• News.com.au - V8 race ace Mark Skaife says parents pass on bad driving habits
• CarAdvice.com.au - Mark Skaife’s European approach to road safety falls on deaf ears
• CruisingBrisbane.com Discussion

It’s been an interesting week or so of discussion since Mark Skaife’s scathing report on Australia’s road safety report on Channel 7′s “Sunday Night” on 13th June 2010. At the dinner table, amongst friends, and on web communities alike, everyone has their own bit to chip in on the subject.

Personally, I couldn’t agree more with Mark Skaife on a number of the issues he raised, and ideas he proposed. Some of his points:

• Variable speed limits (i.e. from 70 to 80, to 60, to 80 all on the same road)
• Raising the speed limit of our “high quality” highways (not to be mistaken for sarcasm, more so, our one or two highways that are actually pretty good) from a ridiculous 80-100km/hr to a reasonable and safe speed for that surface – 140km/hr
• Banning parents from teaching their kids how to drive
• Better driver training – “reverse parks and 3 point turns don’t save lives” – teach kids how to handle the cars!
• Instead of “wasting money on pink batts and solar heating”, do as Germany do, give rebates for people to buy new cars, instead of old bombs.

These are just the highlights of Skaife’s report. Of course, the media/government picked it apart, and what resulted was everyone having a jump on the bandwagon free-for-all at Skaife for suggesting our speed limits should be 140km/hr. Ridiculous. He was quick to set the books right, and reminded the media and the government of the real issues at hand.

Despite boasting the statistics to back the common-sense initiatives he proposes, Skaife’s words have fallen on deaf ears with the majority adhering to the ’speed kills’ mantra and immediately condemning his suggestions.

- caradvice.com.au

I really commend Mark Skaife’s bold move to suggest how our roads and cars should be operated for the better future.

Additionally, I have some points of my own that I put together in discussion over at Cruising Brisbane. This post below written by myself was sparked by an article posted on CarAdvice.com.au regarding proposed P-plate laws changing for Queenslander’s, allowing you to gain an unrestricted open license in return for completing advanced driver training courses.

ECS, ABS, blah. These don’t teach you anything.

Don’t blame the car. Blame the driver.

If I had of rolled my Daihatsu Charade when I was 18, doing say 120km on a suburban street, would you blame the car for my death? Or me for being a complete #@$#head?

1. Experience pays – no one can really teach you how retarded other drivers are – and how to handle retarded situations
2. Know how to handle the car in all conditions – including when its out of control
3. Teach kids how dangerous cars can be, make sure they are held responsible and accountable for their actions – news/media/Police can’t show you this – in this day and age where kids play video games and kill each other with no remorse, some shocking pictures on the news means shit all. Driving should not be “scary”.
4. Driver confidence NEEDS to be evaluated. Unconfident drivers should be banned or be forced to return to their learners. Over confident drivers need to be woken up and shown they are not invincible.

Maybe some contradictory points there… but food for thought nevertheless

It will be interesting to see how far the ideas, comments and suggestions of the Australian public are interpreted by the government(s) and how this will shape the future of our roads. It’s sure to remain an active topic in my corner of the internet at Cruising Brisbane, that’s for sure.