Practicality writes an article exposing the stupid morass of over-regulation that dominates Australia state and federal government. One of the principles of republicanism is that spontaneous self-organization is superior to government regulation - the latter being far too coarse and often political to take in the local context or be as good as the judgement of an individual in any situation. There are areas where government regulation has a place, but for most purposes it carries the burden of inefficiency.

One of the issues facing government and the police is that speed signs have been delegitimized. They are too low for the road conditions, and worse they are becoming ever confusing and seemingly arbitrary in choice. So no-one really knows what the speed limit is at any one time so when they see a camera or a speed trap drivers throw out the anchors to 20kmh below the speed limit which is more dangerous than doing 15kmh above the speed limit and maintaining traffic flow.

Drivers - rightly - consider themselves better judges of driving conditions than any blanket speed limit:

The main determinants of driving speed were considered to be the weather conditions, the speed of other vehicles, the volume of traffic and the amount of time available to reach one's destination.

While the government is enforcing speed limits left-right-and-centre, drivers are making up their own minds what is sensible driving for the conditions. Government will never have any legitimacy in this area unless they match the reality of how people drive.

So what should government policy be? First remove all fixed forms of observation such as speeding cameras and red-light cameras. They are repugnant to liberty and do not solve the issue of safe driving. They cause more turbulence in the traffic flow than good and no-one considers them legitimate.

Secondly set the speed limit to the 85th percentile of traffic and reduce the number of speed limit signs to a couple. Further, let the police use their judgement of who is driving unsafely and who is not. It will mean some police will abuse this trust, just as some drivers will abuse the grey area of enforcement, however we put up with these people in other aspects of life and they can be dealt with by firing or in the courts when they whinge their guts out. We can accept some inefficiencies in this area to ensure greater efficiency in terms of traffic flow.

Thirdly: improve the roads. Connect the major cities at the very least with dual-carriageways that are 21st century road technology - like decent asphalt.

The truth about cars as an article on civil disobedience in Arizona where speed camera's have been defaced with post-it notes:

Over the past month other cameras have had their lenses covered with multiple yellow notes with the phrase "honest mistake" written on them. This is a subtle dig at camera operator Redflex

Courtesy of Australia's early foray into speed cameras, Redflex, an Australian company, has won the contract to put speed cameras throughout Arizona. Governor Neapolitano wanted the cameras to aid in revenue shortfalls. Taxing people more is politically impossible in the US, consequently, governments raise money through means where people have no moral stance; speeding is one. Added bonus, nearly everyone speeds.

Australia is not dis-similar and has massive fines for speeding - up to $700. Fines are so large that Queensland has a mechanism where you can pay it back bit by bit. Kind of like lay-away (lawby for Auians) for taxation. If someone has to enter into a repayment scheme over a speeding ticket then we are in unfair and unjust territory.

The Arizona speeding cameras were nearly put on the recent electoral ballot as a citizen initiative but Napolitano managed to halt that action. The cameras are exceptionally unpopular and viewed as cynical revenue raising mechanisms. I doubt they would have survived a popular ballot.

One of the fellows I work with had forty-five minutes to kill while waiting for his car, so he went and stood infront of a mobile camera van. He said he managed to stop two speeding tickets being issued as they got a shot of his back rather than the car.

The fellow in the van called the police on him. He said his heart was pounding in his chest when the policeman pulled up. But the policeman said to him, "You aren't obstructing traffic, and you aren't being a public nuisance, so nothing I can do." The bloke I work with and the policeman had a chat about how they hate the speed cameras and then policemen went on his way. My workmate was getting waves and honks of the horn the whole time he was doing. Good on him.