More Government Meddling! And this time, they are after your car!

[Kneeslider]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7803997.stm

Is it me, or has the world gone completely mad?

[donKey jote]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7803997.stm

Is it me, or has the world gone completely mad?

I wouldn't mind having it in my donkey cart, so long as I can override it when I don't "need" it :p :D

Face it, it's called the future :devil:

[donKey jote]

I'd be more annoyed about these:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7661013.stm

...but only if they start checking foreign number plates for a match at all ferry ports ;) :p :

[thompp]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7803997.stm

Is it me, or has the world gone completely mad?

Voluntary, so I wont be signing up to it......

[Mark]

You know.. It will start voluntary but it will then be that you can't get insurance without one fitted.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

This is brilliant! It means I can change CD's, send text messages and read the newspaper while I'm driving without having to worry about the speed limit.

[J4MIE]

Slippery slope :down:

[BDunnell]

This is brilliant! It means I can change CD's, send text messages and read the newspaper while I'm driving without having to worry about the speed limit.

:laugh:

That's the sort of positive attitude I'm all in favour of. It's like the Iraq war — great news for coffin and body-bag suppliers to the US military.

[Hazell B]

Those who most need a device like this won't get one fitted and those who already obey limits might consider it only to reduce their insurance bills. Pointless, then :mark:

By the way, it's in no way a case of the powers that be trying to meddle again - limiters have been out there for sale for years already and are nothing new. Anyway, it would slash the speed camera income ;)

[Mark in Oshawa]

You know...if you want to make the roads safe here is the BEST plan. Outlaw Cars. Oh ya.....that will REALLY make things safe. Not going anywhere is safe too. Damned dull too.

Never seen a government full of nannystate libreals yet that hasn't tried to find new ways to save us from ourselves.....

[Daniel]

To play the devils advocate perhaps this wouldn't be such a bad idea if it were compulsory for people who have been caught speeding by a certain amount or for people who have only just got their licences.

The people who mainly seem to kill themselves with speed are usually the younger members of the driving community and I do think that perhaps this would be a good idea for the Saxo driving members of the community :) I think driving over the speed limit should be a privelige and if you take the p or are too inexperienced to know what you're doing then I don't think you deserve the privelige of making your own judgements about what speed you should do on a particular bit of road.

Please Mark in Oshawa, stop making every frigging thread about liberals. I mean wtf does that have to do with this?

[Drew]

I can see a few downsides to this. At the moment it's planned to be voluntary which means there will of course still be as many speed cameras. What if there is a computer error or the database isn't updated quick enough (say for example temporary speed limits) and you're cought breaking the limit by a huge amount? Because if I had to have this machine, I'd blatantly just not pay attention AT ALL to the speed on the car and expect the computer to do it all.

Then the second problem is that you can't got everywhere at the limit, on so many roads it's impossible, but with this machine i'd just floor it to get to the limit and then just forget about, which is a whole lot more dangerous!

Ugh, I'm with Mark, why not just ban them? Road deaths are a terrible thing, but as long as there are cars, there'll be road deaths!

[Daz]

Another angle on this is what would the impact be on people that do track days. When you get within the confines of a race circuit would the system be able to update and realise you are at a race circuit and hence remove all the speed limiters while you are within that circuit. Otherwise can see the track day sales going down somewhat.

[Hazell B]

Daz, I'm sure the people who invented this device aren't stupid - it will have an on/off switch ;) :p :

[Easy Drifter]

I know where Mark is coming from. Ont. is such a 'nanny' state with a Liberal Govt.
Trucks as of Jan. 1 have a speed limiter of 105K. That includes any trucks coming into Ont. Several US States have higher limits. Ont. trucks will impede traffic especially in the US. On multi lane highways you will see trucks side by side for miles now. Passing on 2 lane roads will almost be impossible. You will see line ups of frustrated drivers behind a truck because he can't pass someone going slow.
Ont. has a 50k over law where the cop siezes your car and license on the spot. Even if you beat the rap in court later your car is gone for 7 days and you are stuck with towing and storage charges.
The same siezure rule applies if an officer decides you were street racing or 'stunt driving'. The latter can include spinning your wheels. Anyone who has driven an empty van or pickup can do that unintentionally if there is a little gravel on a paved road when you are turning from a stop onto another road. Most cops would not even blink at that but they could.
Pit Bulls and 'pit bull appearing' dogs are banned. Define appearing.
There was a move to ban Sushi. Dropped. The public went ape.
The Govt. introduced a law banning new drivers from having more than one passenger, other than family. Dropped after public outcry, especialy from rural areas where car pooling to school is common and certainly to parties where one person is the designated driver and does not drink. The Premier's own mother gave him heck and his own children picketed him.
The Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner (Chief) wants the 50 over changed to 30 over. The effective speed on our 400 series (multi lane) is 120k although the limit is 100. Basically on any decent rural highway or paved road the cops give you 20k over, unless they are in a bad mood or a jerk.
The same top cop wants a law making you finacially responsible in an accident if the investigating officer thinks you were driving too fast for conditions. Your insurance would be invalid.
Several of the smaller breweries in Ont. sold beer by the case for a $1 a bottle. $24 for a two/fer (24 bottles). The Province through the Minister of Finance had the so called 'independent' Liquor Control Board increase the price making the $1 beer illegal just before Christmas. The reason. To discourage drinking. The breweries can not sell Beer cheaper than the new Govt. set price even from there own strores. Price fixing is OK when the Govt. does it.
That is why Mark is po'd as am I.
None of these laws or proposals were mentioned in the last Provincial election campaign. Would it have changed the result? Who knows but since they were not brought up the voters did not have a clue.

[Mark in Oshawa]

I know where Mark is coming from. Ont. is such a 'nanny' state with a Liberal Govt.
Trucks as of Jan. 1 have a speed limiter of 105K. That includes any trucks coming into Ont. Several US States have higher limits. Ont. trucks will impede traffic especially in the US. On multi lane highways you will see trucks side by side for miles now. Passing on 2 lane roads will almost be impossible. You will see line ups of frustrated drivers behind a truck because he can't pass someone going slow.
Ont. has a 50k over law where the cop siezes your car and license on the spot. Even if you beat the rap in court later your car is gone for 7 days and you are stuck with towing and storage charges.
The same siezure rule applies if an officer decides you were street racing or 'stunt driving'. The latter can include spinning your wheels. Anyone who has driven an empty van or pickup can do that unintentionally if there is a little gravel on a paved road when you are turning from a stop onto another road. Most cops would not even blink at that but they could.
Pit Bulls and 'pit bull appearing' dogs are banned. Define appearing.
There was a move to ban Sushi. Dropped. The public went ape.
The Govt. introduced a law banning new drivers from having more than one passenger, other than family. Dropped after public outcry, especialy from rural areas where car pooling to school is common and certainly to parties where one person is the designated driver and does not drink. The Premier's own mother gave him heck and his own children picketed him.
The Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner (Chief) wants the 50 over changed to 30 over. The effective speed on our 400 series (multi lane) is 120k although the limit is 100. Basically on any decent rural highway or paved road the cops give you 20k over, unless they are in a bad mood or a jerk.
The same top cop wants a law making you finacially responsible in an accident if the investigating officer thinks you were driving too fast for conditions. Your insurance would be invalid.
Several of the smaller breweries in Ont. sold beer by the case for a $1 a bottle. $24 for a two/fer (24 bottles). The Province through the Minister of Finance had the so called 'independent' Liquor Control Board increase the price making the $1 beer illegal just before Christmas. The reason. To discourage drinking. The breweries can not sell Beer cheaper than the new Govt. set price even from there own strores. Price fixing is OK when the Govt. does it.
That is why Mark is po'd as am I.
None of these laws or proposals were mentioned in the last Provincial election campaign. Would it have changed the result? Who knows but since they were not brought up the voters did not have a clue.

Drifter.....Premier McGuinty has always been a dork in my book. I saw all of this coming and know I was lost in the wilderness but I suppose we didn't have a lot of choices either. I have always called them the "party of little minds solving little problems". The fact the economy is tanking and we have a serious crime problem on the streets is never properly addressed because Premier Pinhead cant handle these with his easy solutions.

[Kneeslider]

INCOMING RANT!

I am never going to like it when governments start to encourage us to surrender our own personal freedoms for the alleged public good. This sort of thinking is just one step away from Communism! Alegedly left leaning 'liberal' governments will never be shy of telling you what is good for you, and then restricting your freedom to do as you please because it is for the good of the country. Freedoms once surrendered are never regained.

This idea is similar to another half assed UK government proposal to have a GPS transponder in your vehicle so that the Vehicle Excise Duty, which in the UK is an annual tax based on the ownership of the vehicle, and calculated according to the CO2 emmissions in g/Km (why oh why can't they base it on simple MPG which everyone can understand?) so in effect you have to pay as you drive, and more popular routes at rush hour would be charged more per mile/km.

I object to the above, and the present proposal, because they are hugely complex, costly, big government type solutions to problems which don't really exist in the first place.

I suppose that the eventual goal would be to have speed limiters fitted to every vehicle, which couldn't be switched off, and would ensure that everyone was travelling at the same speed, which in theory sounds like a neat idea (from a safety pov at least) but in reality, you would end up with small closing speeds between different vehicles, resulting in no one being able to overtake, ever, without it taking about 5 miles to do so. Does this strike you as being safe?

It is all very well in this brave new world to have all new cars fitted with 'tamper proof' limiters, but the black market for removing them would be a thriving one. The powers that be, with their institutionalised, regulated thinking have a habit of underestimating how ingeneous people can be.

And what of the introductory period? Would there be a date, after which all speed limiters would be mandatory, on all cars? Would everyone have to have them retrospectively fitted to all their old cars or motorcycles. If they were only fitted to new cars, then all older models would start to become more valuable, and consequently would be lavished with maintenance by speed enthusiasts enabling them to effectivley go on for ever.

Who would pay for having all the black boxes installed? I bet that you can't guess!

How could I fit one to my '74 Triumph, which is about as free of electronics as you can get? Will I have to fit one to my motorbike too?

It is nice to see that the tax money we as motorists already pay directly, by VED, indirectly by taxes on fuel, and stealthily by speed cameras, and parking fines is being spent so wisely on coming up with this sort of rubbish, which even the most cursory of analysis will show up as being completely useless!

[Easy Drifter]

Mark: I think you know my politics.
But don't worry McGuinty and Commissar Miller at Toronto Socialist Silly Hall will solve the crime problem by banning already effectively banned handguns and shutting down legal shooting ranges. :dozey: :confused:
That already has the bad guys trembling in their boots. :D
Minor detail that gun control is a federal matter and Harper has no intention of listening to them.
It is interesting in a couple of states where carrying concealed weapons has become legal gun crime has dropped.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Drifter....I like the cut of your jib for sure. That said, not sure we need to toss that log on this fire.....