70 pc of driver s admit speeding
From The West Australian
By Amanda Saunders

February 15, 2010

Almost seven out of 10 West Australian motorists have confessed to knowingly breaking the speed limit in the past year, an RAC speeding survey has revealed.

More than a third of the 2400 motorists surveyed said they struggled to stick the speed limit, with one out of seven often intentionally breaking it by at least 10km/h.

Only 6 per cent said they never broke the speed limit.

More than half of the respondents said they accidentally broke limits by a small amount, particularly on residential streets and other roads with low limits.

Office of Road Safety acting executive director Jon Gibson said he was not surprised by the RAC results, which reflected the findings of similar, continuing surveys undertaken by the office.

“The danger of speeding, particularly in low speed-limit areas, is one of the hardest notions to convey to the public,” he said.

“People have busy lives and think driving a few kilometers over is OK, but the biggest danger of all is the collective impact of speeding… the challenge is getting people to see that they are contributing to that.”
About one-third of those surveyed echoed Mr. Gibson’s call for education campaigns that highlighted the effects of speeding.

Ninety-six per cent of motorists dismissed a blanket 10km/h reduction in speed limits as an effective measure to combat speeding.

They agreed broadly on the best methods to prevent speeding, with 65 per cent backing the use of electronic roadside displays which show drivers their speed as they approach and about 61 per cent saying a higher police presence on the roads was the solution.

Only one in five thought more speed cameras was the answer, while 21 per cent nominated an increase in penalties.

However, Road Safety Minister Rob Johnson said the Government would at least double the number of speed and red-light cameras in WA, as well as introducing point-to-point cameras, fixed cameras and overt and covert cameras.

“Far too many people continue to speed on our roads… and we have allocated $30 million to help enforce speed limits,” he said.

Mr. Gibson said more cameras were only one part of the multi-faceted approach needed to fight speeding.

RAC head of member advocacy Matt Brown said that despite speed being the major contributor to deaths and serious injuries on the road, motorists across all age groups were not taking it seriously.  

 

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