In a further, futile attempt to balance the state's books, the Victorian Government is going to throw up more speed cameras. These revenue raising devices will continue to punish the evil people doing 104km/h on flat stretches of pristine freeway.
Of course a lot of people don't get booked by speed cameras as they know exactly where the fixed ones are, or at least they think they do. I travel daily on Eastlink and constantly witness people dabbing the brakes as they get to the Wellington Road Bridge. I'm pretty sure there's a fixed camera there.
Fortunately I have cruise control, and once I'm on 101km/h I set and forget.
So, on to an alternative to revenue raising speed cameras.
A lot has been said that modern cars feel a lot slower than cars did 10 or 15 years ago. 100km/h and most cars are idling along at 2000rpm or so. Not much wind noise and some decent tires make this a pedestrian ride.
Not only do the cars feel slower, but if you look at most speedometers in modern cars, 100km/h looks slow. In my Ford Territory, a family car, the speedo shows a potential maximum speed of 220km/h! That seems extraordinarily fast. More to the point, half way on the speedo is 110km/h, the maximum legal speed in Victoria. It looks a little like this:
So when I'm driving at the maximum legal speed in Victoria the needle on the speedo is at 12 o'clock. When I'm travelling at my average speed (according to the trip computer) my speedo is at about 9 o'clock. The incremements between 40, 60, 80 and 100 are barely millimetres. 60 doesn't seem too far away from 40, even though it's 50% faster!
My solution is to reduce the maximum speed shown on the speedo on cars sold in Australia to 120km/h. Keep the dial spread as now so that the increments between the speeds are larger, thereby reinforcing the fact that the difference between 40km/h and 50km/h is substantial.
Something like this, except in km/h: http://www.freefoto.com/images/21/59/21_59_17_prev.jpg
The car would still be as quick, but surely the driver's perception would be that 60 isn't that slow, and 110 is almost off the scale?
Not a complete solution, I will admit, but maybe something to think about.
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