Driving yesterday on Albany Hwy,heading towards Cannington from Gosnells,you drive up a incline in the road just before Beckenham. Have driven this stretch of the road many times and find when going down the hill it"s very difficult not to go over the 60 km/h speed limit. The hill looks slight but without applying the brake you soon reach 70 km/h without realising it. Anyway yesterday there were around 8 policeman there on bikes and cars with their radar guns catching out unsuspecting drivers. Seriously,this has nout to do with safety and everything to do with them earning brownie points and revenue for the State.

you could bribe them with yoghurt.

Kamikuza said..

You just figured that out?

They're handing out tickets for 4kph over the limit in NZ now - I'm guessing that people have slowed down so much that the normal level of tolerance isn't generating enough profit. Pretty sure there'll come a time when all the limits will be dropped as nobody is speeding and yet there are still fatalities on the road

I am not sure how accurate tachometer is in average cars but on few occasions I did try out our accurate GPS and reading from the car tachometer usually was 5 to 10 km higher.
It mean that when going 110 we are doing indeed 100 km most of the time.
Test it

dinsdale said..

Kamikuza said..

You just figured that out?

They're handing out tickets for 4kph over the limit in NZ now - I'm guessing that people have slowed down so much that the normal level of tolerance isn't generating enough profit. Pretty sure there'll come a time when all the limits will be dropped as nobody is speeding and yet there are still fatalities on the road

I got done for 42kph in a 40 zone (NOT a school zone) in Vic Park recently.

^^^^ That's FARKED!!!! Wankers

You can dispute the fine if you have good reason. I've successfully had one quashed due to the location of the radar's proximity to a higher speed sign. Take photos of the location and write an articulate letter.

+1 my I load says 120 when I'm doing 110 on the gps

probably the reason I never get fined !!!!

A limit is a limit. Even 1kph over should be penalised. The freeway speed limit is 110 in NSW but everyone knows there's 10 kph tolerance so in reality it's 120kph. 1kph over and you get penalised. Call a spade a spade.


Exceeding a limit going down hill is even worse, the hill extends the elevated stopping distance even further.

tazmania said..

Speedo's are a very imprecise science in cars because it relies on little plastic gears connected to a gearbox to turn a dial and the slight tolerances amplify through the system so that at high speed they are out. Car makers err on the side of caution and generally Speedo's are most accurate around 60kph. Above that they make you think you are going faster than you are to help keep you under the limit and stop them from being sued.

One day when GPs's are fast/responsive enough for it they'll probably replace the cable and gear Speedo's.

I think a lot of newer cars today use electronic sensor feedback from wheels from ABS/ESC/XXX systems to provide speed data.

The problem with GPS as a speed measurement system is that it can't handle hills very well. Works great on flats but throw in some curvy up/down/left/right and accuracy goes out the window.

you can drive in a straightjacket? heaven help us. what if a reptilian overlord jumps out at you? Should you be driving under all the influence of all the chemtrails?

kiteboy dave said..

Ian K said..

A limit is a limit. Even 1kph over should be penalised.

In my parents day there were 3 speeds, 60,80, 100. Now we have 30,40,50,60,70,80,90,100,110 not to mention roadwork zones, school zones, variable speed limits and other tricky ones that change depending on time or conditions.

Between that and a low tolerance attitude like you're pushing and you end up with people who

1. get lost as to what speed a section actually is. Drive at 10 or 20 under to be safe.
Also other day in qld when hundreds of people got pinged at 40 over the limit in a tunnel, because the 80 limit was halved due to a few drops of oil on road or something, and there was only one electronic sign at start and 3 sets of cameras.

2. People now drive around with eyes down, watching speedo and checking clock, not watching the road. Leads to more accidents.

All you can do is lobby the politicians and relevant authorities to have the limits simplified or changed. But while they are as they are it is illegal to exceed them. If, despite all your diligence and safe intentions, you make a mistake, cop the fine gracefully.

Chilla said..

Speeding is speeding. Police are just doing their job.

Why red thumb its true.

They do not make the rules, they just follows them. Blame the other muppets, Blame us we are so powerful as a whole - however we
are all so independent it's stupid. Whatever chance we had to do something about the police or governments went out the doors last century.
Not to mention how racism is rearing its head back up because people are just to flaming sensitive about pissy little words.

If Australian's as a whole put as much effort into road policies as the few did sharks(either side of the fence), we would have a chance to change anything.

But we wont.

Going back to the O.P, Pete I am curious as to how you know they were writing tickets for a tiny bit over the limit downhill........ or even that speed detection was their primary concern at that time?

For example given that area isn't real flash it could be due to burglaries that they are stopping heaps of cars to look for dodgy characters to search. Of course they will also hang the radar out and probably do RBT also, cos they need a reason to be waving in cars to then see the dodgy ones. Or maybe it was just an RBT with one guy hanging out the radar with the intention of doing anyone more that 20 over and he didn't get a ticket all day.

Just wondering how you know what they were doing, or how anyone draws the long bow that they must be writing people up for 5kph over????

So if we presume it was a speed trap - of course, when they do a speed trap outside your kids school it is great isn't it? But when they do it anywhere else it is no good!!! Maybe they had 30 complaints last week about people doing warp speed thru there, and the residents are now happy ??

youngbull said..

Chilla said..

Speeding is speeding. Police are just doing their job.

Why red thumb its true.

They do not make the rules, they just follows them. Blame the other muppets, Blame us we are so powerful as a whole - however we
are all so independent it's stupid. Whatever chance we had to do something about the police or governments went out the doors last century.
Not to mention how racism is rearing its head back up because people are just to flaming sensitive about pissy little words.

If Australian's as a whole put as much effort into road policies as the few did sharks(either side of the fence), we would have a chance to change anything.

But we wont.

Quite right. Still sucks ass though cos driving less than 50kph feels like you're walking.

Kamikuza said..


There was a study done that determined the 10 most common reasons for accidents; the top 8 were basically failures of judgement - own or others road position, speed etc, while actually driving too fast for the conditions came in at number 9.

So in those top 8 reasons all participants in the accident were driving within the speed limit? Of course not. After the event it's pretty hard to determine if the speed limit was exceeded, unless the speed was exceptionally high.

When things go wrong, lack of judgement or whatever, and you finally do get your foot on the brake, every extra kph you have on board makes a disproportionate contribution to the eventual impact speed. It's a pity more drivers can't do the maths of initial kinetic energy vs impact speed after a few fractional seconds of brake application. Viewers just didn't take the knock off 5 and stay alive TV ad seriously. If you do the maths you'd see the ad is spot on, it's a very real difference.

Policeman use to be a respectable employment, they use to combat crime and assist people while occasionally enforcing laws to prevent hooning.

Their curriculum has slightly changed however, they are now government bitches with the sole task of revenue making and of course the old tazer prone bashing yankie style

I called police twice in the last 3 years:

the entire 20 meter long, 2.5 meter brick wall had collapsed onto the pedestrian side walk and with the amount of bricks, I was not entirely sure that no one was trapped under the collapse (they did not show up until the next day).

Some junked up loser was shagging my rubbish bin under the window while howling like a wolf, no show once again until I called back for an ambulance after he passed out frothing at the mouth and they turned up after the ambulance left.

I wish they could split the force into respectable officers there to combat crime and a separate bunch tosser badges and registration to do their dirty work.

Ian K said..

Kamikuza said..


There was a study done that determined the 10 most common reasons for accidents; the top 8 were basically failures of judgement - own or others road position, speed etc, while actually driving too fast for the conditions came in at number 9.

So in those top 8 reasons all participants in the accident were driving within the speed limit? Of course not. After the event it's pretty hard to determine if the speed limit was exceeded, unless the speed was exceptionally high.

When things go wrong, lack of judgement or whatever, and you finally do get your foot on the brake, every extra kph you have on board makes a disproportionate contribution to the eventual impact speed. It's a pity more drivers can't do the maths of initial kinetic energy vs impact speed after a few fractional seconds of brake application. Viewers just didn't take the knock off 5 and stay alive TV ad seriously. If you do the maths you'd see the ad is spot on, it's a very real difference.

Urgh...

Things like "failure to judge the position of other road users" topped the list - that means cases like merging and colliding... "failure to judge other vehicles speed", things like pulling out with insufficient space to accomplish it safely... "failure to allow sufficient stopping distance" which is related to speed but independent of "speeding"... you see where this is heading.

Sure, the physics of inertia makes some interesting messes but are you really trying to tell me that driving at 49 instead of 51 is going to magically make things better? Speed limits are ARBITRARILY chosen; decisions couched in technical waffle about the conditions of the roads etc

Take open road limits - they haven't changed in 40 years... 1970 cars can't be just as safe as 2010 cars?!?

PS. often the limit on the highway here is 80... accidents a-plenty anyway.