Quote:
Originally Posted by UncleHo
Your first post was right on the mark, after this post I am again a swinging voter. I agree with your sentiments, not your timing.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UncleHo
Your first post was right on the mark, after this post I am again a swinging voter. I agree with your sentiments, not your timing.
Mate you just wrote the text-book about how to drive when being overtaken by a heavy vehicle 100% correctQuote:
Originally Posted by vnx205
ONE dAY INTO OUR PEOPLE. 13 AT LAST COUNT DEAD IT IS LUDICROUSE. NEVER MIND THE CARNAGE. NO BODY WISHES TO REMOVE YOUR BODY FROM ANYWHERE, So if you would just all take a deep breath, All I ask is PAY ATTENTION ON all accounts TRY TO MINIMISE THE CASUALITIES. Pay xtra xtra attention, cause im gonna ask questions later.B safe u all.
Christmas is coming and the road toll is going to go through the roof.
No wonder with all those city drivers killing themselves on country road.
WRONG.
WRONG.
This report in the Open Road shows that both of those popularly held beliefs are incorrect.
Holiday Roads and how to survive them
In fact the road toll is just as high during the rest of the year,
So why does almost everyone believe it is higher during the holiday period?
Probably partly because we see death during what should be a time of enjoyment as more tragic.
The most important reason however is the media. They sensationalize the road toll at Christmas partly because people expect to hear about the road toll and there isn't much else happening, but more importantly because a lot of journos are on holidays too. That means the media rely more on the news events that are easily covered with a skeleton crew.
While our instinct might tell us that city drivers are going to have trouble with country roads and higher speeds, the actual figures don't support that belief.
Country NSW makes up about one third of the state’s population but experiences over two-thirds of all fatalities. In the period of 1999 to 2003, speed-related crashes lead to the deaths of 659 people. Of these speeding drivers killed or injured in country areas, more than 83 per cent were country residents and more than 44 per cent crashed in their local area.
In fact given that more people are undertaking longer trips during the holiday period than the rest of the year, it is astonishing that the holiday road toll is not higher and is possibly an indication that they pay more attention at that time to the road safety message.
I don't want to sound as if I am criticizing the plea that victa125 has made for people to take extra care in the next few weeks, but the evidence is that people do take extra care during the holiday period. In fact people need to be persuaded to take care for the rest of the year as well.
I am not trying to downplay the tragedy of the holiday road toll. I am just pointing out the fact that it is every bit as high right throughout the rest of the year.
I recently returned fron the UK where I drove the length of the country, and spent a week in London and lots of time driving in both the country and the cities.
The first thing I noticed, and it's not to be underestimated, is the difference in skill level and common sense on the motorways, left lane slowest, right lane fastest, and people consistently(?) moving to let you merge on, then either tucking in behind you, or overtaking and ducking in front. I don't remember 1 "rolling roadblock" the whole time I was over there! I know that over there you can get booked for being in the wrong lane, and It's illegal to overtake a slower vehicle on it's left side, and boy did it make a difference!
I think the australian "she'll be right" has gone further and become "I don't care about anybody else, as long as I'm right"
I'm amazed at how many times I've been on the freeways and it's 3 lanes wide, very light traffic, and there are 3 cars doing 90K's alongside each other, and no-one can pass.
Another thing, here in Melbourne there seems to be a whole plan to make driving one's car in the inner city as un-attractive as possible (I don't know if it's to get cars onto the toll roads or not) but I live in Carlton (inner city) and there are 3 parallel roads down to the city that used to be 2 lanes each way and they have gone and put bicycle lanes in all 4, and reduced the traffic to 1 lane. all this for very few cyclists. all this does in my opinion is increase driver stress. and while I'm having a rant, traffic lights!!!! they are now putting them on the silliest intersections in residential streets that have never had a problem.
Enough of this,
Rant over!
Fraser
In NSW on a multi-lane road with a posted speed of 80K or greater, it is illegal to be in the right lane when not overtaking. However there aren't enough Police* out there to book anyone on the roads. When they are there are a dozen Police in the one place doing RBT (on every car that travels on that particular road during the Operation)Quote:
Originally Posted by fraser130
How many people have traveled on the M7 in Sydney - it is only 2 lanes each direction, there is no dead lane for breakdowns, the verge slopes away into a concrete wall and for much of it's length there are 4 cycle lanes. Has anyone ever seen a pushbike on any of the cycleways. I haven't.Quote:
Originally Posted by fraser130
Diana
* NSW Police are losing more officers through resignation and retirement than they can recruit and train through the Academy and the average experience level of the Police Service is reducing.
Yeeha! Over half of NSW police are deployed in Traffic (Revenue) Branch.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies
I think you've hit the nail on the head here :o. I am a firm believer that they are creating heavier traffic on roads parallel to new tollways (eg Stud Rd from Knox to Dandenong). In these days of super-great technology and sensors at lights etc, why are entire groups of 50 cars getting a red light, then just as the first in the group gets to the next lights, IT TURNS RED. I've seen this happen for half a dozen lights in a row. 50 cars all creating pollution accelerating from 0 to 60 just to stop again in 200m, over and over again. And i'm not talking about peak hour traffic in the city. This is the outer suburbs.Quote:
Originally Posted by fraser130
Reply-to-rant rant over ;)
Maybe they are sponsored by the oil companies.:eek:
Looks like we're getting better at it.
NSW road toll lowest since WWII - Breaking News - National - Breaking News
How about them apples?:DQuote:
NSW road toll lowest since WWII
January 1, 2008 - 12:46PM
NSW Premier Morris Iemma has welcomed the preliminary road toll figures for 2007, saying the toll of 445 fatalities is 10 per cent lower than last year.
Mr Iemma said the figure was the lowest loss of life on NSW roads since World War II.
"This is the fifth consecutive year the road toll has reduced despite a steady increase in traffic on our roads," Mr Iemma said.
"Motorists deserve credit for heeding the road safety messages."
He said this year's fatality per population rate was the lowest since records began in 1908.
The road toll peaked in 1978 with 1,384 road deaths.
The 2007 figures reveal a reduction in passenger fatalities and a reduction in the number of P-plate driver crashes.
Cheers
Simon