Reducing the road toll

[imdying]

Right now, every gang with Google Alerts set up is getting emails bringing them to this thread

[Winston001]

But who sees idiot or arsehole drivers, daily? Answer. Other drivers. What do they do when they see idiots and arseholes?

They either get a dose of road-rage, call *555 for no good reason cos there's no enforcers out there, or just boil with rage.

Nice to see some thinking out of the box Dpex.

The *555 system does work. My mates wife was convicted of careless use for dangerous overtaking after a *555 report. I reported a car once crossing double yellow lines high speed at night on the brow of a hill. By the time the police caught up though, it turned out to be a rental car and the driver was back in Sydney. Still, can't complain.

[Ixion]

I had the Undertakers pegged for that position.

I guess. With some support from the Coffin Cheaters.

If it all gets too bad, everybody can go home to their Mothers.

[StoneY]

nice idea- BUT- you realise that 'the ROAD KNIGHTS' are that gang that have been burning out mob houses and being burnt out in retaliation- bad name choice bro-

And as the MAN cant even consolodate the current computer systems they have through from the dos based helpdesk and network apps- to modern OS's and systems- where would all this Data get collaborated- compiled- and analysed?

What extra fees go on our licensing for this one?

Nice thought- cant see it working

[dpex]

Let's see if I can make this a bit more clear.

Firstly, the Road Knights would have to pass some form of computer-sieved attitude test. The test would be designed to sort out the ordinary bloke on the street from the 17th century 'confession-getters'.

Just ordinary folk who go about their business and observe as they drive.

Naturally, the possibility exists for some of these to have or get a particular dose of angst against a driver.

However, the computer programme I have in mind would soon flag such 'targeted' angst.

Here's how that bit works. Ordinary Harry gets a snitch on Boy-Racer Bill. He reports regularly. But then the programme asks, 'Which other RK has reported Bill?' Answer, only one, maybe two over a year. Thus Harry's reports on Billy Boy Racer are deemed tainted.

Don't forget, we're talking about 10,000 ordinary drivers, doing ordinary things, who simply observe and report the good and the bad.

Yeah, sure, there's bound to be the odd twerp driving someone else's vehicle, but I suspect that's a relatively rare event. But in any event, if the owner, who was not the driver, got a letter, good or bad, that person would be in a position to react...angrily or fondly.

You see, the value of the Road Knights concept is, these folk expand surveillance by a factor of 500 over the current cop force.

All they would do is report what they observe.

Upon the day a particular malefactor arrives in court his/her Road Knights record is produced. No sightings means the perp in front of the court is just an ordinary Joe caught out. Several 'good' sightings, where Joe has been a considerate driver, would also be there. Two or three, or ten bad sightings says Joe is an arsehole who simply hasn't been caught by a cop, till today.

And so, for Joe one, the court tells him he's been a bit silly, but don't do it again. For Joe two, the court says that's okay, you have two speeding tickets in credit. Have anice day, Joe.

Joe three. Now here's the guy/girl we have to find. "You have three Road Knight notifications for appalling driving. The charge today is careless driving. Yeah, Joe. I think we now know you're a loose cannon. Convicted and fined heaps!'

The thing is, this system would take a while to get up a head of steam, but once it did, no driver could ever traverse our roads, in any way he/she felt fit, simply because no cop car was in sight.

You see, Road Knight reports, on a specific driver, would build over a period, maybe two or three years. But the fact is, arseholes are arseholes. Their spots don't change. It's the arseholes we have to target.

Do you think Joe Arsehole would be so if he thought that the vehicle ahead, behind, two bind, three ahead, sitting on the side of the road, carried a Road Knight?

It's not about 'enforcement'. It's about observation.

And I'd bet the insurance companies would fund such a scheme. After all, they would be the greatest beneficiaries of a scheme which finally brought to light the driving habits of those they insure.

I'm not suggesting the Road Knights report speeding (unless it's really excessive or stupid). For example, a RK might observe a biker doing way above the limit on the Waikato Flats. Ho hum. No real danger there. But then next day he/she sees some dick shooting through a Primary School zone. Now there's a dick!

Do you all have a vague understanding of what I'm on about here? It's all about profiling. Enough reports will profile any driver in the land; good and bad.

And surely, the good ones should get some credit. And if the offer of credit fro being good is on the table, then many will go for the credit.

This whole issue is a bit like our perception of youth crime-rates. All we ever get to hear, read, and see is the bad-arses. One bad-ares robs a dairy while, at the same time tens of thousands of good-arses where in school going hard out, or playing netball, hockey, football, you name them. But the media doesn't report them, because of one simple missive. The media know, "If it bleeds, we print."

Then we get bad-arse parents; like one in ten thousand. While the other million parents are putting out to be as good as they can. But the good ones don't feature on TV because there's no news in being good, only bad.

The Road Knights would, over a period, make multiple observations of both the good and the bad, and in that way, slowly profile many drivers. Thus such reports would create a 'trend'.

It's the bad-arse 'trend' we need to remove from our roads. Not the occasional malefactor.

[Genestho]

Er, yea.

Hey listen. I can see where you're coming from.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised by our current Govt's thinking. I'm becoming very impressed, they are listening so far.

*555 does work, I have definate feedback that it does. If there are cars available - there have been some very dangerous drivers removed and charged directly through this service.

If you want to lay charges, you need to go into your local police station.

I'm a bit confused over your "software" suggestion, what would be wrong if Harry does report bad driving multiple times? If you cover alot of miles or live in an area where there are multiple dopey/dangerous/drunk drivers (I do!) then why not report multiple times?

I've reported drink drivers multiple times, I may indeed be biased, but they were indeed drunk.
Problem? I think not

[duckonin]

My finger is up to be road knight number one. If I had the power today coming back home from Albany the tickets would all have to go to those talking or texting on their BLOODY PHONES ....120 clicks on the motorway and the dick right next to us crossed the center line almost taking out the side of our car, he was on the phone....in total five idgits were using phones...