19 September 2024

Fines for ‘average speed' breaches in NSW a lazy rural bashing option from government that won’t fix roads

| Oliver Jacques
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Average speed camera sign in Scotland

An average speed camera warning sign in Scotland. This could become a common sight in NSW. Photo: David Dixon.

The NSW Government is introducing a creative new regime to extract more money from drivers through fines.

It’s planning to trial something called ‘average speed’ detectors in regional areas, whereby it installs cameras at two points on a highway, records you at both spots and then hits you with a penalty notice if your average speed between those points exceeds the limit.

This is an invasive measure that will disproportionately hurt rural drivers, from a government that won’t fulfil its side of the bargain by improving our regional transport network.

You can just imagine the conversations that might have gone on between the NSW Roads Minister and his bureaucrats before coming up with this idea:

Should we do something about all the potholes on our roads that led to 12,000 vehicles damaging their wheels and calling NRMA for roadside assistance in April and May? Nah.

What about upgrading our rail freight network so we don’t have so many trucks clogging up regional highways? Forget it, too expensive.

Shall we consider installing warning lights at all railway crossings so we stop seeing vehicles crashing into trains? Don’t like that either.

“I’ve got a better idea,” I imagine some clever bureaucrat saying. “We only make about $1 billion a year on penalty notices. Let’s raise even more revenue by introducing a whole new category of offence, where we nail drivers not only for speeding at a point in time but also track them over a long distance and bust them for average speed breaches. That’s perfect.”

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It’s true that point to point speed cameras are already used in other countries, states and for heavy vehicles in NSW. But expanding their remit to all drivers will hurt those of us who live in the bush most of all. We are the ones that travel long distances in cars – often to access services and jobs that governments have stripped away from rural towns.

Naturally, the NSW Government has chosen two regional areas to trial this new scheme, on the Pacific Highway between Kew and Lake Innes, and the Hume Highway between Coolac and Gundagai.

I can hear what city-based supporters of average speed breach fines might say in response – ‘it’s simple, don’t ever speed and you won’t ever get fined’.

In reality, it’s not that simple. If a driver doesn’t want to be stuck behind a semi-trailer going at 95 km/h on the Burley Griffin Way all afternoon, he may have to marginally exceed the speed limit to overtake.

Perhaps you think there’s no exceptions, drivers should never speed and if you’re stuck behind a truck, it’s bad luck. But if that’s the case, don’t governments also have a responsibility to improve traffic safety?

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For the past two decades, federal and state governments have done a woeful job maintaining and upgrading regional roads, preferring to spend our taxes on stadiums, museums and light rail in big cities. As a result, there are safety hazards all over regional road networks that put lives at risk.

The burden for reducing our road toll is disproportionately falling on rural residents, who are hit with higher and more frequent financial penalties while struggling with the rising cost of living.

My message to government is simple – before you bring in average speed cameras, do your job first and address the disgraceful state of country roads.

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Oliver,
I am not a Riverina resident, but I am an ex member of the NSW Highway Patrol. To qualify for the job I had to become proficient in basic mathematics in relation to Time, Speed and Distance. For instance 1 km/hr is equal to 3.6 mts/sec. How many Politicians know this? Also the original Australian Road Rules (Regulations) stated that the speedometer of any motor vehicle was allowed to be no more than 10 kph or 10% inaccurate. There were also guidelines for the use of speed detection equipment (radar). These guidelines allowed for extra margin in detected speeding offences by up to 3 kph. Work it out! But sometime in the last 5 years the 10 kph or 10% was changed by, dare I say you guessed it, a politician, to 5% plus
4 kph. The tolerances in the law used to be in increments of 15 kph. Now they are in 10 kph increments, and the penalties, both monetary and points are considerably higher. All this and how often do you see the HWP out on the roads promoting road safety? No; nowadays Police have been replaced by technology, such as this farce that you are talking about roadside cameras or civilian operated speed cameras. This was always considered the domain of the Police. And who changed it? ‘Honest’ Gladys B. You know; the one who used to date another reputable politician from down your way, ‘Honest’ Darrell something.
Let’s get back to basic common sense. Allow the Police to do their job and really spend the money on Road Safety.
Greg Payne

Graham Murphy9:43 pm 18 Sep 24

Why is the NSW Govt persecuting the motorist all the time? They have dumbed it down to the point where everyone is driving about looking at their speedo rather than the road. If speed kills what are they talking about with ‘high speed rail’. Bad driving kills, and automated tax collecting technology systems that penalise people going about their lives trying to make enough monety to pay the massive fines is just lunacy. The Nanny State would have made sure Edmund Hillary would never have climbed Everest… too dangerous. No bungy jumping in NSW either… too dangerous. How the hell could we win a war? That’s also too dangerous . Get off our case and stop oppressing us… we all vote you know. Murf

David George10:13 am 17 Sep 24

There are a couple of important points about this type of revenue raising that often go unnoticed:

1. Getting fined isn’t the end of it. You’re effectively penalized for the next three years through increased insurance premiums and registration fees, as you’re labeled a ‘dangerous driver.’ This feels like a form of extortion.

2. Where is this money really going? While the government claims 100% of it funds road safety initiatives, much of it actually ends up with contractors, some of whom are based outside of Australia.

It’s time to hold the government accountable for this practice. Write letters, send emails, and let the state government know that this approach is unacceptable. They need to stop taking the easy route to generate more revenue and focus on addressing the real issues with our roads, as well as targeting those who recklessly and dangerously drive or ride on them.

I totally agree with Oliver. The long distances travelled by cars in rural Australia to go to work or do anything will now require watching your speedometer EVERY FEW SECONDS to make sure your not exceeding the limit. It created a situation your not concentrating on the road or obstacles. It also increased stress and makes you edgy and tense you grip the wheel harder too it all slows reaction time..
These long stretches of highway are simple driving if you can steer clear of the trucks. I don’t want to be anywhere near a giant vehicle. And can accelerate past them.But you could find yourself in front of one unable to accelerate away and their momentum makes them dangerous.
It will create a make up for the delay by speeding on smaller regional roads that are less safe to speed in with narrow lane’s and winding road’s.
Travelling for hour’s under the threat of speeding fines creates a stressful situation. Stress tires you out….tiredness is perhaps the biggest killer on our road’s. They could be increasing pressures on driver’s leading to more accidents .
Even health issues related to stress.
Personally I find driving like this extremely stressful I’m watching my speedometer like a madman it’s not safer.But I only need to drive the Princess Highway once a year.
Driving every day under threatening conditions of penalties would be soul destroying and could be just settling driver’s up to be less attentive and more fatigued while putting them closer to dangerous heavy vehicles. Or force them make up for lost ground in other areas less equipped to handle speed.
How about the opposite test…no safety cameras for a year or average speed camera’s. A test to see if they actually create more dangerous driving conditions via mental stress and driver fatigue rather than less.Trying to two things at once watch the speedometer and watch the road.
Watching the speedometer require a visual check maybe a correction another visual check multiple time’s per minute..Say 10.
Over an two hour trip it’s looking at the dashboard not the road over 1000 time’s…..your telling me that’s SAFER…..joke.

Peter Thorburn11:48 am 17 Sep 24

If you’re such a bad driver that you can’t maintain your speed without checking your speedometer every few seconds you should probably just stop driving and hand your licence in to the nearest authorities.

Oliver, you clearly have no understanding of the terms average and absolute speed.
Before I continue, I would like to point out that approximately 2/3 of road deaths are on country roads, that a very high percentage of those deaths are of country folks. Further, excessively high speeds are implicated in a significant number of those deaths.
If I were to follow a slow driver doing 85kph in a 100kph zone for 5km and overtake that vehicle at an absolute speed of 110 over 1 km, my average speed would likely not be much over 90 kph. If howwever Mr Plod was hiding in the scrub with his radar camera at this time he would do me for 10kph over.
Most speedo’s overead by 10%, so I drive at the speed limit using my GPS ( my speedo shows say 109kph but actual speed is about 100kph). I will not be done by an average speed camera. However I am frequently overtaken by other vehicles doing warp speed driven by professional drivers ( denoted by a Green P). These folk will be detected by an average speed camera.
Deaths on country roads have many causes, speed, alcohol, poor roads and, most likely very underated is, fatique caused by get homeitis.
All attempts to address the causes of death on the roads need to be supported not undermined. I have lost my best friend and many others on country roads.
Average speed cameras had a noticeable impact on speeding heavy vehicles, it can certainly have a calming effect on other drivers country roads.

Regards PS

Averages are easy to skew in any way shape or form .
Of the accidents on country road is it proportional to the amount of vehicles using the same road,
Then you could subdivide into categories.
How many were city drivers
Weather conditions
Fatigue
Vehicle maintenance
Animal involved
Weather
Dirt road
Flooded causeway
The list goes on.
Remember that the average time camera can be then used as a in cabin observation tool.
Phone ,Belts.
This is a recommendation from Austroads who’s future is dependant on making our roads safe with minimal spending.
Slow down is their mantra and governments enjoy the financial windfalls by fines.
Educate the drivers and take responsibility all politicians. Own your failures in doing a pathetic job as the NSW Government.
Not all city toll roads are safe no matter how much spin they put on it .

Great article, unfortunately human nature says that people will mostly slow down in between the cameras, but will speed up outside the set distance to make up time. This will increase the possibility of a near miss or crash. The government should increase the highway patrol force, and make them mobile instead of sitting in the normal spots.

Peter Thorburn11:49 am 17 Sep 24

That’s literally the point of using average cameras rather than stationary ones, which only encourage drivers to slow down for the moment they’re passing them.

Robyn Thurston11:17 pm 15 Sep 24

Oliver, I totally agree with your analysis and comments; you have articulated what rural drivers unfairly suffer, from poorly maintained state roads to unsafe rail crossings and the lack of freight on the trains. Start the petition, I’ll be first sign, Cheers!

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