If Speed Kills, the Autobahn Would Flow with Blood...

Brilliant article from Miranda Devine.

He said Australian authorities were “unusually obsessed” with speeding, at the risk of underemphasising the dangers of drunk driving or driving without a seatbelt. Speed cameras were “purely punitive, not educational” he said. “We need to ask those obsessed with speed cameras why Germany, with no speed limit at all on its autobahns, has a fatality rate of 0.7, which is substantially better than NSW’s 0.9 and Australia’s 0.8.” The NSW Auditor-General’s report into speed cameras last year was a “damning indictment of RTA incompetence and arrogance”. The report found 70 per cent of submissions viewed cameras as revenue raisers, and only 28 per cent of cameras produced statistically significant improvements in road safety.”

Will anything change?

Stewart’s ideas, backed by his experience at the front line, are well worth heeding. But Roads Minister Duncan Gay, who will open the conference this morning, did not respond to Stewart’s offer to view his paper. Gay went into office a champion of motorists, opposed to punitive fines and cameras. But like every minister before him, he is now captured by his department and addicted to the revenue.

Driving in Sydney is stressful and unpleasant. That's before you even meet other stressed, unpleasant drivers.