News and Issues
Have Your Say
RACT is always interested in listening to the community, so this is your chance to have your say. Simply click on Have Your Say below the discussion topics to have your say about the issue.
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New Zealand's Automobile Association (NZAA) have recently published a substantial paper on road safety and associated issues, called "Saving Ourselves", which RACT wanted to share with our members. NZAA says :
By analysing data in the Crash Analysis System records from a fresh perspective, and in the light of the latest research from New Zealand and overseas, we provide those concerned with road safety with a resource to stimulate new thinking. For the simple fact is that the 2010 Road Safety Strategy was not a success and new thinking is urgently required.
Like the AA you probably believe that too many New Zealanders and visitors are killed or injured on our roads. Like the AA you probably think New Zealand's rate of progress in road safety has been disappointing in recent years. And we hope that, like the AA, you also believe that improving safety is the top priority when it comes to the development of our land transport system.
While "Saving Ourselves" has some fairly clear views on how road safety should progress in New Zealand none of this should be taken personally. Road safety is, naturally, an emotional issue and it is natural for feelings to run deep. That said it must be recognised that although different groups may disagree on means to reduce road trauma, we do all agree on the ends. In the end it really is about all of us as road users saving ourselves.
Let us know what you think about the New Zealand approach to safer drivers, in safer vehicles, on safer roads.
Just over 170,000 Tasmanians are members of the RACT. Formed in 1923, the RACT seeks to advance the aim of "safer drivers, in safer cars, on safer roads", along with its sister motoring organisations across Australia. While enforcement plays a vital part in achieving acceptable road safety, engineering and education are just as crucial in this ongoing challenge. As the peak road safety advocate for motorists in Tasmania, the RACT believes that driving is a privilege and not a right. We also believe that the majority of our members are law-abiding citizens. That's why enforcement and regulatory measures that are claimed to be in the interests of road safety need to be carefully considered and balanced.
The latest ABS figures put Tasmania's population at over 500,000. Of these, around 317,000 hold a full Tasmanian driver's licence. With at least one car in the majority of Tasmanian homes, the private motor vehicle is essential to the lifestyles of our families, the connectivity of our decentralised communities in Tasmania, and to the sustainability of the wider Tasmanian economy and community. This is reflected in the higher-than-average penetration of car ownership: latest figures show that Tasmania has 799 registered vehicles per 1,000 residents, whereas the Australian average is 719 vehicles per 1,000 residents. The importance of the "family car" and the "work car" in particular are reinforced by the lack of adequate public transport in many areas of our State. Whereas in Melbourne, large numbers of people rely on buses, trams and passenger trains to regularly commute to and from work, in Tasmanian urban centres the last two modes of transport don't even exist.
This is why broad-based road safety measures such as speed cameras, in particular, are pretty unpopular amongst our members. It also explains why a measure like "double-demerit points" on long weekends or during holiday periods (unpopular and yet to be introduced in Tasmania) remains an issue with only limited support amongst RACT members. While members can see the road safety benefits of focusing drivers on the task, they also don't support any measure that will artificially inflate the penalties for lower-level offences such as minor speeding infringements. Tasmanians rely heavily on their private motor vehicles and many see cameras as simply unavoidable revenue-raising mechanisms; something that, by the law of averages, they will encounter at some stage.
According to the Tasmanian Government's 2009-10 Budget papers, they're not wrong either. The Department of Police and Emergency Management agency outline lists under its performance measure targets for 2009-10: 45,500 officer-generated speeding infringement notices and cautions and an additional 57,000 'road safety camera' infringement notices [source: Tasmanian Government 2009-10 Budget Paper No.2 p 9.11]. The Government is budgeting on Tasmanians paying "fines and regulatory fees" of just over $64 million, which represents around 1% of total State accrued revenues receivable for 2009-10 ($6,478 million), of which $26 million is fines alone. That's an average $82.00 in fines for each Tasmanian licence-holder, to add to an average $278 per licence-holder ($87.6 million ) in motor tax, registration fees and the Road Safety Levy (which is added to rego costs) and $25 each ($7.6 million) in drivers' licences [source: Tasmanian Government 2009-10 Budget Paper No 1; Income statement p A1.27]. Are motorists cash-cows? You betcha.
But do a majority of law-abiding drivers end up paying more than their fair share than a high risk-taking minority? RACT has, for a number of years, been concerned about repeat offenders, disqualified drivers who continue to drive vehicles and end up involved in road crashes with often tragic results involving innocent parties. According to a report in The Examiner recently, Tasmania had 4,933 disqualified drivers whose licences had been suspended by courts for drink-driving, speeding or other traffic offences. Police in Northern Tasmania have set up a special "Dob-in a Disqualified Driver" taskforce and hotline number, encouraging "community intelligence" about repeat offender drivers, which the RACT applauds.
An analysis of crash statistics in Tasmania over the last five years shows, again and again, that drivers involved in serious and fatal crashes with multiple high-risk behaviours (such as drink-driving and/or speeding and/or driving while disqualified) are over-represented. In particular, these are drivers whose licence is already suspended - or drivers who have never held a licence. In 2008, 1880 drivers were caught driving while disqualified, and around one-third of them were people being charged with the offence for the second time. The Tasmanian Government is introducing tough new vehicle confiscation and wheel-clamping regulations for repeat offenders, and the RACT has openly supported these measures along the way.
Recently, a spate of incidents reported in Tasmania involving drivers detected at obscenely high speeds have highlighted excessive speeding as one of these high-risk behaviours. Most worryingly, perhaps, is the fact that many of these involved novice drivers. These included a 20-year-old female learner driver, with two sixteen-year-old male passengers in the car, travelling at 200km/h. A policeman involved in the case was reported as saying "… Regardless of the constant reminders of the dangers of excessive speed we still have a small percentage of drivers who selfishly place the lives of their passengers and other road users at great risk." And only this week, a 16 year-old male learner driver was caught driving 65 km/h above the speed limit and a breath test showed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.096; learner drivers of course have a zero alcohol restriction.
Blanket speed limit reductions, which are being considered by government, are opposed by the RACT on the basis that this should not be used as a 'cop-out' from spending adequate amounts of taxpayers' funds - significant amounts which are contributed directly by the road-users themselves - on proper road upgrades and maintenance. Our members are also worried that lower speed limits will, in turn, generate significantly more low-level speed infringements. Their belief is that better-targeted enforcement and regulations should be aimed squarely at the high risk-taking minority. The prevalence of multiple risk-taking drivers in serious and fatal crash statistics in Tasmania supports this view.
Vince Taskunas is General Manager Public Policy and Communications with the Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania (RACT) Ltd
Contact him on v.taskunas@ract.com.au
The Australian Government's national FuelWatch proposal was recently defeated in the Senate, with South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon siding with the Opposition to vote down the legislation. The RACT had supported FuelWatch in the past, because we believed it would provide more information and price transparency to Tasmanian motorists than was presently available to them.
As many members would be aware the RACT has been running our own fuel price monitoring service on our website www.ract.com.au for around five years now; however, this monitoring has only ever been on a weekly basis, with updates posted every Thursday.
The Club has continued to advocate publicly on behalf of its members for fairer petrol, gas and diesel prices in Tasmania. During 2008 Tasmanian motorists have paid premium prices for their fuel; especially in comparison to mainland centres like Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide.
The RACT has consistently advocated for fairer and lower fuel prices, taking the concerns of its members to the media on a large number of occasions during the sustained periods of high prices in Tasmania in 2008. (see recent media reports <<Concern Over Petrol Prices>><<Hobart Tops the Price Ladder Across Australia>><<Petrol Prices at Unexpected Low>> <<Bartlett Supports Fuel Watch>>
In addition, the Club took the concerns of its members directly to the Federal Parliament, giving evidence to the Senate Economics Committee inquiring into the provisions of the National Fuelwatch legislation <<RACT to give evidence to Senate Fuel watch Inquiry>> <<Senate Hansard Economics Committee - National Fuelwatch - RACT evidence page 15>>
Prior to the Premier's Fuel Summit, held in Launceston on September 4, the RACT wrote to Premier David Bartlett seeking support from the Tasmanian Government to extend our weekly fuel monitoring to a daily service.
It remains our belief that if Tasmanian motorists had access to petrol, diesel and LPG prices, updated on a daily basis, they would be far better-informed as to where the most competitively-priced fuel was located. This would lead to increased local price competition and better outcomes for Tasmanian consumers.
In response to the failure of the FuelWatch scheme at a national level, Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett released a statement saying he was "extremely disappointed" with the outcome in the Senate. On a more positive note, the Premier also said that he would work with the RACT to examine other options to help motorists in Tasmania.
"FuelWatch was the ideal opportunity to inject greater transparency into the petrol market at a national level which would have resulted in savings at the petrol pump.
"Given that opportunity has now been lost, I would be happy to sit down with the RACT to discuss any ideas they may have which would assist Tasmanian motorists, including a Tasmanian Fuelwatch approach," Mr Bartlett said.
The RACT has contacted the Premier's office to seek a meeting to discuss the situation. We look forward to working with the Tasmanian Government and taking a lead role in providing greater information about petrol prices to Tasmanian motorists.
Tasmania already has permanent speed cameras: on the Tasman Bridge, and on Illawarra Rd at Longford. The RACT thinks there should be more (with appropriate warning signage), especially on junctions on high-speed roads, and at high crash-risk locations across Tasmania.
Got a suggestion for a permanent speed camera location in Tasmania?
Please have your say below or send suggestions to Vince Taskunas, Public Policy General Manager v.taskunas@ract.com.au
A new look and feel - and more to come...
Over the last six months the RACT and a local web development company called Future Medium Pty Ltd have been working together to create a new RACT web site.
Stage 1 of this redevelopment is now complete - and you're using it right now.
ract.com.au has a new "look & feel" with improved site navigation and structure. We can now add additional features such as purchasing memberships and getting insurance quotes - these are currently being worked on and will be delivered, along with other exciting new features, in Stage 2 due in the first part of 2009.
We'd love to know what YOU would like to see on the website, features that YOU would find useful.
We'd appreciate any feedback you care to provide about the new site -please let us know what you think as well as any suggestions you have.
So give us your feedback in the box below - have YOUR say!
A mix of engineering solutions would improve safety
The RACT's top infrastructure priorities remain the northern approaches to Hobart including the building, as soon as possible, of the Brighton transport hub and the Brighton by-pass, and the upgrading and maintenance of a fully operational rail system, as per the package of funding promised by Federal Labor during the 2007 election campaign.
Certainly, if there were no rail, there would need to be a significant increase in North-South road infrastructure capacity. In addition, safety issues on the Midland Highway have long been a concern to Tasmanians, and the RACT recognises there are many people in the community who have been touched by the numerous fatalities and serious injuries that have occurred on the Midland Highway over the years.
Separating traffic flows practically eliminates the risk of head-on crashes - which are the crashes we all worry about on the Midland Highway. The RACT believes that while full duplication to a four-lane Midland Highway would be an ideal in terms of reducing crash risk, a mix of less-costly engineering solutions can also make the highway much safer over its entire length. For example, this could include alternating two-plus-one-lane highway, separated by flexible barrier.
In the meantime, the RACT is committed to identifying sections of the Midland Highway where motorists believe safety or pavement quality is an issue. Let us know what you think.
Have YOUR say on this issue, now!
Poll
The Hobart City Council has proposed a blanket speed limit reduction to 50km/h on most roads throughout the municipality. The RACT would prefer a case-by-case analysis of differing section of the network.Do you support a:
