I followed this thread over the weekend and didnt post on it for a few reasons, I am a truck driver and run a small transport company in Victoria mainly metro and close country towns.
finnet you agree its about revenue and not safety, have you had your speedo checked lately?
the western ring road you described as nuts has multiple fixed speed cameras all along its length, truck drivers know this and dont speed! what do you do, sit in the right hand lane and dare them to sit on your bumper at 90-95kms, maybe your nuts, the reason trucks sit close sometimes is because they look ahead of you and see the road clear ahead, and because once they brake they loose the momentum required to maintain the safe speed limit so they dont brake until the last moment hopeing you will change lanes otherwise it will then slow the whole freeway down to the speed you are travelling at, why do you think the WRR is always stopped or crawling, it is because of the amount of traffic it takes, if there is roadworks and a 60 limit is enforce, the road stops 5 klms from the roadworks, because you get nearly twice the amount of cars over the same length of road doing 100 than doing 60.
If everyone travelled at 10Klms under the limit there would be huge traffic problems on most roads.
The whole speed and red light camera debate was won when the Victorian government started installing red light cameras in the CBD, the majority of intersections in our CBD now have red light cameras, how many serious injuries or deaths occurred in the CBD in car accidents, it is clearly about raising revenue.
The cameras have removed the majority of the cowboys from the industry years ago, it is now very hard to find drivers with less than seven points against them, most are now one or two indescretions away from loosing their licesnces, and then who will drive the trucks to deliver your products.
Also it is very hard to know what the speed limit it nowdays, we have 40, 40school, 50, 60 70, 80,90 and 100 limits, and a road that looks like say its 80 or 90 can nowdays be 60 or 70, let alone roadworks limits of 40, or 60, if you miss one sign your in the poo, how can you keep your eyes on your speedo, in fact you dont, or I dont, I drive by what the speed feels like and very rarely check the speedo.
I also paid attention to 'cautious' drivers today, and noticed how many cars actually slow down approaching green lights, scared of being booked going through a red light camera, braking approaching a green light is more dangerous, then proceeding through an intersection on amber or just red.
Why I asked if you had had your speedo checked lately, is because I had my sister in law following me once and I was sitting on 95 in a 100 zone and she kept falling behind, I had to slow down further anyway when we reached our destination, I asked what she was doing and she told me she was sitting on 100, when I informed her her speedo was incorrect, she said that probably explains why she always gets passed and people 'toot' her.
By the way I am on four derriment points, three were from a red light turning camera in the CBD, the and other wasnt me.
