail, maybe because they moved or their dog ate it, and not even knowing that their licences have been suspended. This has nothing to do with road safety, its simply another example of harassment, I reckon.
Americans fought a war to be free of British harassment. The miners at Eureka revolted against government atempts to impose a crippling mining tax on them. Edward Snowden fled to Russia to expose the way Americans, and all of us, are being spied on by our own governments. Wikileaks has exposed many other examples of how we the people are being lied to by our governments.
Does personal liberty mean nothing nowdays? When will we mushrooms finally get so fed up that we decide we're not going to take it any more?

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Lead the revolution, brother.

The rest of us might wander along later.

Ha! Yes, sounds a bit extreme on re-reading that, but it is how I feel, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

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And Mick never even mentioned those law abiding interstate motorcyclists that were picked up in Surfers Paradise ;)

DId the law-abiding interstate motorcyclists crash? Probably not in the figures.

Two interesting facts about 2013:

1. 2013 had the lowest road toll in 90 years in NSW and Victoria.

2. 2013 was the hottest year in Australia in 90 years, according to the official weather records.

Those who enjoy conspiracy theories ( or dodgy logic) might conclude that hot weather lowers the road toll, while cold weather causes more people to crash. Unlikely, I would think, but amusing.


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