www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/on-the-road/nsw-police-car-blocks-cycle-lane-to-catch-speeding-cars-over-double-demerit-weekend/news-story/388cdf653f2014fa7408928bc69caa35
NSW Police car blocks cycle lane to catch speeding cars over double demerit weekend
Yep. The idea that HWP care about road safety in the slightest is ridiculous. They’re power trippers and hoons. Everyone hates them, and they deserve it.
Dads mate was a cop. Even the regular cops hate them from all reports lol
I know a detective, he hated them. Family friend was a magistrate… they really hate them.
I like that you have said this as I am dealing with a corrupt HWY patrol officer who has essentially made up facts well after he stopped me in order to issue me with multiple fines…so no choice but to take it to court
Alright you've caught my attention. There's what you know and then there's you can show (and then there's whats admissible). Whats your evidence / arguments going to be?
Have you gotten it all stamped and served on the other side yet? Self rep or with a lawyer? Past the mention date yet? Are there any relevant records you could get at with a subpoena?
Once the body cam footage is shown to the magistrate….i will win the case…if I ever go into detail I will tag you
Probably a cunt who sped.
I think you’re Sp-Ed
All other cops call HP cockroaches
Haha, a NSW cop friend (now high up but not at the time) told me the same thing. I was looking in here for a mention of this so thanks
My sis and her husband are and they both hate them too. Seems common enough to be more than just a stereotype.
That is why they hated cops. Cops hate being forced to actually do there job. Like stopping fuckwit drivers.
They're put in a car by themselves because they don't play well with others.
Stopping speeders is caring. Fuck you.
Well when their job can be done by a camera what are they really bringing to the table.
I've taken a few families and regular weekend cyclists along that cycleway and i always tell them to put aside the desire to go flat-out down that hill. It's one dangerous piece of cycleway even without police cars parked across it. There is rain-washed gravel across it at two points, a couple of poorly placed bollards, and a few nasty "tramtrack" grooves. Any noob cyclist can hit 45 km/h down there, and most are not used to riding (nor emergency braking) at that speed.
Ride with caution if you haven't been there before, or even if you have!
To be fair, they were actually booking cyclists who were going faster than 30kph /s
I know you have the /s
But from what I've read, and correct my if I'm wrong, a bike lanes speed is set to the same max as the road next to it unless marked otherwise
Just going to preface this by saying I’ve never been done speeding before and stick to the limit as best I can (been a delivery driver for several years now). However, I believe a visible police presence is a lot larger deterrent to stop people speeding and prevent potential accidents before they occur than an officer hiding away on the side catching the occasional speeder. Not to mention the potential safety hazard of blocking off an entire cycle lane. This is just my opinion anyway.
I'm not a cop, but I have one in my family. We've discussed this before. He absolutely hates that there are quotas for fines.
His thinking is, "If deterrence stops people doing dangerous stuff, and fines only punish those who are already doing dangerous stuff, shouldn't the cops WANT to issue zero fines? Like, low to no fines levied should be the GOAL. Zero people doing dangerous stuff. We should WANT them to not do it in the first place. Why do cops just hide and catch them already doing it, instead of being visible to STOP them doing it?"
I couldn't come up with a better way to put it myself.
This reminds me exactly of when they re introduced signage on mobile speed cameras 2 or so years ago. I saw an article or news story on how fines went down by something like 80% and the NSW Government was allegedly really unhappy with that outcome. It makes little sense as it means they actually reduced speeding in the vicinity of these cameras by 80% and therefore made these sections of road safer so if it was about safety then they should be happy they've found a far more effective way at reducing speeding.
The initial point of speed cameras was to be a visable deterrent to stop people from speeding on dangerous or higher risk sections of road. Clearly that intention is long lost now and it's just been milked as the most cost efficient and revenue generating way of managing road safety.
Anecdotally i've noticed that loads of people over analyse their speed too much rather than focus on hazards and are very hesitant to breach the speed limit even in cases where it is far safer to very briefly speed such as when overtaking a large truck. The amount of people who rolled past huge trucks at 111 km/h taking 30 seconds to overtake them when I drove up to Brisbane was crazy and so much more dangerous than just going 120 for 10 seconds to safely and effectively pass them.
130 in a Hyundai Excel screaming it's tits off to pass a truck is an experience
The dangerous dickheads all have Waze running anyway, so traps like this won't catch them. All it will do is catch regular folk accidentally creeping a few km/h over. If the cops really want to catch the psychos on the road, just drive around in an unmarked car - fuck knows I encounter enough crazies on the road every time I head out. But that would require the lazy fucks doing some actual work.
To add to that - though demerit points do change the picture - if the punishment for something is a fixed-price fine then it's more affordable and thus more ok for rich people to speed than it is for poor or little class people.
It's impossible to have an intellectual discussion about this "revenue raising" aspect of motoring fines. I mean, if there were no fine we'd still hate being caught by a stealth HWP, or even one in plain view, or a speed camera for that matter.
If the penalty were immediate loss of all points, or impounding of car for a year, or even a custodial sentence (which would not be revenue raising for the government but revenue-draining instead - it costs $400 a day to keep someone in prison) i don't think we'd all suddenly say "yeah, totally fair, at least the government isn't motivated by revenue raising".
Whether its speeding or illegal parking, people hate being caught. That's the start and end of it.
I’ve always had this idea. What would happen if ppl didn’t speed or didn’t break any road rules. Like none for a week. R we that naive that the leadership in hwp would be proud that the state has eliminated all road infringements or would more likely they be instructed to get out there and find problems.
Yeah exactly. In that (impossible) scenario, more likely the coppers would just go around looking for more minor shit to ticket. "Oh sorry mate, according to my tape measure you're actually 99cm away from this driveway, here's $200 ticket"
But if you flip the goal over to "issue zero fines", what you'll end up with is cops playing candy crush and never actually pulling people over. And, if it becomes common knowledge that the cop car won't ever actually enforce the law by pulling someone over, then its presence no longer acts as a deterrence.
These two diametrically opposed ideas on what the goal for the number of tickets should be raises a difficult question. How do you define a metric for the job performance of the police which doesn't create a perverse incentive?
I think what he means is, zero fines being the goal. Like as in, zero people breaking the speed limit. Visible deterrence helps with that, hidden revenue raisers doesn't. It's never going to happen, because people are dickheads who speed, but as a goal it's something to strive for. Like that campaign "Towards Zero Road Fatalities" - they don't expect it to happen, because shit does happen, but it's something to aim for.
The problem is any time and indicator becomes an objective, it is no longer a good indicator. Fewer speeding tickets may be a good indicator of number of people speeding, and the ideal goal is to have zero people speeding in which case the indicator should read zero speeding tickets. But the moment it becomes an objective to reach zero speeding tickets, the easiest way to do that is to simply stop handing out speeding tickets at all.
The objective would be "zero people speeding". The absence of tickets would just be a side effect of that objective.
Yes but, put another way, given the goal is "no one is speeding", what should the government be telling the police to do?
If they say to the cops their job is to "catch more of the people speeding", the cops may find and ticket more people speeding than actually exist.
If they say to the cops their job is to "reduce the amount of people speeding", the cops may simply reduce the number of reports of people speeding by ignoring it.
So if you were in charge of the government, what would you say to the cops their job is given the actual goal is "no one should be speeding"?
Well seeing as it's not a cop's job to "make sure nobody is speeding", but rather "deter people from speeding", I would say step one is to be more visible. Make people not want to speed because they don't want to get caught. Obviously dickheads will still speed, because they are dickheads, but seeing cop cars everywhere does encourage many people to slow down.
Edit: also, it's worth noting that if the objective is to "reduce the number of people speeding", that's not the same as "reduce the number of speeding tickets" or even "reduce the number of reports of speeding". If a camera catches 5 people speeding in a section where a cop's known patrol is, the question might become, what was the cop doing? I'm not a police administrator, I don't have any ideas on how this might actually be achieved in practice, but equating speeding tickets with incidences of speeding is the first mistake.
The unmarked work is a little different from regular highway work. They are not supposed to be a visual deterrent and wait for more serious offences. He wouldn't move unless it's an unregistered vehicle or 30km+. Big game hunting.
I've got no problem with a small unmarked division catching fuckwits who genuinely dangerously drive and not just pulling anyone who creeps a little bit over.
But this spot is dangerous driving itself. It's pushing cyclists travelling opposite directions into the same lane while obscuring their vision from each other.
Just to say anecdotally, last night going southbound on the A3 around greenacre and a police car did a u-ey at a set of lights with their police lights blinking, the AMG that was right next to the police car sped to the next set of lights and did a u-ey and sped back the other direction. Some people just don’t care if there are police presence.
If they just wanted to deter speeding they’d sit In a visible position with their red and blue lights on.
Quotas to fill and budgets to balance.
Don't you know they're allowed to do whatever they want?
Don't you know cops are tops, good citizen? Now pay your taxes so we can pay the lawsuits their misconduct good police work causes.
Oh no... Who would've thought they've be shifty cunts lol.
That looks like a bit of a nightmare to pull a Uey out of to start a chase. Are they allowed to just not try to pull you over anymore, or is this a 2-car team with a friend up the road?
I've seen them in this spot a bunch, they've got a long bit of motorway to catch 'em (as long as they don't get off at Illawong). I've see them pull them over ~3km down the road.
That's a little shit. They should be set up to minimise chases.
This implies NSW HWP give a shit about safety. They still chase motorbikes and P players etc. When the pursuit puts the public and the offender at far greater risk than speeding 20-30 over does.
Not two car teams.
They pull out onto a 3 lane road from the side with their lights on, into a very heavily trafficked 3 lane road of cars doing 80.
It causes FUCKING CHAOS as drivers stand on the brakes.
It is so very dangerous, but they'll get that guy doing 95 in an 80 zone on a road that should be 90 in the first place.
I live near this spot. There’s literally a vehicle refuge shoulder maybe 20 metres down from where this cop is blocking the footpath and cycle way…
he had no reason or benefit to park like that other than to be difficult, just the sort of personality you want to give authority and a gun to
The reason they park at that angle is so when the officer is sitting, his lidar gun is lined up with the roadway, clear line of sight, unobstructed, as such is the in built lidar.
But that's further up the hill and wont get all those juicy speeders coming across the bridge
I got a marked car to move off the old track down to Iron Cove Bridge where the Liquor Land was
He got shirty but moved when I demonstrated moving out onto the busy traffic in slow motion - got lots of beeps from passing cars in support
He drove off in a huff by the time I got to the bridge
Detective > Constable > Security Guard > Parking Inspector > Dog poo > Highway Patrol
Clerks with a gun.
As much as I'm in favour of don't speed and don't get fined, why on earth did he park at a 45 degree angle?
Would be operating procedure to align the lidar gun with cars.
Now there's a good explanation. A distinctly different object from a good excuse.
The problem with this spot is it's an 80 limit on a bit of dual carriageway that should probably be 100-110. So you're cruising along travelling the limit then come down the hill on a slight bend and find yourself peaking over the limit. That's when they nab ya. Getting idiots fanging it fair enough, but racking up revenue on people who are a few k's over is not fair.
This road used to be 90 with just a line painted down the middle . Now it's duplicated and divided and they slowed it down and stuck a cop on the end.
Getting idiots fanging it fair enough, but rucking up revenue on people who are a few k's over is not fair.
It's extremely fair. The speed limit is a fucking limit, not a target. The risk to yourself and others increases exponentially for every kilometre over you go. The death toll on our roads is why the government is getting increasingly serious about low-level speeding, because for whatever reason it just hasn't seemed to have sunk in in people's heads that they're not exempt from the laws of physics. And everyone seems to think it's okay because "everyone does it".
Limits are set for many reasons and it's far from an exact science. There are many examples, particularly in Sydney, where speed limits have been set to advantage fining motorists. Spit Rd heading down to the Spit Bridge is my favourite example. In the majority of the world speed limits are treated as guidance and the best advice is to drive to the conditions - not here. The extent and ruthlessness of speed enforcement in Australia exceeds anywhere else in the world and its purely driven by a need to generate revenue, hence quotas, hence unethical practices.
There's a rural road near me, 28km/h long with no intersections. Speed limit was 100km/h, but some nasty pot holes developed in a few places. The entire road got reduced to 80km/h (instead of repairs). If you are a local and know where these pot holes are, why would it be unsafe to continue travelling at 100 on the exact same road and slow down at the bad sections? If you were to drive 80 for such a distance because the sign says so you'd be a moron.
In the majority of the world speed limits are treated as guidance and the best advice is to drive to the conditions
lol, lmao even
there's no civilised country on the planet where the cops can't book you for going over the limit.
He just explained that the road is near identical to ten road at 100. Ergo, they don’t set up speed traps due to DANGER, they setup due to bets chance of picking up someone doing faster than the speed limit .
I realise there’s probably too much nuance here for many to pick up the difference between dangerous and exceeding the speed limit - but you know , they do advertise that it’s about safety first
No way, different sections of road have different speed limits because the conditions are different? Next you'll tell me that you should drive below the limit in adverse weather conditions.
The idea that it's not fair that motorists are penalised in areas with lower speeds because they might not have been paying attention to notice a change in speed should set of alarm bells in anyone with a brain. If you can't devote your full attention to an activity that could literally kill someone, you shouldn't be doing it at all.
There's a stretch of road in my home town, about 4km long. It goes 50 to 80 down to 70 back to 80 and back to 50. That entire length of road was 90 some 10 years ago.
Sometimes the cunts who set the limits are (like many others) shit at their job. If you want safety stop letting kids drive is gunna save more lives than fucking around with 10km speed differences.
I see you’ve doubled down. Read the posts you’re responding to. Nobody is questioning that speeding is dangerous.
Ok Boomer
Looks like the cyclists are gonna have to start using the police icon on Waze to indicate revenue raisers ahead as a hazard.
Download Waze people, contribute to marking these hazards on your journey!
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2mo
HWP don’t care one bit about safety.
I don't mind them being hidden
As other folks have mentioned, the issue is that if your goal is to stop speeders having them visible is fundamentally more effective. Having them hidden means more people will speed
I saw a highway patrol car go up Darling Street, Balmain this afternoon. Lost?
Definitely, more than enough safety cameras in that area to do their job.
oh nooo i accidentally smashed my bike into the car!
entitled scum
Every Aussie knows that highway patrol are horrible at everything
Now go there any other day and see them sitting in the exact same spot. Well known spot for them to sit.
Got to get that tasty revenue for daddy government
No honor among thieves
Ok, I had this thought the other day.
If the police were genuinely interested in safety on the roads, why wouldn't they sit on off ramps on freeways and motorways instead of on ramps?
This way, they would catch all the dickheads who cut from the right hand lane across 3 or 4 lanes of traffic to make the exit. I'm not saying that they should swap entirely, but mix it up a bit.
Sitting at on ramps means the only people they will catch are people speeding, and who also don't use Waze and know they are there. I would argue they would catch more idiots cutting across the whole motorway for an exit.
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2mo
Someone should have hopped in a bike, rammed the f into the car and sued for a new bike and damages. HWP are some of the thickest individuals you will ever come across and their superiors only will pay attention to a lawsuit.
Gravity. If you're rolling down a hill, you're naturally going to do 5kph or so over, it's not intentional it's just the way a big hunk of steel will move down a steep embankment. Unless you ride the brakes the entire way of course, which causes damage to your vehicle and potentially causes others to ram up your arse. No one goes out to intentionally speed unless you drive a monster ute
Everyone hates traffic cops until one of their loved ones is killed by a reckless driver.
I feel like this was a bitch to bitch story. Bikes could get around and I have no problem catching people that speed.
Why do people also complain it’s revenue raising when they break a law by speeding.
Fuck me dead, it's not "revenue raising" to book people for speeding on a double points period, because the fines aren't doubled, just the demerits. I frankly don't care about all the people coping about how it's supposedly safer for them to be visible, because it isn't: people slow down when they see the cops and speed back up when they're clear, and the functional impact of hidden cops is that at least some people will be more cautious, not for the sake of not risking the lives of others but for the sake of their own back accounts. The real issue here is that the cops are blocking a path that pedestrians and cyclists use, which can be especially dangerous as it's at the foot of a downhill section.
Well blocking bike path IS straight up a rubbish move.
However whining about about booking speeding drivers as revenue raising is pathetic. If idiot and dangerous drivers are speeding, making a few quick dollars off them is thoroughly acceptable.
Also, another 'news' link doesnt anyone here actual pay for real news, instead just read click-bait, that is written to inflame people's mood.
He blocked the whole bike lane that should be able to be used by….fucking bike riders. Cunt act
I dont think you read what I wrote.
Parked at the very bottom of a steep hill and nabbing people who stray a few km/h over. How is that affecting the road toll? Oh it isn’t?
Yeah it’s revenue raising mate.
Or those drivers just learn be better drivers, like all the other drivers who werent getting booked.
So as a driver, if you arent not preempting that as you go over the hill and compensate for what that will do for you speed, they deserve to be booked.
Oh so now all of a sudden Sydney cares about cyclists?
Enjoy the rare moment of solidarity.
Lol you got downvoted but you are right, Sydney gives zero shit about cyclists
Nothing to see here folks. Speeding is the ONLY traffic offence in Australia.
If you know the area, cars come screaming down the bridge frequently. As a local, no real issue here with me. Just ride around.
As a local as well, there are plenty of other areas the cop could have stationed themselves without having to block an entire cycle lane. Having a visible police presence will encourage a lot more people to slow down and prevent potential accidents than hiding away
Yeah they always sit on the side going towards bankstown and this time they were obviously pinging folks heading to menai.
You're a moron.
cars come screaming down the bridge frequently.
Just ride around.
And into the screaming traffic?
The cop is backed into a road that heads down the river. There's about 8-10m of room to go around, I've seen them parked there before.
Go and read the linked article and look at the pictures. Particularly the one taken from the front of the copper. There isn’t 8-10 meters there in a million years unless we’re all using a dick measuring scale.
So the cyclists are angry that they had to moderate their activity because of someone performing a duty? I mean it wasn’t “his right” to be there but it was a better reason.
Some cyclists might be upset, but please note that this article was inspired by the observations of a motoring journalist.
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For context the cop is parked at the bottom of a very long hill so cyclists could easily be travelling at speeds of over 40km+ before having to brake aggressively to not hit the cop. Also it's not just lycra clad cyclists that use the cycleway but kids and families too since it's one of the few cycleways in the area.