Having been through the process of losing my licence before, I'm thoroughly convinced that not too many places milk the motorist for petty speeding offences as badly as the Australian traffic police. Compared with the majority of Europe (excluding those that scale fines according to income), Australia must be 3-4 times more expensive. Clearly the approach being played by the police is cracking down on speeding as a means of accident reduction, while I dispute that as a direct cause (not a contributing factor) of the majority of accidents, it is indeed cheap and easy to police, and it's easy to make money out of. In actual fact I have a strong suspicion that poor driver training, poor spatial awareness, road rage, drink driving, and poor roads are bigger contributors, but all of these are pretty hard to tackle in the short term.
By contrast in the UK, I've done 20,000 - 30,000 miles and not been booked, breath tested, or even pulled over, Nothing! The country has gone that far up the path of pursing speeding as the course of accidents (or revenue raising, you decide), that now, as with the high density of CCTV cameras, this is mathced on the roads by a ridiculous density of speeding cameras, sometimes up to 1 per 100 metres! Incidently though driver education lags behind that of mainland Europe, and now Australia. So after 18 months incident free, my other half scored a low level speeding ticket from a fixed camera. No big deal, however the irony lies in how the fine was dealt - 3 points and 60 pounds - fair for the offence, but all this was served up from the "West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership". Yep thats what i'd call the West Yorkshire Police trying on a bit of marketing lingo to disguise revenue raising if ever I saw it.
Names aside, what was more Ironic was that for a further 15 pounds, she was able to attend a road safety awareness course, and have the points waived. This was pushed particularly hard, given that it was printed on a cardboard flyer next to the crummy government recycled paper fine notice, and mentioned in no less than all 3 pieces of correspondence to date. Further, one would think that this type of offer would be offered to repeat of high-level offenders - the ones who are just about to lose their licence. Here is what I suspect - knowing what I know about insurance premiums in the UK, and the fact that all demerit points have to be declared, I suspect that the cost of the course and the time to attend it must be worth it compared to what the average premium increase would be. This then is very clever marketing
By contrast in the UK, I've done 20,000 - 30,000 miles and not been booked, breath tested, or even pulled over, Nothing! The country has gone that far up the path of pursing speeding as the course of accidents (or revenue raising, you decide), that now, as with the high density of CCTV cameras, this is mathced on the roads by a ridiculous density of speeding cameras, sometimes up to 1 per 100 metres! Incidently though driver education lags behind that of mainland Europe, and now Australia. So after 18 months incident free, my other half scored a low level speeding ticket from a fixed camera. No big deal, however the irony lies in how the fine was dealt - 3 points and 60 pounds - fair for the offence, but all this was served up from the "West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership". Yep thats what i'd call the West Yorkshire Police trying on a bit of marketing lingo to disguise revenue raising if ever I saw it.
Names aside, what was more Ironic was that for a further 15 pounds, she was able to attend a road safety awareness course, and have the points waived. This was pushed particularly hard, given that it was printed on a cardboard flyer next to the crummy government recycled paper fine notice, and mentioned in no less than all 3 pieces of correspondence to date. Further, one would think that this type of offer would be offered to repeat of high-level offenders - the ones who are just about to lose their licence. Here is what I suspect - knowing what I know about insurance premiums in the UK, and the fact that all demerit points have to be declared, I suspect that the cost of the course and the time to attend it must be worth it compared to what the average premium increase would be. This then is very clever marketing
too right
ReplyDeleteand remember, every K over is a KILLER.
Gosh, you're so lucky you're spared the latest crop of crap adds on TV here showing how you'll be ripped apart by impacts when you hit that airbag ... better to buckle up. (not that anyone ever talks about how unlikely it is that a 2 year old pyrotechnic powering an airbag will actually go off with sufficient accuracy of timing to do anything in an accident...)
It galls me here in Oz that people focus on how 'heinous' it is that you were doing [insert shocked voice] 87Km/h in an 80 zone out the back of Cunnamulla.
Clearly its about revenu (especially when you look at the amounts they raise). But noone in the system actually wants you to loose your licence ... for then you stop paying. Better to give you extra points and keep you paying.
Following too closely, stupid lane discipline on our freeways, failure to give way, failure to observe ... all these things and more account for more problems in accidents than small speeding levels do. Tragically the General Public here seems to have taken Nanny's dribble on about this to heart and tut tut about it.
Don't start me on speed cameras in NSW
sheesh