Road Safety - How to get policies for safer roads, not increased revenue.

[coyote]

Smelly,

An increase in the hours of observation cost the government nothing, of course they think it's a great idea.

Anything that actually requires funds will be put on the back burner unless it is continually thrust in front of them by many, many people demanding answers as to why they are not doing it (and debunking the bullshit answers that arise).

[kabab]

We need people to take more care.
We need people to be responsible for their actions.
We need people to consider their responsibility before conducting these actions.

We cannot control stupidity either people are always going to die on the road regardless.

[Captiva Fan]

Same with drink driving. It was VERY acceptable 30 years ago. These days I think it is more than just the legal aspect, but a reduce social tolerance.

Something I find very interesting is the fact that a helluva lot of Europeans seem to have the attitude that if you're drunk you just drive slower & you'll be right. This includes Germans. One conclusion you could draw from that is counter to what I've said before about driver training & road conditions; I've said previously that fixing roads & teaching people car-control won't work 'cos attitude is the problem, but if people with car-control are getting-about pissed as newts & not killing themselves any more than here ...
Just a thought, anyhoo.

[hamish]

Forg, just goes to show that not everything the europeans do is praisworthy

Coyote, I take your point, but they were relatively straightforward measures to introduce & gave a big return in terms of lives saved. But yes they are an attitude thing as shown by the number of people who still drink drive convinced of their ability to still be right after a few.

I actually think any scheme that reduces deaths and injuries would ultimately save money, problem is the Govt has to spend money now to make an unknown saving a few years down the track, unfortunately most govts aren't that visionary & are far far more concerned at making this years budget look good.

Still, I think the introduction of RBT gives cause for hope, I'm old enough to remember the incredible hue & cry in the press when it was introduced 20 odd yrs ago, the Hotels kicked up a stink that it was going to put them out of business & cost jobs, & a whole bunch of (likely self interested) journos carried on about intrusions into civil liberties etc, seems laughable now, but your right it has transformed the general community attitude towards drink driving. Could be worth looking at how that legislation was put through parliment & who was lobbying for it.

[BevanChick]

I spoke to my Dad last night about when seat belt laws were introduced and he said it was much the same thing. Plenty of people bleated on about their civil liberties etc. but now it's a relatively accepted social thing (apparently less so in North Queensland though!)

So, we somehow need to produce this feeling that being a good driver holds some sort of value. I'm sort of thinking out loud here, but what about some sort of encouragement for people that drive well, instead of just fines for people that drive badly? There are so many problems with this, I realise, like the lack of police to even police current laws. I just thought social acceptance of being a good driver might be easier to achieve than social abhorrence of being a bad driver.

Perhaps people could be issued 'points' by police when driving well and if you achieved so many points, you would get a discount of your rego (even if it was a $2 discount, people love getting something for nothing).

Feel free to shoot this down, I'm just trying to come up with some stuff 'outside the square' that maybe people haven't though of, because we're so used to the system that we're already in.

[Ben Wilson]

So, we somehow need to produce this feeling that being a good driver holds some sort of value. I'm sort of thinking out loud here, but what about some sort of encouragement for people that drive well, instead of just fines for people that drive badly? There are so many problems with this, I realise, like the lack of police to even police current laws. I just thought social acceptance of being a good driver might be easier to achieve than social abhorrence of being a bad driver.

I've seen an e-mail about a disastrous French (I think) attempt at a scheme like this, but, I can't find it, and I can't remember the details...