A question for our police members or those that know some

[ozzieboy]

G'day folks. This is NOT meant to be a cop bashing thread.:thumbup:

I've noticed of late that I've been pretty negative on the Australian cops, which may not be entirely fair. I'm just wondering how much say (if any) the actual people doing the policing get in making policy:don'tknow:.

Most of my problem lies in the fact that the Government has seen speeding as a primo way of raising some revenue and now drink driving, speeding, license and registration/insurance seem to me to be the only things targeted if your driving a roadworthy looking car. The people driving on high beam, not using indicators properly (if at all), tailgating, moving into a slip lane and coming back out to make a turn. U- turns in bizarre places. I've seen police cars watch all this and go right on driving. I've even seen a police car stuck behind people in the overtaking lane and they were not overtaking. People speed up when you go to overtake which is just totally reprehensible. Changing lanes in roundabouts, the list is endless:spank::spank::shakehead:.

I've seen literally hundreds of people pulled over to check for alcohol:thumbup: and same again for speeding.

If it was all about safety the Government would remove the big trees from the roadside, as 80% odd of fatalities here involve a tree. I imagine a lot of accidents are caused through bad roads and road design too.
Nearly 100% of these accidents are due to people doing it wrong (I understand that too).

So again, I'm just wondering if the police get any say in what they police.

I'd hate to think I was getting down on them if they were trying to change things for the better and being ignored.

I understand it's a hard job and there are good cops and bad cops but that is not what this is about.

Do police get any say in policy?


Cheers
Mike

 

[champion221elite]

Do police get any say in policy?

Nope... not from patrol officers standpoint. Most traffic fatalities I've handled usually involve one or more of the following (excessive speed, alcohol and/or drugs).

Road design is rarely called into question unless there is something seriously wrong with the traffic engineering (negative banking on a curve, or other flaw). As a Deputy Sheriff, who lives and works in the same community, I hate to see citizens in my county injured or killed because of crashes. I'd love to prevent every crash, but thats simply not possible. I can't comment on Australian laws, but I can say speeding ticket/ drunk driving laws in Michigan (USA) are fairly relaxed.

There isn't much deterrence to keep violators from driving drunk or speeding again.

 

[ozzieboy]

Thanks Champ.:thumbup: I'll head out today for a nice scenic drive and show you photosof some of the beautiful scenic drives in S.A. Places where the road actually deviates around a really big tree and trucks have to pass onto the oncoming lane to fit under where it leans over the road....just crazy...LOL. Looks nice though.

Sad to know that the people who are seeing the problems first hand don't even get to have a say in how things are done.

Thanks mate.

Cheers
Mike

 

[champion221elite]

Midnight police officers often feel like a mushroom. Our bosses keep us in the dark, and feed us $hit.

I know the kind of poor road engineering you're talking about. I know of one place (different county) where a road runs East/ West. The road is perfectly straight for over 10 miles, but takes a slight jog at the county line. I know of one drunk guy on a Harley Davidson who ended up 200 yards out in the corn field because he failed to negotiate that bend in the road.

Poor engineering... you bet. Excessive speed... yup. Drunk enough to kill the both of us... check.

The best thing LEO's can do is enforce the laws as they are written, be polite and professional. All officers have discretion whether to issue a citation or not. I might stop 10 vehicles during a shift and not issue a single ticket. Making traffic stops is basically a contact sport. The more contacts you have, the better your odds at getting something serious will be. Some folks are happy that we're watching out for their safety, while others say we're harassing them. In the end, it's only 5 minutes of their time and they get to go on their way. I can only hope that some of my traffic stops, and subsequent arrests have saved the life of that person, or some other innocent person down the road.

 

[ozzieboy]

Alrighty. I got some vid of one of the bumpiest roads about. They've pulled down the 2 trees in question at last, but there are loads of other trees that leave no margin for error on a very uneven surface. Some of the trees have scrape marks from trucks on them and lift the road with their roots.

I took one corner very wide to avoid the sinking section of road in the middle....It was all pretty uncomfortable. Then throw in some tourists who don't know what to expect and you're looking for trouble.

I also got some video of the latest in cheap road repairs. All the way along this road there is a step at the edge. Most of these repairs around the state run a join down the center of the lane. This means that in order to follow the correct line through the corner you must cross it twice, which destabilizes the bike each time:spank:.

Very scenic ride today though:thumbup:.

I missed putting up one of the worst off camber corners I can think of. Jules knows the one, down near Yankalilla. He hates it:spank:.

Sorry if your eyes bump up and down when you watch it...lol.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fnoTQQiyXc"]YouTube - A bumpy road down south[/ame]

Cheers
Mike

 

[champion221elite]

I see the problem with your roads... you're driving on the wrong side:rof: Seriously though, I see the problem areas you're referring to. My suggestion would be a letter writing campaign to your local agency responsible for road construction and maintenance. If that doesn't help, contact your representative, senator or whatever Australians use for representation at the State or Federal level.

It must be nice to have riding weather this time of year, although I suppose thats a benefit of living in the Southern hemisphere. Believe it or not, that road would be considered in excellent shape in my area (Northern Michigan).

 

[ozzieboy]

I see the problem with your roads... you're driving on the wrong side:rof: Seriously though, I see the problem areas you're referring to. My suggestion would be a letter writing campaign to your local agency responsible for road construction and maintenance. If that doesn't help, contact your representative, senator or whatever Australians use for representation at the State or Federal level.

It must be nice to have riding weather this time of year, although I suppose thats a benefit of living in the Southern hemisphere. Believe it or not, that road would be considered in excellent shape in my area (Northern Michigan).

LMAO...I've been waiting for somebody to mention the driving on the left:rof:.

I'm definitely looking into writing some letters and sending off some photos and video to parties that should be interested......I'm not expecting miracles but would like to find out if there are plans:thumbup: or if it's just too hard:spank:. I've also collected some video of people who drive like they are at home on the sofa.....not paying attention to anything....they need to lay off the bikers and get onto the bad drivers:spank::spank::spank:

We have missed out on summer here bigtime this year, which has meant no 40+ days yet. This means that it has been one of the most pleasant summers of riding I've ever seen:cheer:.

OMG! If your roads are worse than that I'm wondering if you set your preload on 1...lol.....My bum still hurts.....LMAO

Cheers
Mike

 

[champion221elite]

I'm pretty sure my preload is set to "4". At some point, the roads in my area were perfect and new. We get hit pretty hard by winter which causes lots of damage (freeze/ thaw cycles, road salt, and the plows themselves. Our highways, freeways and State routes are in pretty good shape, but most of the secondary roads (fun to ride on a motorcycle) are in good shape.

I think I'll start a letter writing campaign as well... my county just passed a road maintenance this past November. I'd like to see some of that money go towards fixing some of the back roads.

 

[Nelly]

I see the problem with your roads... you're driving on the wrong side:rof: Seriously though, I see the problem areas you're referring to. My suggestion would be a letter writing campaign to your local agency responsible for road construction and maintenance. If that doesn't help, contact your representative, senator or whatever Australians use for representation at the State or Federal level.

It must be nice to have riding weather this time of year, although I suppose thats a benefit of living in the Southern hemisphere. Believe it or not, that road would be considered in excellent shape in my area (Northern Michigan).

Great roads,
I strongly beleive that we are all responsible for influencing policy writing.
at least in the UK if there is an accident black spot money is spent to try and improve the safety. A road near to where I live has claimed dozens of lives due to Speed and lack of run off. All of the trees have been cut back.


Nelly

 

[Nelly]

I see the problem with your roads... you're driving on the wrong side:rof: Seriously though, I see the problem areas you're referring to. My suggestion would be a letter writing campaign to your local agency responsible for road construction and maintenance. If that doesn't help, contact your representative, senator or whatever Australians use for representation at the State or Federal level.

It must be nice to have riding weather this time of year, although I suppose thats a benefit of living in the Southern hemisphere. Believe it or not, that road would be considered in excellent shape in my area (Northern Michigan).

Great roads,
I strongly beleive that we are all responsible for influencing policy writing.
at least in the UK if there is an accident black spot money is spent to try and improve the safety. A road near to where I live has claimed dozens of lives due to Speed and lack of run off. All of the trees have been cut back.


Nelly

 

[ozzieboy]

Great roads,
I strongly beleive that we are all responsible for influencing policy writing.
at least in the UK if there is an accident black spot money is spent to try and improve the safety. A road near to where I live has claimed dozens of lives due to Speed and lack of run off. All of the trees have been cut back.


Nelly

I can think of 2 places over here where there hadn't been a single fatality, and very few accidents where they changed the setup and people died immediately afterwards:spank:.

They have put in overtaking lanes and removed all the places where you used to be able to overtake, so now you have people able to drive 40-50km/h under the limit and then nail it up to the speed limit for the overtaking lanes so you can only get past if you speed. And they do:spank:.

The few places where I've seen broken lines still, only a total psycho would overtake there:spank:.

They put in a roundabout, with a wall next to it that obscures the view of whats coming.

They widen the footpath near Glenelg by removing the roadside parking bays so people park on the road now.....this means it's actually a one lane road now:spank::spank::spank:.Why do we need a 20m wide footpath?

Crazy stuff.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Nelly]

I can think of 2 places over here where there hadn't been a single fatality, and very few accidents where they changed the setup and people died immediately afterwards:spank:.

They have put in overtaking lanes and removed all the places where you used to be able to overtake, so now you have people able to drive 40-50km/h under the limit and then nail it up to the speed limit for the overtaking lanes so you can only get past if you speed. And they do:spank:.

The few places where I've seen broken lines still, only a total psycho would overtake there:spank:.

They put in a roundabout, with a wall next to it that obscures the view of whats coming.

They widen the footpath near Glenelg by removing the roadside parking bays so people park on the road now.....this means it's actually a one lane road now:spank::spank::spank:.Why do we need a 20m wide footpath?

Crazy stuff.

Cheers
Mike

Some where along the line some one had to instigate, and authorise those changes.
I would get letter writing.

Nelly

 

[Mississippi]

I agree with all of the problems, but watching the video was nice. Looked like a blast. Thanks.

As far as the roads, they looked better than a lot of the roads in Memphis, TN where I work. We have patches all over the place. And now with the cold weather and all of the rain, we have spots where the road has just broke away leaving a nice pot hole. These will be fixed by putting more asphalt or whatever in them to make a band-aid. But, we do not have no where near the issue with the trees and other debris that close to the road.

Once again, thanks for the video.

 

[mabbott]

To the original question, no Police, State Troopers, etc. have the same rights you do when it comes to policy. The can write to their officials and request changes. Mostly it comes down to budget and how many complaints.

We have a deadly highway near my house that they have made large portions of it double solid line just to stop unsafe passing. They have scored (spelling) the road to add emphasis and have put in dividers in worse areas. Now, this only happened after several deadly head-on accidents in a short time frame had the public in an uproar.

You still see people trying to overtake/pass cars over the double solid line, but then again... YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID

 

[ozzieboy]

I grabbed some more video the other day of a 20 minute ride and it immediately shows idiot drivers. The whole ride was horrible. Pedestrian suicide jumpers too...lol....I'll get round to posting it one day...lol.

As for the road changes. Meetings are held of an evening (while I'm at work) where do gooding no hopers who want to feel important go to discuss proposed changes and vote I believe:spank:.

Now, because your eyes have deteriorated and you have bad reflexes doesn't mean everyone else is going too fast.....need to look closer to home to find the solution there:thumbup:...lol.

I wonder if any of them discuss the cost of reducing speed limits, like the recent drop of 60 to 50 km/h on a large number of S.A. roads. This means that every truck on the road now takes longer to do its run, which means more trucks to do the same number of deliveries in the same amount of time.

The transport companies are not likely to take the hit...lol...this will inevitably be passed on to the consumer. Everything you eat or buy is delivered by truck.

The speed bumps that reduce a vehicles speed to less than the posted limit cause traffic to bunch up. One of the requirements for an accident is contact with another object and we've just brought cars traveling at different speeds closer together and started them speeding up and slowing down. Yay:cheer:. Smart move. Now everyone is really watching out for pedestrians.

It just never ends. I'm gathering some photographic and video evidence before i start writing. I want these folk to understand as clearly as possible what I'm seeing.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Mississippi]

As for the road changes. Meetings are held of an evening (while I'm at work) where do gooding no hopers who want to feel important go to discuss proposed changes and vote I believe:spank:.

Cheers
Mike

+1
I think this is to give people that warm fuzzy feeling of hope that they get a say.