Aussie Police Raise Revenue By Ticketing Drivers Going 1 KM/H Over Speed Limit

Chris | InformationLiberation
Jul. 18, 2013

Australian police are planning to ticket people driving on 60 km/h zones for going 1 km/h over the speed limit, saying the "speed limit" should actually be a limit.

I wrote about how idiotic speed limit laws are the other day for this very reason, they're not actually limits, so it creates a situation where everyone becomes a law breaker and anyone can be ticketed for any reason based off cop's random whims. That said, this new enforcement regime is predicted will extort a minimum of 9 million AUS dollars from the general public over the next year, and Australians are rightly saying it's all about raising revenue.

QUEENSLAND's Police Minister has insisted the lowering of the tolerance margin in 60km/h speed zones is about road safety and not revenue raising.

Jack Dempsey defended the police initiative introduced on July 1 after figures obtained by The Courier-Mail showed a big increase in the number of speeding vehicles detected in the first week, compared with the same period last year.

Mr Dempsey said the 19.5 per cent increase in speeding offences was largely because more officers were "out there" enforcing the speed limit.

"I would be happy if we didn't have to issue one traffic offence," said Mr Dempsey.

While I do believe speed limits are idiotic because they're not actually "limits," I'm not only against speed limits because the laws turn everyone into a criminal, I'm also against them because they have no effect on safety, driving slower is not safer. In fact, it could be more dangerous as people have their eyes on their speedometer rather than the road in front of them. While "Mr Dempsey" says he'd be "happy" if they didn't have to issue one traffic offence, with the pursuant drop in revenue he would (rightfully) be out of a job.
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Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com, you can read more of his writings here. Follow infolib on twitter here.