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2011/03/25 22:25:24
PeterM

Geeez yer goner love this (2)......


News through today that the RTA NSW is seriously considering eliminating the +3 kmh leeway permitted on posted speed zones. That is in NSW currently we can travel at up to 3kmh over the posted speed limit without being booked. The idea being to allow for practical real life errors in vehicle speedo readings, differences in tyre diameters, tyre air pressures etc.

The proposal will be to limit speeds to exactly the posted speed limit.

Revenue raising again??
23 comments Leave a comment
maxrs
The amount of mobile cameras have also increased, 161 to 3000 in nsw.
2011/03/25 23:43:07
William
that will be a fail as adrs allow for a percentage of 3 or 5 percent on a vehicle speedo so they will have to change the adrs and also do speedo checks as part of rego checks because currently you can not be fail for a pink slip if your speedo doesn't work. it's not a require to have a working speedo for a pink slip the is not fail code in rtas new system and after mechanic mate rang to find out he was told he could not fail for that. so as he says this rego check is just a joke.
2011/03/26 07:10:11
David W
None of our classic cars from the 60's & 70's have cruise control that should (?) retain our speed at the preferred figure. Therefore we are relying on human input to control the speed the car travels at. We can't spend our whole trip staring at the speedo to see that we are abiding to the law (otherwise you will crash)

Here's a thought - if you travel 5km below the speed limit, that would allow for a 3km trigger for a fine to be applied.

Most of our roads are that congested (especially at peak work times - morning & afternoon) its near impossible to go over the designated limit. I just stick with the flow of traffic and if you have some idiot trying to rub the paint off your rear bumper, I just merge to the left lane and let him have his acciednt wih someone else.

That said I agree that speed cameras are more about revenue raising then road safety. At least there are signs up to tell you about their presense.
2011/03/26 07:50:29
PeterM
"that will be a fail as adrs allow for a percentage of 3 or 5 percent on a vehicle speedo...."

This is corect. However the onus is on the driver of the vehicle to make sure the speedo is operational and correctly callibrated.

I got pulled over several years ago when I was driving directly into blinding sunlight on a hot summers day on a straight stretch of road with 100kmh speed limit. Honestly I couldn't see the speedo due to glare so I assumed all was well. The cop approaching from the other way booked me for 105 in 100kmh zone. I argued the point with him saying I was correctly travelng at 100kmh by my speedo. He told me I should have my speedo re-calibrated. The fact that my car was clearly a recent ex-chaser fitted with the police calibrated speedo appeared to have little influence on him. Another tick for revenue raising.

2011/03/26 23:43:36
ratta tat tat
quote:
Originally posted by PeterM

"that will be a fail as adrs allow for a percentage of 3 or 5 percent on a vehicle speedo...."

This is corect. However the onus is on the driver of the vehicle to make sure the speedo is operational and correctly callibrated.

I got pulled over several years ago when I was driving directly into blinding sunlight on a hot summers day on a straight stretch of road with 100kmh speed limit. Honestly I couldn't see the speedo due to glare so I assumed all was well. The cop approaching from the other way booked me for 105 in 100kmh zone. I argued the point with him saying I was correctly travelng at 100kmh by my speedo. He told me I should have my speedo re-calibrated. The fact that my car was clearly a recent ex-chaser fitted with the police calibrated speedo appeared to have little influence on him. Another tick for revenue raising.





That's why (as of 12 months ago) I never answer their questions after being pulled over. Right from go the conversation is recorded. The alleged is given a false sense of hope by the officer, that "if I'm honest/sincere he/she might let me off.
From my experience the police have no intention of giving warnings or letting anyone off. They appear to be friendly when they're asking the questions because all they want is admission of guilt on the tape recorder.

2011/03/27 00:17:47
William
peter that may be true but a letter contesting the fine stating the adr number and a bit of maths showing that your speed varition meets the required adrs. the office of state debt dont seem to like this very much they figure they will lose in court. this happend to my boss he recived a fine for doing 63 in a 60 zone which is 5% over and he did the above and they withdrew the fine. i'm not saying if you speed its fine i'm just saying that cops job is to make money. so if you speed your deserve what you get but flowing with traffic and get done for 3 klms or less over then that is just money making.
2011/03/27 09:43:04
PeterM
Hi William,

I did write a letter offering a detailed account of the booking. It was quickly rejected, claiming that I had in fact acknowledged I had exceeded the speed limit. So the infringement stood.

However, I quickly responded by informing the authorities of my good driving record as I had no infringments for over 5 years (honestly, I don't know how I managed to do that). I requested that they take into account my excellent driving history, and that the current offence was in fact technically quite minor.

They replied by withdrawing the infringement (both payment and loss of points) and firmly stated that no type of speeding should be seen as "quite minor".

But I guess there are people around who believe that traveling at 61 kmh is unsafe, where-as 60 kmh is regarded as safe.

My thoughts are at the moment that should I be involved in an accident of any type I will make sure I am within the speed limit and claim that I was spending more time looking at the speedo than looking at the road and what other cars were doing. And because I was infact clearly traveling within the speed limit that there was no way I was at fault.
2011/03/27 13:17:24
Scott
I think it also comes down to the cop, I've been caught doing 92 in a 80 zone and was never fined. But I wasn't being a richardhead about things.

Factory speedo's are not very accurate, my 2001 Falcon which minus the sound system is completely standard and to do 60 the speedo needs to read 62.
2011/03/27 19:24:32
grant
quote:
Originally posted by PeterM

"that will be a fail as adrs allow for a percentage of 3 or 5 percent on a vehicle speedo...."

This is corect. However the onus is on the driver of the vehicle to make sure the speedo is operational and correctly callibrated.



There used to be speedo check signs for this reason.

Can't say i've seen any on the new highways around here. They are still out on the old highways.
2011/03/27 20:39:57
laurie
Police do not use the factory speedo. They have a very accurate electronic one that is mounted to the dashboard. These are calibrated on a prescribed service regime.
2011/03/28 13:59:10
PeterM

Hello Laurie,

So exactly when will the RTA make available these "very accurate electronic one" (speedos) cheaply so that we can all fit them to the dashboard our 30+ year old cars, so that then we will all be on a level playing field with the police?
2011/03/28 20:57:53
laurie
You may have to calibrate the speedos fitted to your 30 year old cars. I did cost me $150 Attspeed Instruments Liverpool. Saves on traffic tickets
Police speedometers have to be accurate for the equation to be spot on when utilising Radar for speed readings of approaching or departing vehicles.
2011/03/29 09:52:10
Neale
Isnt it true that a police officer that has been specifically trained (e.g. Highway Patrol officer) can book you without using a radar or calibrated speedo.
2011/03/29 21:00:12
PeterM
I'm not sure how even "calibrated" 30 year old speedos can be accurate within 1 kmh as demanded by the RTA.

Even if the 30 year old speedo were to be precision calibrated, would not errors still occur when taking into account parallax error (ie the errors incurred by the drivers eye position (which constantly changes) with respect to the speedo needle, and the dial, which at best is calibrated to only 5kmh?? (as with my Mk2 Escort).

As an engineer, to me, the idea of precision calibrating sounds like a bit of firfy, and well beyond the expectations and limitations of 35+ year old technology.


2011/03/29 21:53:33
Phil
Even manufacturer's of modern GPS technology which is touted to be the most accurate form of speed indication in a motor vehicle today, advise they can only indicate to an accuracy of +/-3kph. The government needs to get off the grass...
2011/03/30 06:38:23
Phil
Until to road surface is fitted with precision sensor lugs/teeth and vehicles with precision tooth sensors...it is impossible to achieve 100% speedometer accuracy...that fact doesnt change no matter how much anyone wants it too!!
2011/03/30 06:41:22
spanner
what about some of us that may have cars fitted with MPH speedo's, it can be quite difficult to do 62.14 MPH to do 100KPH exactly [(#)]
2011/03/30 06:43:35
JamesR
quote:
Originally posted by laurie

You may have to calibrate the speedos fitted to your 30 year old cars. I did cost me $150 Attspeed Instruments Liverpool. Saves on traffic tickets
Police speedometers have to be accurate for the equation to be spot on when utilising Radar for speed readings of approaching or departing vehicles.

in my EF Falcon i have an EX-Police speedo, which i can calibrate to +/- 10%.

but since putting new tires on, its probably wrong. better do a few burnouts to get the treads down now.
2011/03/30 16:56:36
Juiceman
Revenue raising!
2011/03/30 20:19:24
laurie
Even with an accurate speedo you will still have "paralax" errors with the amount of lead in the drivers right foot in the proximity of the accelerator pedal[88][(#)][:u]
2011/03/30 20:19:36
PeterM

"Police do not use the factory speedo."

These days, police may not use the factory speedo to monitor other vehicles speeds. However police issue vehicles from approx 1984 to at least Commodore VS (and equivalent Falcon) all had "police speedos" fitted in place of the standard poverty speedo the rest of us use.

The "police speedos" featured higher precision internals, apparently better illumination and speed graduations to 2 kmh rather, than 5kmh.

These are still currently available brand new at your GM dealer for VR and VS Commodores (not sure about the other models).

Interesting that the highest accuracy speedos that police used to use in the old days, no longer cuts it these days.

The caper of measuring speed precision to within 1 kmh can be interpreted as nothing more than blatant revenue raising by a desperate state government who acknowledges the state is broke and wishes to punish the humble motorist en masse for the most minor "offences".

Unfortunately, otherwise well meaning paid public servants who administer the law are "conditioned" by their superiors to believe that they are assisting society by nabbing the poor motorist for an "offence" that the majority of us have absolutely no method to properly defend, even if the motorist completely believes he was driving and operating his vehicle within the "law".
2011/03/30 21:46:28
laurie
Current Affair to night
2011/03/31 18:08:25
allecthomson
They replied by withdrawing the infringement (both payment and loss of points) and firmly stated that no type of speeding should be seen as "quite minor".
But I guess there are people around who believe that traveling at 61 kmh is unsafe, where-as 60 kmh is regarded as safe.
2011/03/31 23:52:53

Comments are closed.

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