Well I hope everyone had a good long weekend. Most of you know that I spent mine up at the Moose Camp once again, but that story will have to wait a bit. I decided that I wanted to take a quick moment to discuss something else before I spin my fish tales.
As I made my way south this weekend there seemed to be one common subject that was making all the headlines. No I
I say fine them all! If people are willing to have a lighter wallet, good on them! There needs to be a suspension of licenses too, if that’s not already part of the package. Maybe make the fine double what it already is. Again, if people want to risk getting caught and fork that money over, that’s all good on me. No sympathy coming from me, that’s for sure.
Stop making cars that go to this fast. Why are cars built to go 240km/h? Should they not be maxed out at 120 km/h?
No that wouldn’t work because you would have a car that runs at a very high RPM constantly down the highway. You could apply speed regulators similar to what they sometimes use in trucks that would limit the max speed, but I can’t see the automakers buying into that and they have deep pockets to fight it.
Also last time I checked 120km/hr is still speeding. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to say 100km?
In Australia they have a very controlled highway system. Speed limit is 110 and no one exceeds it. There are cameras at certain intervals that record license and will calculate speed and time on the highway. They are also used as a safety feature, and people are encouraged to take breaks and not drive for too long.
Photo radar is a good system – if no one gets killed… Forget fines, people should lose their licenses for 10 years for exceeding X speed limit.
120 is speeding, but what about passing? I can get up to 120 passing someone on highway 6, doesn’t mean I drive at 120.
I would shoot myself in teh head if I had to drive at 100kms per hour. Are you kidding me?
Make the regulator stop at 130.
The only way I’m ok with photo radar is if they raise the speed limit to 120 – they were only reduced for artificial reasons to begin with, time to raise them to something acceptable. Similarly, people driving significantly under the limit in the left lane should also be fined.
Sadly, if they put photo radar in I’ll slow down to 100, and hate every second of it. It doesn’t fix the fact, however, that 90% of my co-humans can’t drive for a bag of crap. What measures will be in place to hold people responsible for unsafe driving? Not signaling, obstructing the flow of traffic, unsafe lane changes, etc..
I think Rick has hit it on the head. It’s the unsafe drivers that cause 98% of the problems. There need to be a toll free number that we can call and key in the offended plate #… After x (maybe 5) reports, the license gets suspended.
you’re so smart, Rick…. NOT!!! What if people don’t like you, so they prank-called the hotline 100 times…. Some people obviously aren’t thinking… you know, that makes zero sense at all, rick.
Ooops. my bad. That comment was directed at John. It was John’s comment. Sorry.
Prank callers also get their license suspended.
But how can that be proven?? …ie whether or not someone is prank calling…. John, you gotta think this through and all the consequences.
But how can that be proven?? …ie whether or not someone is prank calling…. John, you gotta think this through and all the consequences.
Kp, I work in systems… these checks and balances are not difficult.
Each caller would be required to privide:
their license plate, location/time of offense, etc…
All this info can be recorded and systematically analyizied. The complaints would have to come from unique callers, etc.
Where there’s gov’t money, there’s a way.
This could be as expensive as the gun registry… I think I will propose this to the gov’t. Three Billion $ for me!
btw, the gun registry was never shut down… and I have not heard any more calls for them to do so. What up with that?
Well, some of it makes sense, but as Rick said, this business of not signalling, changing lanes dangerously, etc., using cell phones when driving… all these things bug me. But, how could THOSE be verified? I mean, it’s one thing to recognize speeders, but these other things that Rick alluded to, damnit, ought to be outlawed too! We have too many bad drivers causing too many problems.
Wow… 14 threads for this topic… is that a record?!
No, not a record – but I think having three straight posts with 10+ comments is. There was a post or two a few years ago with over 20.. perhaps one with over 30, but I’d have to go back and look, and I don’t have the patience to sift through 2,909 posts.
John’s idea is good – a system that puts the responsibility on the drivers, and simultaneously makes us responsible for reporting, seems ideal. I’m not going to report John for bad driving if I’m angry at him because I wouldn’t be able to verify where I saw him at what time. I don’t think you can dispense tickets to people due to pedestrian complaints, but I certainly think the number of complaints attributed to your plate could affect your insurance rates and allow those of us with an understanding of defensive driving to see our rates lowered.
Rick has toned down my crazy ‘suspend all licenses’ idea into something even better… I get carried away sometimes.
You know, it would even be an awsome site to show # of complaints per plate… maybe post the results in the local newspaper. Shame them into decent driving…
I dont think your plan is feasible…
The people writing down license plates and calling things in – they are doing this while driving?
Citizens don’t have the authority to book people, only call the police and have them investigate.
Would require setting up some new bureaucracy to regulate this process – more wasted money.
As for speed limit. I agree that the speed limit should be upped on the highway – but it needs to be enforced. Right now, people know that going 10-15 km over is acceptable and likely won’t warrant a ticket. If the limit gets upped to 120, it should be enforced. And, just to be a dick, the limit on the 407 should be dropped to 50km so the company is forced to lose business and sell the hwy back to the government for cheap. hah.
There’s no booking going on. You would not have to call while you were driving.
It’s just a website with #’s.
Interesting fact. People have been taking a proactive approach to stopping bad drivers. People phone in license plate numbers to either 911 or (I believe) *OPP on a cell phone and report. There was numerous reports of this information being passed on to officers in the area and the dangerous drivers being caught.