Unfortuneately you are correct it is all about making money and a disguise re safety. 

After all is said and done education and diver training NOT penalities is the answer.  We need to foster a culture of wanting to be safer in our driving habits.  Not a them versus us mentality which is highlighted with younger drivers, who need the most driver training.

Thank you both for your thoughts as only through sensible discussion can we arrive at informed recommendations to help save lives and still retain our basic freedoms.

Wazza wazza wazza, been in Darwin ten years, rest of the time Melbourne, about 38 years.

Big city problems have no relationship to Darwin. I can't remember seeing one person run a red light in one or two years.

Plenty of f@@@kwits on mobile phones, no blinkers, so on and so on. I'm thinking it maybe revenue raising, this red light camera thing.

Come up here, spend a decade then make an informed comment,

I am sorry if I offended you Wazza, that wasn't the intention. The intention of the red, bold and enlarged writing is so that it may attract people skimming through the forum. If they see the points I make they will stop and read, and hopefully think, "hang on, the government are just in all this for the money".

Originally I am from Sydney and lived there all my life until 1999, then I went to Coffs for a few years and then Darwin.

Sydney is a nightmare to drive around and very stressful whereas Darwin is relatively calm. You see, I don't want to see Darwin turn into a Sydney on the roads, such that every time you drive your car you're shit scared of getting a ticket.

And regardless of whether you're a maniac on the road or not, it is easy to get booked even when you think you're well within the speed limits. Down there the speed limits change so often if you miss a sign for whatever reason it's easy to get nicked by speed camera's and that is wrong.

It is wrong for people to take their eyes off the road all the time looking out for speed limit signs and cameras because they are so scared. Driving should be pleasant, not stressful.

And the fact is mate, is that all the draconian measures introduced are not working.

NSW has the highest incidence of speed related deaths in Australia at 40%, it's on the RTA website for all to see.

Yet good ol' NT without any speed camera's, highway speed limits or demerit points has the lowest incidence of speed related deaths in Australia at 17%.

And on red light camera's, well the facts speak for themselves. Like I said, they are installing 9 red light cameras and only 6 people died due to red light running which means that at least 3 of those cameras are totally unnecessary.

In fact, given that no traffic lights in the NT are deemed to be black spots, you could really argue that none of the red light cameras are necessary.

So why are they installing them? Money, pure and simple.

Apology accepted.

Unfortunately I am heading to Sydney to live soon & not looking forward to all the bullshit on the roads down there.

I wish KeepNTLimitFree all the very best with their fight and I hope these bunch of bastards running, make that ruining, the NT and posing as a government are kicked out comprehensively in 2009.

Thank you Neveragain.

I will try to contribute to KeepNTLimitFree in the future and I am positive we can make a difference.

These are the facts I have uncovered which should get people's blood boiling:

(1) The NT has the lowest rate of speed related fatalities in Australia at 17% without fixed speed cameras, demerits and red light cameras. NSW is the worst state in Australia for speeding at 40% of all fatalities which makes a mockery of the use of speed cameras and demerits.

Here's the link to the NSW RTA's website which states that,"In NSW speeding is a factor in about 40 per cent of road deaths."

http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/roadsafety/speedandspeedcameras/index.html

(2) There are no red ligtht hot spots in the NT, meaning that the installation of 9 speed cameras is totally unnecessary. Only 6 people died due to red light running in the reported period (ie 2000 - 2005) Road Safety Takforce Report.

That's only 1 per annum.

This also means that at a bare minimum, at least 3 of the speed camera sites did not record a red light running fatality in the reported period.

So, at least 3 cameras are totally unnecessary.

It is blatantly obvious from my observations over four years here that traffic lights in the NT need to be re-programmed. The reason why Darwin people run red lights is because traffic lights up here do not give people a fair go. As stated on another post, I have seen lights change from green to red in 10 seconds.

But only the other day, Monday the 24th of September 2007, I saw the traffic lights up ahead at the intersection of Bagot Rd and McMillan's Rd, change from green to red in only 8 seconds. I counted by 1000's, and got to 8000. Needless to say, less than half the traffic on Bagot's up ahead of me made it through.

And...

(3) Demerits simply do not work. The easiest way to check this was to analyse the national road toll from the 70's immediately after their introduction in all states in '69, except QLD which already introduced them in '67.

The findings, and bearing in mind that seat belts were made compulsory in 1970 or so.

Our national road toll peaked in 1970 at 3798 deaths, with a full year of demerits under their belt. (The toll also increased in '69 when demerits were introduced state by state at various stages of the year).

The toll came down from the peak in 1970, but, the NATIONAL ROAD TOLL NEVER FELL BELOW THE PRE-DEMERIT LEVEL OF 1968 DURING THE 70'S.

Demerits are a complete waste of time. You can scroll the net and do all the research you want and there is not one piece of research anywhere that can show demerits work.

My research I think proves they do not work.

On top of that, demerits were introduced in the ACT in 1993. Their road toll was 20 in 1992, and in 2006 it was 26.

Again, where is the proof demerits work.