I’d just finished watching the TV news where some spokesman for the local police service was grinning like an inane fool and salivating at the imminent introduction of the latest tri-lens speed camera which will put the Queensland government into the realms of the super rich.
This piece of technology was trialled on the Ipswich motorway over the past couple of months and in one four hour session reputedly clocked over 200 “speedsters” which at the minimum going rate of $133 gives some indication of its revenue gathering ability. The goon went on to say the camera had an effective range of 1200 metres and could target every car on the road regardless of numbers. “By the time you see it, the camera will have booked you” he crowed.
Now, after many many years of federal government inaction, Ipswich Road, the main southern artery from Brisbane to the New England highway, has recently seen major improvements and the work is ongoing. The previous problematic area around the Centenary Highway intersection is now an example of how these major intersections should have been built in the first place. The approaches to the intersection are now beautiful multi-laned highways and I’ll bet it was on one of these stretches that the camera trial was conducted, where Ipswich Road is at its safest and could easily support a higher speed limit.
I know the cops are only doing what their political masters tell them to and that we should be angry at the pollies who seem to be going after motorists/riders more and more under the guise of “road safety”, but the unbridled glee with which this idiot was telling the reporter how many more speeding convictions would result from this camera’s use made me want to throw up. What an arsehole!!! I bet he was the school bully as a kid.
As a direct opposite in attitude, here is a quote from an article by Jed Bulmer, the editor of 2Wheels magazine, in the September edition. He’s writing about the mind change required for riding on the right side of the road while coping with seemingly chaotic traffic in Rome:
“The reality seems to be that, although it looks like chaos from the outside, when you’re in it you realise that everything works to keep the traffic moving. There’s a natural order that arises from the chaos, aided and abetted by the police, to get everyone where they want to go.
At one stage, in Rome on the Laverda, we were waiting to turn across a busy road to take a tortuous one-way system to where we were going. A policeman tapped me on the shoulder and asked where we wanted to go. I told him. He said we should hop the median strip, ride through the pedestrian zone, down that one-way street the wrong way and it’d be on our left. Easy.”
While I’m not suggesting for a minute that this is the way we should all go about our daily commute, it serves to show the difference in attitude when a difficult occasion arises. I wonder if the Queensland oaf would have been as helpful in the circumstances.
Sorry about the rant but I just get so frustrated seeing bloody politicians crying crocodile tears over road fatalities, and then refusing point blank to do anything other than introduce more speed cameras.
