Rarely do I revisit the topic of the previous week’s column.
But the reaction to last week’s conclusion (drawn from splendid research by Kelly Imberger Tanya Styles and Peter Cairney of ARRB Consulting for the NRMA-ACT Road Safety Trust) defied gravity.
The research pointed out that the ACT’s comparative low road toll (the lowest in Australia and lower than any developed country on earth at 2.8 per 100,000 population last year) was misleading because ACT drivers did more than their fair share of killing and maiming in NSW.
I extrapolated the figures and Australian Federal Police figures to conclude that far from being the best drivers in Australia, we were probably the worse.
The usual reaction to accusations of malfeasance like this is denial, qualification, silence or bluster.
Well, golly me. This time the reaction was quite the opposite. The emails and personal reaction were exactly the opposite. They revealed a litany of anecdotal evidence to support the view that Canberra’s drivers are appalling.
Incidentally, the exercise shows the value of good pure research: the myth drawn from road statistics that Canberra has good drivers is debunked. It shows that Canberra’s good roads have bred complacent drivers who, when faced with poorer conditions in NSW, cannot handle them, resulting in a disproportionate death and injury toll.
The research indicates that we burn up all of the advantage of better roads not in yielding higher safety but in getting to our destinations a few seconds or minutes earlier.
I thought I would be pasted for such a Canberra-bashing view. Far from it.
Here are some excerpts from Canberra drivers:
“Anything which says that ACT drivers are safer than average seems counter-intuitive to me. I, too, think the anecdotal evidence shows that ACT drivers are in fact inconsiderate and incompetent when it comes to basic road rules.”
“Having experienced the driving culture in both Sydney and Melbourne, I can only say that I feel most in danger when driving in Canberra.”
“ ‘Canberra drivers are more impatient, ill-mannered, incompetent and lethal than other Australians’ is exactly right. You’ve nailed it. I speed occasionally. Yes I do. Why? Because I can, safe in the expectation that I won’t be caught. . . .I think we need more traffic police.”
“When I left Victoria in the early 90s, the Police Commissioner apparently made an unusual public declaration (after some horror years) along the lines of: ‘I WILL change the driving habits of Victorians’. He did.”
“I continue to be dismayed by the dangerous driving of what appears to be a growing minority. This was brought home to me when driving some visitors to the Tidbinbilla tracking station. A white Falcon approached me from behind, overtook me, crossing the double lines, cut in a few vehicles up, and then did it again approaching the crest of the hill near the Deeks drive turn off. This caused my passengers to remark that double lines have a different meaning here to Victoria.”
“In my younger driving days in Canberra, particularly at the weekends, I saw, (and was stopped) by frequent police patrol vehicles. Even total road blocks and licence/rego checks of all vehicles were common. We were not game to drive dangerously. Is it time to introduce unmarked traffic patrols into the ACT?”
“Having driving (for the first time) in the US and Canada a couple of years ago I was amazed (and embarrassed) by how courteous and careful the other drivers were compared to what is normal here. What must the visitors of those countries think when the drive here? – far too polite to say I imagine.”
“Thank you for drawing the attention of Canberra drivers to their incompetent and dangerous driving. I doubt that they will heed the message. The first thing I noticed on moving to Canberra was the quantity of broken glass at each roundabout and intersection. Better roads lead to more speeding when there is no self-discipline. An externally imposed form of sanction has to substitute for self control, and that, in the form of police, is what is conspicuously lacking. The people flying past, often P-platers, know there is virtually no chance of being pulled over. Extra police could be paid for by the fines, making the place safer for everyone.”
“The NRMA is pushing for a widened and straightened, and allegedly safer Princes Highway. This will destroy the character of the South Coast tourist experience, which is at present one of the more pleasant journeys in the State. The accident statistics are supposed to show that the road is dangerous. In fact it is a good motoring road for anyone who can handle a car and is not impatient. In Canberra, where the roads are generally very good, a NRMA spokesman attributed the accidents to poor driving. Why wouldn’t this be the case on the highway?”
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau points out that the ACT has already passed last year’s toll because the 2004 toll was cut to nine from 10 after the coroner found that one death was in fact a suicide.
The bureau’s comprehensive historic figures on road deaths in Australia show an encouraging downward trend for all jurisdictions from the horrifying road toll of 3590 (27.7 per 100,000 population) in 1971 – the year before seatbelt were made compulsory in Victoria – to 1594 (7.9 per 100,000) last year – a decade after random breath-testing, speed and red-light cameras and perhaps a decade before blanket red-light cameras and miniature cameras on double yellow lines on remote country roads.
We have done moderately well but 1594 dead in one year is still three times all the Australian dead in the Vietnam war and five times the Australian dead from terrorism since 9/11.
We have come some distance but we are still only between two-thirds to three-quarters of the way to a zero road toll.