This is how one man influences a state government for his own ends (Scruby)

[Ext User(reg-john)]

Yesterday:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/motorists-win-red-light-lottery/2006/12/21/1166290677272.html

Today:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/digital-red-lights-to-replace-red-faces/2006/12/22/1166290740853.html

A one man council does it again. It really is genius, if not totally
admirable. It goes to show how absolutely spineless and unoriginal the NSW
government is. Very depressing.

[Ext User(K.A. Moylan)]

In article <>, "reg-john" <al@fddfd.com> wrote:

> Yesterday:
>
> http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/motorists-win-red-light-lottery/2006/12/21/1166290677272.html
>
> Today:
>
> http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/digital-red-lights-to-replace-red-faces/2006/12/22/1166290740853.html
>
> A one man council does it again. It really is genius, if not totally
> admirable. It goes to show how absolutely spineless and unoriginal the NSW
> government is. Very depressing.

Are you complaining that someone (that most posters here dislike) made a
point to the NSW government that it is inadequately enforcing its laws
(don't go through red lights) due to their slackness and is now going to
fix it up?
What should the NSW government be doing? Ignore Scruby & not keep the
red light cameras maintained properly? Have kept the red light cameras
properly maintained & expanding their coverage?

--
K.A. Moylan
Canberra, Australia
Ski Club: http://www.cccsc.asn.au
kamoylan at ozemail dot com dot au

[Ext User(reg-john)]

"K.A. Moylan" <kamoylan@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:kamoylan-97EBD2.09542723122006@freenews.iinet.net.au...
>
> Are you complaining that someone (that most posters here dislike) made a
> point to the NSW government that it is inadequately enforcing its laws
> (don't go through red lights) due to their slackness and is now going to
> fix it up?
> What should the NSW government be doing? Ignore Scruby & not keep the
> red light cameras maintained properly? Have kept the red light cameras
> properly maintained & expanding their coverage?

red light cameras on downhill sections are equivalent of govt culpability in
crashes. the mouthbreathers slam their brakes on to potentially avoid a
ticket, and guess what? ill let you figure it out. there are already so many
red light cameras out there, did anyone really know they werent being
policed prior to scrubys article? of course not. there were always rumours
that some of them ran out of film from time to time etc, but was anyone game
to test out the theory?

scrubys game is to highlight a non existent issue in the greater scheme of
things, as akin to killing brown babies, and the govt listens to him becuase
he phrases it in such a way that it fires up the mouthbreathers.

once again, the only way to improve driver behaviour and crash rates is to
have far better training, testing, and intelligent enforcement. have a
bigger police presence on the street, make people know theyre there. make it
a challenge, and an actual path to learning how to drive as opposed to
learning how to pass a test!

these cynical, peacemeal, reactionary solutions speak volumes about our
current political climate. a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

[Ext User(Athol)]

reg-john <al@fddfd.com> wrote:
> Yesterday:

> http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/motorists-win-red-light-lottery/2006/12/21/1166290677272.html

> Today:

> http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/digital-red-lights-to-replace-red-faces/2006/12/22/1166290740853.html

> A one man council does it again. It really is genius, if not totally
> admirable. It goes to show how absolutely spineless and unoriginal the NSW
> government is. Very depressing.

I actually agree with _part_ of what Scruby had to say. Red light cameras?

Hell yeah.

Dual-function with speed camera function? Fuck off you stupid twonk. If
people speed up slightly to clear the intersection before the lights go red,
it's better than a panic stop that causes a pile-up.

Note that the announcement doesn't appear to mention incorporation of speed
camera functionality. Read at face value, one might even believe that they
are talking about building digital cameras that are drop-in replacements
for the removable film cameras in the existing installations.

Okay. Email sent to Peter Debnam...

--
Athol
<http://cust.idl.com.au/athol> Linux Registered User # 254000
I'm a Libran Engineer. I don't argue, I discuss.

[Ext User(Athol)]

reg-john <al@fddfd.com> wrote:

> red light cameras on downhill sections are equivalent of govt culpability in
> crashes. the mouthbreathers slam their brakes on to potentially avoid a
> ticket, and guess what? ill let you figure it out. there are already so many
> red light cameras out there, did anyone really know they werent being
> policed prior to scrubys article? of course not. there were always rumours
> that some of them ran out of film from time to time etc, but was anyone game
> to test out the theory?

Some of have good enough memories to remember when they were introduced. They
installed more boxes than cameras because the cameras were very expensive and
they were supposed to move the cameras around amongst the installed locations.

> once again, the only way to improve driver behaviour and crash rates is to
> have far better training, testing, and intelligent enforcement. have a
> bigger police presence on the street, make people know theyre there. make it
> a challenge, and an actual path to learning how to drive as opposed to
> learning how to pass a test!

In which case, the red light cameras would be redundant and would generate no
infringement revenue. While there are people who think it acceptable to run
red lights, we also need cameras.

--
Athol
<http://cust.idl.com.au/athol> Linux Registered User # 254000
I'm a Libran Engineer. I don't argue, I discuss.

[Ext User(Athol)]

Athol <me@privacy.net> wrote:

> Some of have good enough memories to remember when they were introduced.

Feck it. Add a "us" - "Some of us have"...

--
Athol
<http://cust.idl.com.au/athol> Linux Registered User # 254000
I'm a Libran Engineer. I don't argue, I discuss.

[Ext User(Kev)]

reg-john wrote:

> "K.A. Moylan" <kamoylan@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:kamoylan-97EBD2.09542723122006@freenews.iinet.net.au...
>
>>Are you complaining that someone (that most posters here dislike) made a
>>point to the NSW government that it is inadequately enforcing its laws
>>(don't go through red lights) due to their slackness and is now going to
>>fix it up?
>>What should the NSW government be doing? Ignore Scruby & not keep the
>>red light cameras maintained properly? Have kept the red light cameras
>>properly maintained & expanding their coverage?
>
>
> red light cameras on downhill sections are equivalent of govt culpability in
> crashes. the mouthbreathers slam their brakes on to potentially avoid a
> ticket, and guess what? ill let you figure it out.

Like those intelegent fucks up in Toowoomba
the two steepest hill into the place with traffic lights have redlight
cameras

you get B-Doubles running down there and morons who slam the brakes on
at the very hint of a amber

seen it so many times in that place
and of course becuase it's steep the trucks are running quite slow, the
lights turn to amberas the truck hits the line it is red before the back
trailer clears the line and you see the flash flash
so what are they to do
travel faster and then if they need to stop they can't and get flashed
anyway

Kev

[Ext User(Toby Ponsenby)]

On Sun, 24 Dec 2006 21:39:13 +1000
Kev <kevcat@optunet.com.au> blathered on:


> Like those intelegent fucks up in Toowoomba
> the two steepest hill into the place with traffic lights have redlight
> cameras
>
> you get B-Doubles running down there and morons who slam the brakes on
> at the very hint of a amber
>
> seen it so many times in that place
> and of course becuase it's steep the trucks are running quite slow, the
> lights turn to amberas the truck hits the line it is red before the back
> trailer clears the line and you see the flash flash
> so what are they to do
> travel faster and then if they need to stop they can't and get flashed
> anyway
>
> Kev
>



The whole idea of James Street was to stop the stupid locals from being squished getting between hotels and chicken palaces - of course GovCo having channeled the heavy vehicles onto James (and Hume, for that matter) thereby getting a captive audience - decided on running a racket.

I say fuck-em - go ahead and use Margaret street - can't be any more expensive:-)

ahh, Toowoomba - lovely place full of exceedingly stupid people. What a cryin fucken shame.
--
some stupid sig...

[Ext User(Kev)]

Toby Ponsenby wrote:

>
>
> The whole idea of James Street was to stop the stupid locals from being squished getting between hotels and chicken palaces - of course GovCo having channeled the heavy vehicles onto James (and Hume, for that matter) thereby getting a captive audience - decided on running a racket.
>
> I say fuck-em - go ahead and use Margaret street - can't be any more expensive:-)
>
> ahh, Toowoomba - lovely place full of exceedingly stupid people. What a cryin fucken shame.


It's ok
with their love for all things flowery
and loath of all things recycled
there won't be too many left there soon


Kev

[Ext User(Graham Fountain)]

Kev wrote:
> reg-john wrote:
>
>> "K.A. Moylan" <kamoylan@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:kamoylan-97EBD2.09542723122006@freenews.iinet.net.au...
>>
>>> Are you complaining that someone (that most posters here dislike) made a
>>> point to the NSW government that it is inadequately enforcing its laws
>>> (don't go through red lights) due to their slackness and is now going to
>>> fix it up?
>>> What should the NSW government be doing? Ignore Scruby & not keep the
>>> red light cameras maintained properly? Have kept the red light cameras
>>> properly maintained & expanding their coverage?
>>
>>
>> red light cameras on downhill sections are equivalent of govt
>> culpability in crashes. the mouthbreathers slam their brakes on to
>> potentially avoid a ticket, and guess what? ill let you figure it out.
>
> Like those intelegent fucks up in Toowoomba
> the two steepest hill into the place with traffic lights have redlight
> cameras
Because so many run the red lights moron.
>
> you get B-Doubles running down there and morons who slam the brakes on
> at the very hint of a amber
Pretty few compared to the morons in B Doubles who go through the lights
because they are too lazy to put on the brakes. There have been a number
of bad accidents caused by trucks running red lights. And not in the
"car puts brakes on" scenario you describe. The accidents have been
caused when a car from a side street has a green light, and truck goes
through the red light. I've stopped and waited at green lights, while a
truck goes screaming through more times than I'd care to count. These
are not cases of the trailers still being in the intersection, they are
cases of the truck *entering* the intersection several seconds after it
goes red. On one occasion my wife and I were on foot crossing the street
- we had time to get half way across the intersection after we had the
walk signal, and had to stop at the island while a truck screamed
through the red light. It would have been at least 20 seconds after the
light turned red. These morons are dangerous pure and simple. Running
red lights in a car is bad enough, but doing it in a B-Double where it
is almost guaranteed that if they hit someone they will kill them, is
almost tantamount to attempted murder. I dislike the morons who slam the
brakes at the hint of amber too, but who's being the bigger moron - the
car driver who puts the brakes on, or the truck driver who thinks it is
acceptable to run red lights? And if a car slamming the brakes on causes
you problems, doesn't that also mean you are following too close?
(except of course in the case where the car driver changes lanes in
front of the truck before hitting their anchors).
Despite the downhill problems though, the worst spots I've seen in
Toowoomba for red light running by trucks are James/Mackenzie and
Tor/Hursley intersections, and the worst offenders are the trucks going
*uphill*. Explain that one would you? Purely and simply it is a case of
the drivers being too lazy to stop then have to start again.
>
> seen it so many times in that place
> and of course becuase it's steep the trucks are running quite slow, the
Pretty rare that a truck goes slow down there actually. Try sitting on
60 in James st some time - the trucks will roar past you like your
sitting still - even the ones going uphill. A mate in the traffic branch
who runs red light cameras, gets several trucks doing in excess of 80
every time he sets up in his favorite spot on james, just up the hill
from west. Not unusual for him to pick them up doing in excess of 100
down there. Any truck driver doing 20k's over the limit, on a steep
downhill, in a residential area like this, deserves to be locked up.


> lights turn to amberas the truck hits the line it is red before the back
> trailer clears the line and you see the flash flash
> so what are they to do
Do they actually issue the ticket if you enter the intersection _before_
the light goes red? No they don't. Unfortunately the system can't tell
if it is your front crossing the line or your rear trailer, so they are
likely to fire off anyway. That's part of why they take 2 photos, so
they can tell if the vehicle was proceeding through, at what speed, and
determine where it was at the point of the light turning red. Although,
I can't say that I have ever seen a camera flash a truck who was already
in the intersection when the light went red. However I have seen the
cameras flash at a B-Double who entered the intersection when the light
was red - but his trailers were still beside the cameras, so unlikely
they would have got his rego number.
> travel faster and then if they need to stop they can't and get flashed
> anyway
Seems to be the mentality of a lot of truck drivers. Here's a novel idea
for you, why don't you just drive at a safe speed. Because of the
weights of their vehicles, any accident involving a truck will have more
serious results than the same accident involving cars. This means a
heavier duty of care must rest on the truck driver. Unfortunately many
of them seem to consider themselves indestructible - knowing that the
truck normally escapes relatively unharmed seems to give them the
incentive to drive like P-Platers. And every time someone complains
about their behaviour, they come up with this "without trucks australia
stops". Funny how the trucks with these signs on them, are usually the
ones most likely to exhibit dangerous driving. Just because trucks are
an essential part of the transport infrastructure, doesn't give their
drivers an excuse to behave like dickheads.
>
> Kev
>

[Ext User(Graham Fountain)]

Graham Fountain wrote:

> sitting still - even the ones going uphill. A mate in the traffic branch
> who runs red light cameras, gets several trucks doing in excess of 80
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Obviously I mean he operates speed cameras here. oops.