Brake,
brake, brake!
Guido hits the speed industry junkies while his daughter hits the brakes…
The people who
administer our roads are fools, liars, thieves and a danger to the rest of us.
Let me give you an example. Ms A Jnr was driving me somewhere the other afternoon
and, unbelievably, she missed the bright red lights at a pedestrian crossing.
“Brake, brake, brake!” I yelled. We pulled up safely.
Now Ms A, the most-recently licensed of our family of four (after two years
on L-plates), is usually cautious and sound as a driver – but has some
way to go as a rider. What went wrong? “I was watching the speedo,”
she replied.
She was concentrating on the dials because her sister got nailed by a speed
camera recently (nothing dramatic, and her first ‘offence’ in four
years of driving), as did her mother (66 in a 60 zone at 8.00am on a Sunday).
That last one is funny in a sick way, because it’s her first ticket in
20 years and it happened on a test scooter.
Ms A was worried because she can’t afford a fine, so she had her head stuck
in the dashboard.
What makes this most insulting is she’s a pilot (with commercial ambitions)
in the late stages of getting an open private licence, which means she has been
trained to within an inch of her life to understand basic physics, aerodynamics,
navigation, plus the mechanics and handling of the aircraft itself. This is
someone who can cope with a more difficult vehicle in a disciplined fashion
in far more complex circumstances.
Here’s an example: She went on a solo navigation exercise recently, with
a four-seater plane. Her nav calculations (which were checked by an instructor)
went pear-shaped, the weather at one of her stop-offs turned ugly and prevented
a landing, while her route home was blocked by a monster cloud bank and forced
a diversion. But she brought the plane home in one piece, three hours later,
only a few minutes off schedule. It was a big effort in very difficult circumstances,
with no second chances.
On the road, however, she’s watching the goddamn speedo, which won’t
be accurate, hoping she won’t fall victim to speed cameras which –
coincidentally – also have a dubious record when it comes to accuracy.
As Ed Snag would say, this whole situation is the original bad idea built on
a dodgy premise. As of April 1 (and I wish I was joking), NSW riders will be
pinged three demerit points for any (yes, any) speed transgression. Double that
for public holidays when double points are in force. This is despite the fact
that double points historically simply discourage tourism without discouraging
fatalities.
You might be pleased to learn that no two states have the same policy/fines/culture
when it comes to speeding. This could be a good thing, but suggests that –
despite the amply-funded protestations from road ‘authorities’ –
no-one really has a central resource of wisdom on this.
So much for the bad idea, now let’s go to the premise – which is that
speed kills. I’m almost bored with hearing myself say this, but the whole
speed-kills industry (which has a momentum of its own these days) is built on
the house of cards of accident research, largely underpinned by source stats
from Plod who, in the absence of analytical ability or evidence, ticks the ‘speed’
box in the crash report form almost as a matter of course.
This feeds state governments which haul hundreds of millions of dollars of tax
revenue out of the system, score easy-fix ‘safety’ votes, egged on
by career-driven bureaucrats, plus the over-rated committees and over-paid ad
agencies that live off the speed-kills carcass.
The people who underpin this whole nonsense couldn’t research a sandwich,
let alone traffic. And they are supporting the fools, liars and thieves who
make a living out of the lie. You can all get rooted.
Guy "Guido" Allen
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