Why just blame 200kmh+ "hoons" for speeding? #cars #language #society

The old-world media love to beat this stuff up:

Last year three of the highest speeds recorded on Queensland roads occurred on the M1, including two at Stapylton of 243km/h and 237km/h and one at Helensvale, of 235km/h.

Let me guess, they were probably young males in one of (a) turbocharged grey market Nissan Skylines; (b) another brand of after-market hotted up Japanese car or (c) high-end US-style V8 sedans (what some of us imagine to be "Aussie" cars, simply because we build or assemble some part of them here). But they could just have easily have been white-shoed cardigan wearers in their Maseratis, Ferraris or Astons. Except they aren't as news-worthy, unless of course they are a "celebrity" or a politician responsible for road safety.

Of course it goes without saying that the police are "exasperated". And naturally it's downplayed as just lucky that there have been "no fatal crashes on the motorway so far this year.

We can all draw the pictures in our minds, of these criminally insane law-breakers tearing around at stupidly excessive speed, but truth be told every motorist exceeds the posted speed limit at some point in their driving lives. Perhaps not by these speeds, but certainly by non-trivial amounts. Perhaps you choose to do it, I don't know. But whereas here in this article we are looking at just 3 incidences of clearly deliberate and excessive speeding on one motorway, the majority of otherwise law-abiding "speeders" are equally deliberately going 10, 20 or 30 kilometres an hour over the limit, usually on potholed suburban streets littered with intersections, driveways, cyclists and pedestrians to boot. Now whilst we can easily say that "if they crash (at these extreme speeds), they'll likely die - police" we can also quite justifiably say that far more people are taking equally life-threatening risks on a daily basis. Sometimes they do it deliberately, sometimes by carelessness or ignorance. But tell me, why focus on the extreme "hoons" when the greater risk is all around us?

Why indeed do we make, sell or modify road-registerable cars that can easily double the speed limit? And why do we spend so much money replacing narrow, curvy roads with straighter, safer and faster multi-lane motorways? If we seriously wanted to reduce speeding we'd govern cars and restrict traffic flow (ok, we do that now - they are called traffic jams). Fact is, humans like to get places faster, not slower, and they enjoy some degree of personal risk-taking; indeed some of our community simply enjoy living closer to the edge.

None of which is particularly helpful in reducing death or injury on our roads, or saving us from our wasteful, unsustainable selves. But it does give us something to read in the press.

Social and economic cost of speeding

What are we doing speeding? I just read this: NSW motorists are losing their licences at a record rate of 110 a day, because of accumulated traffic and speeding fines. If petrol prices are hurting, as our media and politicians tell us daily, why are we speeding? Wouldn't it make sense to slow down and save fuel? Hmmm. Maybe fuel remains too cheap?

Anyway, according to that report "the proliferation of speed cameras is blamed for the surge in suspensions", so it's not the drivers' fault, it's just that we are catching more speeding drivers. Ah-ha. They are not in control sufficiently to actually obey the law, apparently, or were distracted by their MP3 player, their cell phone or their passengers. Or they just didn't see the camera. Or they deliberately and consciously law-break by habit. Or whatever.

But wait, there's more. "Peak motoring group NRMA says the rising rate of licence suspension was also a threat to economic productivity, with a recent survey of business showing 23 per cent had workers who were currently off the road." Wow, who cares about the lives that are impacted by suspended licences, it's the economic consequence that matters. Is the NRMA for real, or simply misquoted?

In any case 23% sounds absurbly high and we don't know the sample size or error, but it could just be one person in each firm (how can we know?); so the economic impact is not actually revealed usefully by that stat at all. It looks big but is actually a rubbish number designed only to mislead. Ask instead 'what percentage of workers does this represent?' and 'what percentage of those suspended workers are thereby unable to satisfactority perform their work or an alternative?' They don't use those stats so the actual economic impact is probably small.

Let's also not forget that speeding itself has a social and economic cost measured in increased fuel consumption, noise and social dislocation, and in the cost of fixing smashed cars and people. Whilst punishment may not be the answer - no-one wants to see people forced out of jobs because of repeated lapses in concentration or a basic misunderstanding of the importance of road laws (hmmmm) - we can't ignore a problem that creates both ill-feeling and disrespect for authority and a rough-house bullying attitude by one group of motorists that sets them against the law-abiding and the non-motorised.

So let's get real. Balance punishment and education, sure, and start a cultural change in our society that increases care and respect for our community, including respect for laws designed to regulate and improve traffic flow. Yes folks, speeding stuffs up the traffic. You speed, you catch the guy in front and queues start. So just slow down, save gas and improve traffic flow. That's my 2 cents worth.