Pay to speed! Acceptable?

[Ash007]

I'll pay the extra $ to speed ah! Who wants?

http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/pay-to-speed-20120910-25nn9.html

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Pay to speed
Date
September 10, 2012 - 5:36PM
12 reading nowComments 44 Read later
Joshua Dowling
Associate Editor, Drive
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US freeway will allow drivers to do 137km/h – for a fee.


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Motorists in North America will be allowed to drive legally at 137km/h – almost 20km/h more than the speed limit on most highways – if they pay to use a new toll road.

Proving that speeding raises government revenue other than with fines, the state of Texas is expected to receive a one-time $100 million payment – plus a percentage of all toll fees collected – from the private operators who will maintain the 65km section of freeway.

But not everyone is happy about the fastest stretch of road in North America – between Austin and San Antonio, two of the biggest cities in Texas.

More: $25 not to speed
According to the Wall Street Journal, Texas authorities signed a contract with the road operators that offered the state “a one-time payment of $100 million for approving an 85mph (137km/h) speed limit”. However, the newspaper reported, the payout would have dropped to $67 million if the limit was set at 80mph (128km/h).
Consumer groups claim Texas has sacrificed safety for money.

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“Desperate for cars on a vacant toll road, private toll-road operators now offer the state an extra $33 million to win a reckless competitive advantage,” Andrew Wheat, research director for Texans for Public Justice, an Austin-based consumer-advocacy group, told the WSJ. “Such cosy deals are unsafe at any speed.”

The Texas government defended its decision.

“With transportation funding being a challenge all over the country, we must continue to look for innovative ways to generate revenue and be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Veronica Beyer, a transportation commission spokeswoman, told the WSJ.

A public health report in 2009 found increased speed limits adopted by some states in 1995 had led to a 3.2 per cent increase in road fatalities over the next 10 years, to 2005.

“When you increase speed limits, you have an increase in the severity of injuries,” Lee Friedman, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and one of the authors of the 2009 report told the WSJ.

Meanwhile, another consumer group has accused the government of driving traffic to the new road – by lowering the speed limit on the alternative route.

“The state is penalising the motoring public by lowering the speed limit on the free alternative so that it can draw more business to the toll road,” David Stall, a co-founder of CorridorWatch.org, a group opposed to the privatisation of roads.

The newspaper interviewed a driver, Roger Dooley, who uses that route regularly, who claimed that the higher speed limit would make him “much more likely to remain engaged”.

However, lower speed limits do not always save lives.

At the start of 2007, the Northern Territory imposed a speed limit of 130km/h on the Stuart Highway between Alice Springs and Darwin after decades of being speed-limit free.

However, the road toll rose sharply in the years that followed.

In 2006, the NT recorded 45 deaths among all road users. It rose to 58 in 2007 (the first year of the 130km/h limit) and 75 in the second year of the 130km/h limit.

In 2011, the road toll among all users returned to similar levels as 2006 – before the limit was imposed – with 44 deaths recorded.

But driver deaths have increased. Before the NT speed limit was imposed, 15 drivers died on the roads (in 2006), compared to 24 each in 2007 and 2008. Last year 17 drivers died on NT roads, according to statistics compiled by the federal government.

When NT speed limits were introduced, the then opposition leader Jodeen Carney said: “This obsession with imposing a speed limit is not the silver bullet. The major causes of accidents and fatalities in the Territory are failure to wear seatbelts and drink-driving.”

 

[Cruxx]

Whereas in Singapore, it's possible to pay to molest. Majulah Singapura!

 

[Leongsam]

This is perfectly acceptable. Wealth must have its privileges or what's the point of being rich?

 

[Ash007]

Indeed, if you can afford to pay for it, you probably have a car that needs to go at that speed to be efficient.

This is perfectly acceptable. Wealth must have its privileges or what's the point of being rich?

 

[Jlokta]

This is perfectly acceptable. Wealth must have its privileges or what's the point of being rich?

Agreed.

In Sinkapoor context, having close links to the supreme leader or the 超级白 also helps.

 

[neddy]

You pay for a nice car, you pay for the road to test out the car. Fair.

The police get their revenue anyway.

 

[TracyTan866]

Whereas in Singapore, it's possible to pay to molest. Majulah Singapura!

You are right. Foreigners get their charges compunded for $2k, or 5k. that demeans SG gals who were molested and embolden these foreigners.

 

[soIsee]

This is perfectly acceptable. Wealth must have its privileges or what's the point of being rich?

Having wealth does not give you the right to do, create, set up something that could take other lives.

Unless, in making that statement of yours, you're already morally corrupted.

 

[saratogas]

Better still many here pay $$$ to watch others speed... F1 race!

 

[Ash007]

There is nothing about taking other lives. If anything they should have imposed a standard on the cars that can be used for this.

Having wealth does not give you the right to do, create, set up something that could take other lives.

Unless, in making that statement of yours, you're already morally corrupted.

 

[Leongsam]

Having wealth does not give you the right to do, create, set up something that could take other lives.

The issue is not about taking lives you twit. It's about paying for the privilege to drive fast.

Speed doesn't kill. If it did, 150,000 spectators and 24 F1 drivers would die every couple of weeks.

 

[soIsee]

The issue is not about taking lives you twit. It's about paying for the privilege to drive fast.

Speed doesn't kill. If it did, 150,000 spectators and 24 F1 drivers would die every couple of weeks.

That's the race track you twit or in a highly controlled environment set up for a race.

Doing it on the road is simply asking for trouble.

Maybe you should have been the taxi driver passenger when the Ferrari whacked the taxi!

And then you'll be trying to post into this forum from hell if that was posssible.

 

[Leongsam]

That's the race track you twit or in a highly controlled environment set up for a race.

Doing it on the road is simply asking for trouble.

Many German autobahn routes have no speed limit. As long as the road is well designed and drivers have the necessary skills, speeding in not an issue.

 

[Equalisation]

Many German autobahn routes have no speed limit. As long as the road is well designed and drivers have the necessary skills, speeding in not an issue.

Agree. The steaks served at the AutoGrill best lah joe !!

 

[julyaric720]

Just what I needed, thanks a lot.

 

[Fook Seng]

Agree. The steaks served at the AutoGrill best lah joe !!

With meat from the Autobarn?

 

[Cruxx]

This is perfectly acceptable. Wealth must have its privileges or what's the point of being rich?

Thanks for the elucidation, boss. Why do people bother with courts when they can have cashiers? The death sentences of rich murderers should be commuted to fines instead.