Some speeding tickets really are revenue-gathering
It was a quiet drive late at night. It was going to be a long one as I headed back to the Coromandel coast from Auckland.
I decided to avoid the chaos of negotiating the gridlock of Auckland traffic in the morning and take the two-hour drive in the dark.
At the time, it seemed like a great idea.
It would be a midnight drive with no one else on the road.
It would be an easy journey back to my house-sit at Whangamata¯ . I could relax a little and avoid the big rigs and slow drivers clogging State Highway 1.
On this night, my spirits were high after seeing Suzanne Vega live in concert and the melodies and lyrics would be my company as I made my way back home down some unfamiliar roads in the dark.
On the back roads of the Coromandel, I was cautious to make sure I was alert and aware of the dangers that might crop up on the roads.
In the early morning hour, animals of all shapes and sizes might be on the road and with so few drivers around me and being a long way from home in the early hours, I was on my own if anything went wrong.
So alert and wide-eyed, I drove mindful of the unfamiliar hills ahead and the need to pull over and sleep if I felt the first twinges of fatigue kick in.
It was an uneventful drive. I made it back safely and was glad I had made the trip unscathed.
I was in no hurry and took my time driving to the tunes of my favourite New Yorker and arrived home a little tired but refreshed for the lack of traffic anxiety I had experienced on the way.
A few weeks later, my decision to head back from Auckland in the dark was to turn ugly. I got a speeding fine in the mail.
You’re freakin’ kidding me, I thought. Looking at the offence notice, I was caught doing a 103kmh on a stretch of road that had previously had a speed limit of 100kmh.
Only now it had a reduced speed limit of 90kmh.
I was 13kmh over the limit at 12.14 in the morning with no one else on the road.
The fine was $80 for driving safely after midnight.
Reading the fine notification changed my attitude to the traffic bureaucrats who want to slow me down past midnight on an open road that was previously a 100kmh main highway.
Traffic fines like this are revenue generation.
I was caught like so many others in a clear case of making money after midnight in the wop-wops of the back roads of our country.
Who was I endangering by doing 103kmh? No one. It’s not about safety. It’s about money.
For those old enough to remember, this stretch of road was likely an LSZ – a limited speed zone. In those days, LSZ signs indicated it was over to the driver to ascertain whether there was traffic density or weather conditions that required them to reduce speed.
Look, roading dimwits at the NZ Transport Agency, if I hit something at 90kmh or 100kmh, it is still likely to be a fatal. Is there any real difference in the 10kmh speed reduction?
Not likely.
The madness of speed reduction is now hitting the streets of our main cities, too.
Auckland is likely to have a CBD speed of 30kmh.
And Hamilton – it’s coming to you, too. You may have a car that is capable of driving safely at 140kmhplus, but you will soon be dawdling around town while the grandma in the motor scooter or Lycra-clad cyclist passes you by.
Drivers in the rural spaces of the Waikato will soon by driving at a reduced speed of 70kmh. Yeah right, sure they will.
And the fines will rack up around Hamilton and the Waikato for people driving safely.
So, NZTA, I and many others feel ripped off. I was driving safely and was alert. I was of no danger to anyone.
What really gets me is drunk drivers who offend multiple times before they are taken off our roads.
The report last month of Hirini Sidney Mate, who racked up his ninth conviction for drunk driving, turns my wheels.
Why is this idiot and others like him ever allowed to get a driver’s licence again?
You can endanger lives while being a drunk driver and then get your licence back, but if you’re a boatie and steal pa¯ ua, you can lose your boat and be jailed.
Only in New Zealand are shellfish more important than people.
Institute a zero limit and once you’re done for drunk driving, that’s it – you never drive again. That would sort it out.
So NZTA, I was once a supporter. I’m not anymore.
You’ve got bigger road safety issues to think about than what I was doing at Maramarua at 12.14 in the morning.
Who was I endangering by doing 103kmh? No one. It’s not about safety. It’s about money.