this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Way too soft a punishment imo

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I recognize that, and maybe I'm just desensitized to it, but I live next to a road with a 30 mph speed limit and people blow by at 45 or 50 all day. Maybe the Australians are more desensitized to drunk driving than me, but I still think the bigger problem was her being wasted rather than speeding.

[–] wombat27 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In Australia we've got this weird thing about speeding. Anything over 5km/h and you'll get booked. Thanks to a series of ad campaigns by the police/TAC (traffic authority). Addressing the real issue that the driving test is stupidly easy, hence driver education is crap, driving is seen as a right, not a skill, along with a big drinking culture doesn't help.

It's a great country, beautiful in every way, and please come and check it out if you haven't! But the driving is crap.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's Victoria they book you for 2-3km/h (after they factor in a 'margin of error'.

In other states the police aren't even interested until you reach 15-20km/h over. But that's because they can't be bothered to reset and potentially lose bigger fish.

I've been chased by NSW highway patrol back in the day for 20km/h but they never ended up pulling me over because I was sitting behind someone doing 30+ km/h.

The camera cars not sure what speed they start to trigger but I've never been snapped for under 10km/h or ever (I guess because the Speedo reads under)

[–] wombat27 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Dam... I need to move states!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'm not sure why Victoria is so strict - all the Victorians I know sit 10km/h under the speed limit because of this - it's so easy to get into a bookable speed zone unintentionally there.

If you think about it a 2km/h leeway which increases to 3km/h over a certain speed I think either over 80km/h or 100km/h I'm not sure isn't really sufficient.

So the reason for the higher speed tolerances in NSW is because the government doesn't want to encourage speedo watchers which is bloody dangerous.

The fact that the speedos read under and the tolerances they give for example i did 125km/h on the speedo in 110km/h zone, GPS reads 117km/h or so. Then the margin of error brings it to 114km/h or so and the not publicised but roughly 10 percent leeway brings it down to 103km/h. But as a note it's YMMV I can't guarantee 100 percent with the leeway as I'm not a copper.

But to speed in NSW you have to be actively trying or just careless. And like I said that's just with the cameras.

Highway patrol like I said only really pull over the excessive speeders, they really don't bother for someone 10km/h over as they know someone will come along in 2 mins doing something like 20km-30km/h over. I see it regularly on the highway. If they pull over the 10km/h guy it cost them the 20-30km/h booking and also they have to reset which costs them more time.

But in Victoria they seem to like to book everyone. I've only been there once and apparently they're notoriously known for doing that and being the only jurisdiction to have such strict rules.