50 Km/Hr Speed Limit
Saturday, January 01, 2000
I am worried about the proposed 50 km/h speed limit on residential roads. There are already thousands of cases of traffic fines, often automatic camera fines, where responsible drivers are being penalised for nothing.
Most residential streets are empty of traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular, most of the time. It is against common sense to crawl at 50 km/h under these conditions.
Many people will exceed this limit. This will dramatically increase the fine burden, already running at well over a million fines per year. It will also dramatically increase the feeling, already strong with many citizens, that government is using fines as revenue.
A Labour government specially should not exploit this type of revenue, because it is regressive. Low-income drivers are hit the same financial rate as high-income drivers. $100 is an awful lot for a victimless "crime" when you're on the dole.
If the government is sincerely targeting the road toll, and not its revenue coffers, then it will cheerfully modify its new rule to say "50 km/h if there is any traffic, vehicular or pedestrian, within 50 metres ahead."
Philip O'Carroll