FJ's and kangaroos

[T Legg]

Here we now have mobile (cell) phone detector cameras. $344 fine and 5 points (max of 12 points before loss of licence). Points penalty is doubled on public holidays for any traffic law infringement.

We need that here.  If only we could have that without the rest of it.

No thanks. I would much rather take my chances of being hit by a distracted driver than start down that road to having the restrictive laws the Brit's and Australian's have to deal with.

[krusty]

Here we now have mobile (cell) phone detector cameras. $344 fine and 5 points (max of 12 points before loss of licence). Points penalty is doubled on public holidays for any traffic law infringement.

We need that here.  If only we could have that without the rest of it.

No thanks. I would much rather take my chances of being hit by a distracted driver than start down that road to having the restrictive laws the Brit's and Australian's have to deal with.

You'd rather increase your chances of being hit by a driver distracted by their phone?

[Motofun]

Here we now have mobile (cell) phone detector cameras. $344 fine and 5 points (max of 12 points before loss of licence). Points penalty is doubled on public holidays for any traffic law infringement.

We need that here.  If only we could have that without the rest of it.

No thanks. I would much rather take my chances of being hit by a distracted driver than start down that road to having the restrictive laws the Brit's and Australian's have to deal with.

You'd rather increase your chances of being hit by a driver distracted by their phone?

Absolutely...only a short hop and step to becoming the countries most wanted criminal for sneezing in an elevator....

[Millietant]

I suppose at least we don't really have to worry about actual traffic cops any more - there are only a fraction of them out and about now that speeding send to be the only driving offence anyone is interested in


How many cameras catch drunk drivers, or those who drive while drugged, distracted, or just plain dangerously !!

[ribbert]

I wonder how the law is written for enforcement? In Kalifornia it is not illegal to hold a portable recording device or a GPS. How does the camera know the difference?

This is an example of the sort of shot the cameras take. It's also illegal for the front seat passenger to have their phone facing up where it could be seen by the driver if they looked over, FFS!!

Our car has a huge touch screen stuck in the middle of the dash that controls everything and sometimes (OK, every time) it requires prolonged staring to figure out how to activate or change anything. However, if my wife had her phone on her lap facing up and an incoming call or notification lit the screen up just as we went under a camera, I'd be done as per the fines and penalties Krusty mentioned.
They are also allowed to sting you for seat belts from the same photo. Chances are you're also being checked on a speed camera at the same time and if you were taking a swig from a "traveller" (beer) well, it's all over! 

Then there's the cameras that every Police vehicle is fitted with that can automatically scan up to 2000 number plates/hour on vehicles travelling in either direction as they drive down the road and every time one pops up on the system for expired rego, outstanding warrants, unpaid fines etc. they just pull you over and screw you for even more money, or even wheel clamp your car. The business comes to them.

They are also about to fit hidden speed cameras into temporary roadworks speed limit signs.

They recently became the first place in the world to introduce a tax on electric vehicles (a user pay system) because they are losing out on tax revenue at the petrol bowser (they actually said that). You send a photo of your odometer to them at whatever interval and they send you back a bill for the distance you've driven since the last one and if you're not snappy enough about it, they can suspend your vehicle registration or drivers licence until you pay.

The city I live in has been voted World's most Liveable City more times than any other and is rarely if ever out of the top ten and it's certainly a great place but the idiots that run it are obsessed with using motorists as cash cows, and I really mean obsessed. We have over 400 fixed traffic cameras in the city, the highest earning ones raking in nearly $5,000,000 annually, each! I've been stung at 2 of the top 5 in the last year.

Motorcyclists pay a $70 levy on top of their registration and insurance because the govt claims we are more likely to have an accident than driving a car and that on average, injuries require greater care. They don't take into account that a bike is highly unlikely to injure people in a car when they collide, we should get a discount if anything.

I need some seat time to clear my head, I should be writing ride reports, roll on end of lockdown!

Noel

[ZOA NOM]

George Orwell is LOL in his grave at us.

[Millietant]

Another hare-brained thing here now is the imposition of 60 mph speed limits on sections of our Motorway network, the reduce enisions and improve air quality.......

The vehicles with the highest pollution levels (commercial lorries) are already restricted to 56mph electronically anyway, so the new limit will have zero impact in that respect.

All of the electric vehicles on the road have zero tailpipe emissions anyway (their emissions are back a time the power plant producing the energy), so the limit will have zero impact on them as well.

So the major impact from this new limit is going to be the reduction in emissions from a family car, or a van, doing 60mph instead of 70mph......and that's going to give us clean air 

Give me kangaroos and deer any day, they're much easier to negotiate than the man-made hazards. 

[T Legg]

Give me a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play, where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the sky's are not cloudy all day.

[red]

There are just too many of them and now they're mounting them high above the road.
The next step that is being considered again is microchips in number plates to track location and speed 100% of the time so that automatic fines can be processed the second you break the speed limit. I'm sure this will again be defeated easily, but it shows the mentality of the advisors and public safety bodies involved in the ongoing development of our traffic laws

Don't have to "microchip" your number plate...if you got the covid vax, the chips are in there...so no matter which bike you're riding.

Sparky,

Saw a "political" cartoon once: George Orwell was in his publisher's office, jumping up and down on both feet, furiously waving his fists around, and yelling at the publisher . . .
V
V
V
V
V
V
" . . . 94! . . . 94! . . . The title of the book was supposed to be 1994!"
.

[krusty]

Here we now have mobile (cell) phone detector cameras. $344 fine and 5 points (max of 12 points before loss of licence). Points penalty is doubled on public holidays for any traffic law infringement.

We need that here.  If only we could have that without the rest of it.

No thanks. I would much rather take my chances of being hit by a distracted driver than start down that road to having the restrictive laws the Brit's and Australian's have to deal with.

You'd rather increase your chances of being hit by a driver distracted by their phone?

Absolutely...only a short hop and step to becoming the countries most wanted criminal for sneezing in an elevator....

You need to move to a more northern state Noel. Wasn't it your mob that was also contemplating reintroduction of front license plates because they were missing out on revenue from speed cameras that detected from the front? FFS.
More and more of our red light cameras now double as speed cameras to grab those who accelerate to beat the red, which IMO, is not a bad thing. I got pinged by one of those a couple of months back, not trying to beat the red light but over the limit (about 5mph) as I was in a hurry to pick up my vintage guitar from a luthier who had just finished its restoration. (BTW, I got off the speeding fine after appeal due to my driving record).

[ribbert]

Give me a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play, where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the sky's are not cloudy all day.

Haha, I agree with the sentiment Travis but the last place I want to go riding is where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play.





Noel

[ribbert]

You need to move to a more northern state Noel. Wasn't it your mob that was also contemplating reintroduction of front license plates because they were missing out on revenue from speed cameras that detected from the front? FFS.

Yes it was, they fought it to the death but couldn't come up with something that worked. I believe now the new cameras can photograph both ways and over time the old ones will be upgraded.

Show us a pic of the guitar and what makes it special.

Noel

[ribbert]

You need to move to a more northern state Noel.

Only if I can bring the roads with me!

Noel

[krusty]

You need to move to a more northern state Noel. Wasn't it your mob that was also contemplating reintroduction of front license plates because they were missing out on revenue from speed cameras that detected from the front? FFS.

Yes it was, they fought it to the death but couldn't come up with something that worked. I believe now the new cameras can photograph both ways and over time the old ones will be upgraded.

Show us a pic of the guitar and what makes it special.

Noel

I bought it second hand about 1965. It's a Japanese made Teisco.

[Motofun]

OK...going off topic here...I don't know sh*t about geetars but looking at the Australian electrical outlet brings an old question to mind.  I get why 200 VAC is superior to the US standard 120 VAC system but why 50 Hz instead of 60 Hz?