To have all cars the same is a mistake.

Many people work just that bit harder so they can one day own that 'dream car'. Take away that dream and you risk taking away the motivation, something that drives our ecconomy.

I think the anti hooning laws are on the right track. Remember, they're only new so give them time, I am sure they will make a difference.

Electronic speed signs are good. They can be changed to suit conditions. There are a few on the gateway now.

One grey area is road works.

Signs like 'reduce speed', from what! 100 to 98?

'Prepare to stop' Where and when?, perhaps not at all.

40kph road works in progress. Where, I can't see anything going on. Oh, do you mean those guys 2 clicks up the road?

These issues need to be addressed before many will take notice. It's a bit like a fire alarm today. We hear them so often now we take little notice.

Also, increase speeding fines at roadworks double the fine and double the points, they (speeders) will soon lern.

Possible Solution
Stop placing radars and cameras in lame areas. Place them in known problem spots. STOP REVENUE RAISING and start reducing accidents.

What a surprise: examinator wants more authoriatarian state interventions into the lives of ordinary people - of course, he'd never speed...

By any objective measure our roads are safer than they've ever been before, with accident rates declining and death rates dropping even faster. Cars now provide very survivable conditions for their occupants in the case of an accident and the dynamic performance of even older cars is way beyond the speed limits.

I spend a great deal of time on the roads, both in the city and the bush and I don't see an epidemic of speeding drivers and hoons. What I see is a bunch of people who simply don't pay attention. In the past week I've been forced to brake heavily on at least 4 occasions to avoid an accident caused by some brain-dead fool failing to notice the 2 tons of 4 WD occupying the same space she wanted to fit her littlre bubble car into. I've had to wait at an intersection for 5 minutes because the driver of the last car to pull up at the set of lights just down the road pulled up directly in front of my vehicle instead of leaving the 2 or 3 meter gap that would have left the intersection clear. I've left clear braking space in front of my vehicle, only to have some twit in yet another bubble car slip in under heavy braking, forcing me to brake heavily in turn and so on down the line of traffic. I could go on, but what all the incidents have in common is a dimwit focussed entirely on the urgency of their own needs to the exclusion of all else.

What is needed most of all is a driver education programme designed to remind people that all those other cars contain actual people, just like them, ISTM.

ALL
Antiseptic,On one hand you seem to be dismissing the ideas as a product of an some authoritarian demented mind yet your example proves my basic point it is the attitude towards driving that are the problem.
Not paying attention IS an attitude, selfishness i.e. "I can fit my bubble car in that space" My need are my focus is an attitude.
Additionally are you telling us that you're happy with the level of crime prevention....or that the highly payed, expensively trained officers doing jobs that can be done by other less expensive options the best use of our police resources? What's your answer to changing silly attitudes?
BTW I've been pinged for speeding etc but my attitude is " I did the crime I do the fine" without whinging it's called personal responsibility to the society on which I depend.

Rehctub, the Button plan, and what I'm advocating is not all cars being the same. Note my words. I simply want a line of cheap, technologically safe cars available for those who must and can only afford a cheap car.

Where we live and in what is based on what we can afford....i.e. Choices are secondary to safety and functionality. I worry about car loads of children being chauffeured by mum in rust buckets or with bald tyres because they can't afford two top of the range cars while dad drives the new car.( if that isn't arse about values/attitudes I don't know what is?)
Wouldn't you rather your teenagers in a technologically safe second hand car than a bomb. My plan is aimed at reducing the cost of secondhand but reliable cars

Examinator

Great to see some bold lateral thinking being applied to an age old problem. I applaud suggestions 1-4.

Not so sure about No. 5. I don't see more policing as the answer. That will only end up penalising competent drivers, who drive to the conditions, even though they might occasionally breach some arbitrary cutoff point. I also see handing over policing powers to another group in society as being somewhat fraught. You only have to look at the private security industry, and the cowboys it attracts, to see the problems likely to follow if policing powers on our roads are further devolved.

Antiseptic

<< .. some brain-dead fool failing to notice the 2 tons of 4 WD occupying the same space she wanted to fit her little bubble car into. >>

<< .. only to have some twit in yet another bubble car slip in under heavy braking .. >>

I agree, it's annoying to see another car slip into the safe braking distance you've deliberately kept between yourself and the car in front. At least when it's a 'bubble' though, your vision of the road ahead isn't entirely obscured, as it is when it's a 4W drive!

At the risk of attracting a bucketful from yourself and others, I'd respectfully suggest upping the disincentives to driving large 4W drive vehicles. Not only would it improve the vision and safety on our roads, but it would have the added benefit of decreasing carbon emissions.

Dear Examinator,

Simple solution - get rid of all of the above,
and bring back the horse and cart.

The Amish in the US - are doing very well and
are happy with the horse and cart and the local
authorities don't have a problem.

For longer distance travel - there are buses,
trains and planes. The hoons on the road, the mobile
phone users, the elderly, and confused - wouldn't have
a problem because the horse has his own mind - and he
knows where to go - and we'd get an additional bonus -
free fertilisation for the garden.

There are far too many horses who have nothing to do -
and they would be very happy to be called upon to
provide a service - besides horse feed is cheaper than
petrol.

What do you think? :-)

Great ideas, Examinator, in fact very similar to ones I suggested in a letter to an Editor recently. Cars have become much more than transportation; they are personas, status or phallic symbols, leisure accessories, superman suits. Cars should be "de-sexed", made into nerdish and green conveyances that "real" men and "bad bitches" would have nothing to do with. 40 kph speed-limits around town and strict speed-limiters should be introduced. Traffic violations could be recorded on board and reported, or the car even shut down and police called if necessary. The roads would be cleaner and much safer for cyclists and pedestrians.