In fact, I won't even driving when me and my mates head down to the Mount- I'll just be a passenger in a slow ole' van, so no one needs to worry about careless driving from us![/quote]
Just got back to Auckland and didn't see any light aircraft overhead on the way down (unless the police decided to use the Classic Flyers Stearman)- however, my eyes were mostly stuck on the road after our van blew a head gasket just south of the Bombays, and we had to get towed home so I could drive five of us there in my bluebird
Traffic was pretty slow on the way down- it started pouring with rain on Monday arvo so everyone had to reduce their speed anyways. Didn't have anyone passing us illegally either, apart from a red R35 skyline on the way back up in the dark.
One thing I thought that was quite ingenious on SH2 was an electronic screen placed next to a speed limit sign that somehow displays your cars speed as you pass it and make you aware how far over or under you are- not sure how bad the road toll was this year but I haven't seen any accidents at all in the last 500k's we traveled.
QUOTE
I'm guessing you were watching the World's Fastest Indian then? Burt Munro mentions Nevada doesn't have a limit, although that was in the early '60s.[/quote]
Nah, haven't seen that yet. I just noticed from watching 'Reno911!' that Nevada has quite tolerant laws on the many usually frowned upon vices (gambling, prostitution, cannabis possession etc) so I thought they may have extended that to their desert roads.
Posted:
Sun Jan 04, 2009 6:39 pmby cowpatz
Back in the early 80's I used to fly with a popular "celebrity" for a local radio station in Auckland. We used to fly for an hour and a half in the morning and again in the afternoon checking on Aucklands traffic and passing it on to the listeners. We used to carry an Auckland city traffic cop in the early days and he could communicate with the central traffic comms unit. Eventually the Auckland city cops merged with traffic and then the police. The carriage of a police officer was dropped but the announcer was in radio contact with the central police comms unit and we could be called upon to investigate hot spots (or get involved in chases) and be the "eyes in the sky"for the police. Eventually the police realised how useful this was and the Eagle heli unit came about.
At one point our aviation company was approached to do traffic enforcement from the air. This involved the painting of lines across the road at a predefined distance and cars would be timed as they passed them (you may remember seeing these). It sounded fine in theory but the pilots were against it. Our aircraft were not hangared during the evenings and were therefore not secure and would have become prime targets for sabotage. The plan was abandoned due to other technical issues involved in timing accuracy etc.
I am not in favour of airborne enforcement of speeding but it would be very useful for spotting inconsiderate and dangerous driving. A slow and inconsiderate driver (not keeping left or hogging the passing lane) can actually be the most dangerous driver yet generally is the least penalised. They create frustration and eventually some idiot will have a go from 5 cars back, misjudge it at high speed and create that dreaded head on. Of the course the reason would be attributed to speed but was it really the prime factor? As long as the police work on speeding quotas and not infringements in general then the carnage will continue.
