StG,
"Blame the politicians...."
Sorry blame the curmudgeonly voter that makes such things so politically
suicidal...or those selfish blonks that would rather spend resource money on their self serving immediate interests.
To a point you're right with "not the police".

Forrest,
I would suggest that these cameras will be on the side of the road. Sadly there will be claims of 'revenue raising rort' etc.
If they are accessible to the public i.e. fixed/low down they will become the vandalized victims of the 'moron squad'...while good citizens will look the other way.
I would suggest over head on freeways for fixed and portable for the police. but as usual it'll be under funded/resourced.

I don't think we need a camera on all vehicles. I think really what we need is a gun turret.

People beep and nobody knows who is beeping at who. People tailgate because they want the guy in front to speed up.

What would be better is if you could actually shoot ping pong balls at people who annoy you.

I see an evolution in transport. 4WDs have evolved due to the obstacle course that the council has developed with speed bumps and chicanes, and 10 metre right turn lanes that a 4WD is needed to navigate. They're 'safer' which means you can roll over all these obstacles, and hit pedestrians higher up nearer the head, and you can hit cars at a height higher than their safety strong points are designed for.

With this whole random 40-110 speed limit changes at 100m metre intervals dodging cameras and speed humps etc, Monster trucks and gun turrets is where driving is headed. Mad Max is the natural progression as encouraged by the authorities.

Interesting Ludwig, but you should be looking for the reason for the increase in the problem.

Belly agree completely re road works, but also with Forrest. Drivers should be jumped on, but the same fines should apply to road workers, who display signs, when not working.

While we have damn fool planners using slow drivers as defacto road speed enforcers, we will get a growing increase in the problem.

Every time the road line marker machine comes out, we get dotted centre lines painted over with no overtaking double lines. Why this should occur, as our cars become better at overtaking quickly, & safely, is a mystery, with the answer only known to those gods, the planners.

One 12Km stretch between Canungra, & Nerang in 6 years went from 10 legal overtaking places to none. Now I'm an old bloke, & never in a hurry, but even I can get frustrated, following Mary the horse rider, towing her horse, or Johnny tourist, who do the whole stretch at 60Km, in a 100Km zone. For those who have work to get done, it nust be most annoying.

I have no problem with Mary, & her horse, driving at a speed at which they feel safe. I would not want it any other way, but with the planners who cause the line of frustrared drivers, to sit fuming behind her, I do have. How these damn fools can decide that this is better than letting us pass, where we have been passing safely, for 20 years, I can't imagine.

I'm normally a law abiding bloke, but I recently crossed double lines, to pass a truck load of STINKING pigs, out near Boonah, after following it, at some distance, for 15 Km of no passing. After a dozen places where I could have safely passed a fast B double semi, I could stand it no longer.

So Ludwig, if you want to reduce tailgating, join our movement to improve & fertilise Australia, & plant a planner today, 6 feet down.

CJ Morgan,

I agree with you again. Hopefully in this thread on this topic it won't offend you. I believe that I have done my share of driving and have had exactly the same experience. I don't tow a boat but if I were in that situation that is what I would do. The equivalent for me is driving on mountainous road where many other drivers prefer to go faster so I pull over to let them.

I don't participate in and don't condone tailgating but if police actually enforced the keep left unless overtaking rule they would get a lot less revenue but a lot more road safety impact. At a time when I must have had too much time on my hands I have followed road hogs from a safe distance and observed them. In my experience a single road hog on a fairly short journey eg. 100km tend to attract a whole bunch of angry tailgaters. If the road hog got targetted all those tailgaters would have no reason to tailgate. I note also that research in the US of A indicated that road hogs are the largest cause of road rage.

"Frequently I encounter some twat who wants to sit 5-10 km/h below the speed limit, but will speed up when an overtaking opportunity or lane presents itself...While I wouldn't tailgate such drivers, I bet they are the types who experience tailgating and other road rage behaviour."

The time I was most tempted to tailgate that I recall I was behind some driver doing 15k below the limit. I attempted to overtake them in the overtaking zone. After realising that we were 30k over the limit and they still wanted to drag race I bowed out and resigned myself to following them. Someone had recently made the comment that those types of drivers are the ones truckies hate the most and I was reminded of that comment. Naturally they slowed down again as soon as it became one lane.

Belly, yes roadworks sites are highly problematic. Temporary speed limit signs are just so poorly observed. They really don’t amount to anything more than a crude indication to slow down a bit, most of the time.

Of course one of the main problems is the abject lack of policing of speed in roadworks zones.

You are often put in the invidious situation of being stuck between your desire to observe the law and your desire to roll with the flow. If you strictly observe the law, you get tailgated a lot of the time. You even get overtaken within the roadworks zone, in the lead up and in the zone after the actual work site before the sign that allows a return to normal speed. If you are in traffic, it is definitely safer to roll with the flow than to do 10 or 20 (or 30 or more) kmh slower in order to stick to the lawful limit!!

Normally law-abiding citizens are strongly pressured to exceed the speed limit in order to just roll with the flow and not incur dangerous antics or intimidation from other drivers.

Then when the police do actually book people for speeding in these zones, these people get busted.

The speed is often too slow for the circumstances. Main Roads and council workers do often erect 40kmh signs where 60 would be appropriate with the express purpose of getting people to slow down to about 60!

Why on earth there has to be a long distance between the actual end of the work zone and the return to normal speed is beyond me. It is just stupidity! There is no reason why the end of the temporary slow zone has to align with the start of it on the other side of the road! There needs to be a reasonable slow lead-in to the actual work area, but there doesn’t have to be a long slow lead-out, or any lead-out, on the other side!

It is all very crappily managed....and yet it could so easily be fixed!

TCP,S traffic control plans at road work sites are complex.
And lets face it often wrong, the fault of those putting them in place.
Vehicle movement plans are an extension of TCPs.
And a requirement in semi permanent road works.
Sorry but it is more than likely you, almost every one, have got it wrong.
States RTAs can share the blame.
I am very much involved in TCPs and vehicle movements, worker safety and am used to review such plans by one of our biggest construction firms.
First some signs tell of changed traffic conditions 24 hours a day, including the advice road works[changed conditions] are under way.
NO TCP allows flagman, prepare to stop signs to be up without work in progress.
Black on yellow signs can, must be in place 24/7 to warn of changed conditions.
1000 times, yes I am fairdinkum, people stopped after passing a full TCP 18 signs, to say no signs are in place!
First thing in the morning or after a meal break a truck puts every sign back up.
unless work takes place during meal break.
But bet your last dollar, as crew gathers waiting for that truck to put signs up at far end of job a idiot will pull up and scream why did I drive past these signs and you are doing nothing.
Should some motorists dog leave home the family's average IQ could drop 50 points.