Cycling along with the wind in your hair may seem like a thing of the past but, under a new road safety plan, the ACT may be the first to take off cycling helmets.
First, the ACT wants to be the first Australian jurisdiction to have zero deaths or injuries on the road. Under the National Road Safety Strategy 2011–2020 (NRSS), all states and territories in Australia have the target of reducing road deaths and serious injuries by 30% by 2020.
Wonky walkers are a familiar sight – somebody walking across the road while stabbing at their mobile phone. Who has not felt frustrated with the pedestrian who is so captivated they don’t look where they are going?
The fact is more pedestrians died on NSW roads in 2015 than 2014. There were 61 fatalities in 2015, compared to 41 in 2014 – 17.5% of all deaths on the road. Sadly, 17-25 year olds have the second highest risk of death as pedestrians (after older pedestrians, 75 years and over).
Nearly 350 people died on the roads in NSW last year, according to preliminary 2015 road toll figures from Centre of Road Safety.
Regular drivers to the Sydney CBD are being forced to slow down. From April this year, 40kmh speed limits will apply across a larger zone.
Many people in the CBD are on foot and some take unncessary risks when crossing the roads. In the past 10 years, 12 have died and more than 1,400 have been injured. (In fact, pedestrian deaths saw the highest increase in all of NSW, up 48.7%, from 41 deaths in 2014 to 61 in 2015.)
During 2015, more Australians than ever went out to buy a new motor vehicle. They bought 1,155,408 new passenger cars, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and commercial vehicles. This was 3.8% more than in 2014 and it broke the record set in 2013.
SUVs were so popular, sales grew 15.9% and took up a whopping 35.4% of the market, up from 31.7% in 2014. In fact, Australians bought more SUVs than small cars, even though small cars were four of the top 10 bestsellers.
More people are riding bikes these days and, without dedicated bike tracks, have to share the roads with motor vehicles. This can be dangerous, as an average of 11 riders are killed and 1,500 seriously injured in NSW every year.
Minister for Roads, Duncan Gay, has introduced Minimum Passing Distance legislation from 1 March 2016 to help make NSW roads safer.
Thanks to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACC), motorists can find the cheapest petrol nearby in real time.
Many motorists will welcome this information, especially now oil prices are at an 11-year low. But petrol profit margins, around 15.1 cents a litre, are higher than ever. Petrol prices vary considerably between cities and regional centres and within cities too.
Motorists who renew registration online can get $15 national parks discount on two popular passes to NSW national parks.
The discount applies now. It runs from 20 December 2015 to December 2016 for one 12-month, annual All Park or Multi-Park Pass.
Next time you are stopped at an intersection and waiting for the lights to change, you may be approached by a windscreen washer wielding a squeegee. Yet, walking into the road to wash somebody’s windscreen is an offence everywhere in Australia – except in Canberra.
The days of carrying a licence in your wallet – or stuffed into your back pocket – are coming to an end. Following an election promise, the NSW government plans to make all forms of licence digital in the next few years.