Of course, motorists can speed too much. But perhaps the issue is not the "fixed" speed, but the conductions. Thirty kilometres per hour can be way too fast in a school zone during the day time.

On the other hand, I have been booked for speeding three times at 20-30 K over the limit, over thirty plus years: Twice at night, just as the limits changed and once during the day. All three times, I was the only car in the centre lane of a three lane road. Apart from the police, no one else was on the road. At different times. I was driving a Commodore SLE, a Nissan Skyline and a BMW 545i. With all cars, it was a pain watching the speedo instead of the road. I driven many miles/kilometres and have never had an accident.

When I was a member of a Community Service Club, we has police officer come and speak to us, wherein, he spke about the delay in reflex responses. His illustrative calculations were way-wrong, because he did not take into account that car in front also has to experience breaking time. The Police Force worked out the time it took the second car to reach the point, where the first brake lights went went on, by which time the first car would have progressed

I have been driving for twenty years alos, never had a ticket of any description, including no parking tickets.

I would like to know if there is anything that I am doing so wrong to contribute so little to government coffers.

Meanwhile, the only prangs that I have had, minor ones, were from drivers too close behind, even ay slow speed, knocking into my bumperbar, and one minor touch up from a car illegally overtaking - with me at the speed limit, who cut in front of me becuase his ego was too big for the suburban road we were on. He failed to stop of course.

I got his licence plate number, immediately went to the local cop shop to make a report, only to be told that the number plate was false. That didn't surprise me.

Funny that.

Hey there Ludwig,
At last I can reply...(limit exceeded, oops!).
You have a few questions that I'd like to answer. With regard to my licence, probably the same mechanisms that gave me one also gave one to you. Turn up at the motor registry, be polite, drive round the block and do a hillstart, its not that hard. The truck licence was about the same. Any idiot can get one, look around you (or not that far away).
Was there something that indicated other passengers in my car? and if there was, should I have gone into some kind of zealous trance and brake tested the truck or waved my arms around like a '57 gullwing door opening and closing? how would altering my course of action bring it up to your high standards, without making me look like a pillock?
My point is, I'm not that fussed about it. The truck does his(or her!) thing, and I do mine. He's not worried and neither am I. Of course I could distort it and say "he tried to KILL me" , but the truth is if it bothered me, I'd take off or take a break.
I hit about one kangaroo per year (average) and 95% of driving is at the maximum speed permitted. People that overtake then slow down are a nuisance (spotty youths, hat drivers, 4wd's),
but its important not to get too wound up.
Thusly, these emergencies you refer to are nothing new to me or trucky, and he/she can see over the top of a normal sized car.
Having no speed cameras would be just tickety boo, rather than anarchy, I'd advocate patrol cars, which can test for alcohol, seatbelts,roadworthiness, alertness, even legal ownership...
Cameras, at this stage cannot do these things.
Well you did kind of infer by not implying...smile like a simpleton, is great advice. One does not always feel inclined to smile or wave at other drivers. By forcing oneself do do so, it loses its natural appearance and looks a tad contrived, hence like a simpleton.

Speed cameras work but the penalty should be a percentage of the value of the offending vehicle.

A speed offence at a camera site indicates:

1. You were half asleep
2. You have so little regard for the law and the safety of other road users that you take the risk.

In both cases a heavy fine is justified to wake these people up.

As for the fine, based on my recent experiences along Sydney's M5 and M4, we should have a penalty as a percentage of the value of the offending vehicle. Every time I use these freeways I am road raged at least once whilst travelling at the speed limit. Nearly 100% of the time I am road raged or tailgated by type-'A'-personality king-of-the-road or queen-of-Australia offenders driving brand new or luxury cars. Its just a legalised form of class war on our roads. These people could care less that the stress caused in the aftermath of these episodes leads to confusion, that in heavy traffic conditions can cause accidents long-after-the-speeding-offender-has-passed. Since Michal Costa was roads minister this has become a regular occurrence.

The pinnacle of staying alive in the class wars on the M4, M5 was when a P-plater in a luxury Citroen road raged me at 130Kph down the M4 while I was overtaking slower cars. You just don't have time to see them coming!

A sliding scale fine would put an end to this pure and utter nonsense. It would be nice to put more police on the roads, but there aren't any since Bob-Carr decided we can double Sydney's population and save money by halving police numbers because everyone coming to Sydney now is so nice, law-abiding and labor-voting.

continuing ..

Continued ..

The reason we are having class war on our roads is because of Michael Costa and his 'Keep-Left-Unless-Speeding' directive issued in his brief stay as Roads-Minister. Just as the tartare sauce in that indelible Simpson's episode was the key to higher nuclear plant output, a change in this stupid ambiguous directive will halt willful-speeding and one upmanship on our roads. This directive was aimed at allowing truck drivers carte blanche to speed to their deadlines. But since then every druggie, party-animal and elitist in town has taken up the secret 'fight-for-your-right-to-speed' campaign.

We can never expect honesty from this Labor-State-Government but surely, for the sake of road safety we must force them to be honest about 'Keep-Left-Unless-Overtaking'. If you are doing the speed limit in the right lane then no one should have the right to tailgate or rage you and this must be made abundantly clear by this Labor Government by announcing a 'Keep-Left-Unless-Travelling-At-Speed-Limit' directive.

The life you save may be your own

A speed offence at a camera site indicates:

1. You were half asleep
2. You have so little regard for the law and the safety of other road users that you take the risk.

OR

3. The F$@ing camera is FAULTY and you were NOT SPEEDING.

Read back a few posts and amend your thinking.

CAMERAS are not all seeing infallible beings, they are FLAWED and they are a MENACE.

The ONLY way to reduce our road toll is to put MORE POLICE on the roads and REMOVE speed cameras.