Turn our worst drivers’ cars into paperweights
LIKE most people, I enjoy a relaxing drive home, favourite music playing, at peace with the world. My car is my fortress of solitude and a quiet drive the perfect way to get away from it all.
It’s not perfect of course. I have a number of problems with my car, chief among them the driver.
Good co-ordination, an ability to multi-task and a sense of direction are great attributes when driving. I wish I had them.
I do, however, at least try to do the right thing on the roads. Which is more than I can say for an increasing number of drivers on the Gold Coast who I suspect, in contrast to my good self, harbour delusions that their motoring is somewhat above average.
Like the idiots who keep tailgating me when I’m doing 79 in an 80 zone, busting a gut for the opportunity to zoom past. Handy hint morons – it’s a speed maximum, not a minimum.
Or the geniuses who can’t stay more than 60 seconds in the one lane before switching again, hoping to inch a little further ahead in traffic. Think you’re getting home faster? Nope – you’re actually slowing down everyone.
Then there are all the flashy new cars on the road that, despite their expensive price tags, don’t appear to have come fitted with indicators. If it was me, I’d be taking them straight back to the dealer for immediate repair.
But the lowest of the low, the absolute bottom feeders in the lousy cesspit of selfish motorists, have to be the ablebodied lowlifes who park in disabled spots.
The report in yesterday’s Bulletin that more than ever are being fined was truly depressing, though will be of little surprise to those of us who have witnessed the decline in basic decency among so many on our roads.
I have friends with a child who must use a wheelchair. To say it inconveniences them when they cannot avail of disabled bays because some contemptible loser has taken the spot is putting it mildly. It is adding needless extra distress to the lives of people who are already doing it tough.
On occasion, my friends have politely confronted some of these drivers, only to be met with a barrage of abuse. They don’t confront them anymore.
The Gold Coast City Council is to be commended for coming down hard on these people and issuing so many fines. But one wonders if the punishment is strong enough. Carelessly slipping a couple of km over the speed limit or forgetting to top up a meter also attracts fines. Such incidents can be said to be unintentional mistakes.
You can’t accidentally park in a disabled bay, however. These idiots know exactly what they’re doing. Personally, I can think of few better reasons for imposing licence suspensions. Or seizing and publicly crushing cars.
It’s one of many ways we could get a bit more creative with clamping down on shabby driving and selfish parking.
Gold Coast traffic police do a bloody good job, but the laws they work with too often seem framed to boost revenue more than they are to take problem drivers off the road.
Other cities and countries are getting a bit more creative – and we should perhaps consider going the same route.
One of my other pet peeves is the curse of jaywalking, which appears to go largely unchallenged in our city.
It has caused me to avoid places like Scarborough St in Southport. Driving this road is like driving in the Outback at dusk – you never know when another one of the buggers is about to hop out in front of you.
And this despite the fact that the street has wellappointed pedestrian crossings installed at great expense to the ratepayer at every 20 paces.
Many of the jaywalkers pay no attention to the cars and even trams they are walking in front of because they are fixated on their so-called “smartphones’’.
In this state, people are even less attentive and intelligent than the Outback roos.
It’s a worldwide phenomenon, and I was interested to read this week that authorities in Hawaii have taken action, introducing a law that fines people caught staring at their phones as they cross a street.
Talking on a phone as you cross is still ok, but fixing your gaze on its screen will see you pinged up to $99.
Closer to home, the problem is also being tackled in Brisbane where the council is using its CCTV network to monitor pedestrian behaviour and identify jaywalking hotspots that police can target.
Welcoming the move, Assistant Commissioner for Road Policing Command Mike Keating had it pretty much spot on when he commented: “I haven’t yet seen anyone safely cross the street looking at their phone.”
Police should also keep an eye out for jaywalking parents around schools.
It never ceases to astonish me the amount of times I see mums or dads with small children cross busy roads in school zones when pedestrian crossings with attendants are but a short distance away.
Such people are risking terrible outcomes, for what exactly? Getting to class a little quicker?
Such people risk great harm to themselves and their children. The sort of harm that may see themselves needing to avail of disabled parking bays in future. There are already enough people needing to use these spaces.
My friends, who are in that position through no fault of their own, would not want any more to join their ranks because of a foolish act of impatience.
They have enough trouble dealing with the impatient and the ignorant as it is.
IT HAS CAUSED ME TO AVOID PLACES LIKE SCARBOROUGH ST IN SOUTHPORT. DRIVING THIS ROAD IS LIKE DRIVING IN THE OUTBACK AT DUSK – YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN ANOTHER ONE OF THE BUGGERS IS ABOUT TO HOP OUT IN FRONT OF YOU