Well, here I go again, responding to a dead line of comment. But then you never know. Just might get a bight.

I agree with Ellyeti; “I can't believe that training will not improve drivers' skills and attitudes.”

If the training is right, then the desired result will be there, at least to a fair extent. Besides, how stupid are we to allow young drivers to get behind the wheel before they have had more than adequate training, and testing? It should simply be unthinkable.

It is evident every day on the roads that people don’t know the road rules, don’t know or care about safety margins and risk factors, and generally drive far less safely than they should be, often without even realising it – because they have never been adequately trained.

Exhaustive training is in order. It should be almost as hard to get a driver’s licence as it is to get a pilot’s licence. And those who have a licence without that training should be required to take it within 12 months, or forfeit their licence. Then every driver should be required to do a refresher course every five years.

Various other things need to go hand in hand with comprehensive training, such as a vastly improved policing effort, a realistic mechanism for ordinary citizens to do something about dangerous and stupid drivers, and a meaningful penalty system that is really going to deter idiots. How about displaying the faces and names of people caught for speeding and other dangerous and unlawful driving on the television within the local 6pm news and in the local newspaper, so that the embarrassment or shame factor becomes a real deterrent, along with a hefty fine and accrual of demerit points.

We have never collectively got serious about this whole issue. It completely beats me as to why not.

O well said Ludwig

But training, no matter how comprehensive, including graphic demonstrations of the consequences of driving unsafely, is only going to go so far for as long as the policing regime is pathetic.

The traffic branch is considered to be about the lowest rung on the police ladder. It has steadily declined in terms of officers and funding per citizen, at least in Queensland. Traffic cops police about 1% of traffic laws, concentrating on speeding, drink-driving and very little else. And even with these, the effort is not much more than token, and pretty obviously oriented towards revenue-raising a lot of the time. Aggressive tailgaters, dangerous overtakers and generally impatient drivers just simply get away with it, end of story.

Queensland has just got a fleet of bright red police cars. The idea is for the police to be more conspicuous and hence have a greater impact on slowing drivers down and reducing other misdemeanours on our roads. Well I reckon that is entirely the wrong approach. ALL police vehicles should be unmarked, but equipped with a siren and flashing blue light that identifies them as police immediately and unambiguously when needed. If police cars were unmarked, then in the minds of drivers every reasonably new car across a wide range of models could be a potential police vehicle. Surely this would be much more effective in mitigating mongrel driving behaviour

Ludwig you’re a veritable genius. Why didn’t I think of that. Hold on… I did!

Another thing that would really boost safety is a community policing program. That is; facilitating and encouraging the general public to report dangerous, risky, or illegal driving, instead of effectively discouraging it, if not outrightly preventing it.

We are supposed to be able to report anything illegal to the police and expect them to act on it. Well, what a joke. I have tested this with a series of reports on dangerous driving, made over a period of four or five years. A number of police have told me that I can and should do this, but when it comes to actually physically doing it over the counter at the police station, I have been told things ranging from one end of the spectrum to the other, ie from ‘yes, we will very keenly pursue your complaint and let you know what happens’, to ‘no not interested, we don’t have the resources to pursue minor complaints that have no chance of being proven’. I never heard back about any of those complaints. My conclusion is that it is absolutely useless going to the police unless there has actually been an accident.

If only the general public was informed about how to best record evidence and report dangerous driving, so that any member of the public could potentially be a policer of the law or a community police officer (compo), and so that it would be easy for official police officers to pursue, then we could really strike at the core of our road safety problems.

Ludwig

You’ve made… um… I’ve made. ..some criticisms about the policing of road safety. So I just want to clarify that I am not being specifically critical of the police on the ground. There are problems at all levels, and I think the blame need to be spread around: the Federal and State governments, police ministers, police chiefs and police officers all deserve some criticism, generally speaking, along with the general public who don’t lobby hard enough on these issues, and who tend to give the police a harder time than they may deserve. But within that, there are lots of people in all or most of the abovementioned categories, who are striving for real improvements.

Dear Ludwig – the thing that gets to me above all else about road safety is that as a private citizen, you are just powerless to do anything about unsafe driving.
I witness bad driving behaviour and get subjected to it almost every time I get out there on the road. I have been a frequent user of the Bruce Hwy in north and central Queensland for years, but now I take alternative routes as much as possible. The reason is that I get subjected to speeding, tailgating and dangerous overtaking at great frequency, on every trip, and there is just simply nothing that I can do about it, short of staying off that road. Even when I sit on 108 in the 100k zone, I still get a steady stream of vehicles coming up behind, following too closely and often overtaking in unsafe circumstances. It’s maddening! And there are always police vehicles cruising up and down that road! The same thing happens to a lesser extent around town.

A lot of drivers don’t even realise that they are doing anything wrong when following at two or three car-lengths behind you at 100k.
The RACQ, police and Dept of Transport all suggest that the minimum safe following distance at 100km/h is ten car lengths, 8 car lengths at 80, 6 at 60, etc… under ideal conditions. A lot do realise that it is risky, but know that they will never be pulled over for it.

So the issue is three-fold – a lack of adequate training, a lack of policing, and the thing really riles me – a complete inability for any non-police person to do a goddamn thing about it. You can flash your tail-lights or throw your hand out the window to wave them back, blast your horn as they pass, flash your headlights after they have passed, yell abuse, wave them over, etc, all of which achieves nothing, and you just cannot go to the police and expect them to act on a complaint of speeding, dangerous tailgating or overtaking

Ludwig you drongo, you left out one very important point. Add to your second paragraph above – And very few people know that it is illegal, because they don’t know the law, because they have not received adequate training.