I remember in one of the case studies as illustrated by Melcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, we human beings are sensitive to the environment around us without us consciously thinking about it. Take a mad driver like me in Singapore and put me in Melbourne, I am a changed man. Drivers in around Melbourne do stick to the speed limit and I must admit it is a pleasant experience because most people are sticking by the rule. No aggressive drivers like we do in Singapore.
When I rented my small car from Metrocar second day into my Melbourne trip, I had a nice chat with the salesman. And in especially I wanted to know how traffic laws are enforced in Australia. I do that all the time wherever I go. For instance, in Malaysia, 110 km/hr is the highway speed limit. 120 km/hr is how much you can safely reach with a low possibility of getting fined. Anything above 120 you will have to exercise common sense like watch out for policemen hiding underneath the opposite pillar of an overhead bridge (i.e. slow down when approaching one), watch out for policemen lying flat on the ground on either side of the highway (this one is hard, be prepared to jam brake), watch out for policemen hiding around the road construction area (because drivers are usually distracted by the mess around the roadwork area and for me, I usually slow down), watch out for flashing headlights from the cars of the opposite direction (road block ahead). Knowing the time of the month when the policemen need to meet a certain speeding ticket quota helps too. Of course there are other things to watch out for such as holiday period, timing of the day, concentration of Singaporean drivers (yes, they love to fine us), and so on.
Driving in Mauritius is totally insane. You can basically get away with any kind of speed during morning rush hours. A local once told me that the authority usually keeps a closed eye because having the traffic to move faster in the morning rush hours is not necessarily a bad thing. The only thing to watch out for is late at night when you can see the policemen mounted on their shiny motorcycle ready to catch you speed away.
Singapore is an interesting place. The mechanism is based upon deterrence and the aim is to keep the accident rate in tap. Speed cameras are deployed on major highways and there are tons of road signs to remind us of the speed cameras miles ahead. The traffic police has this mobile speed camera that somewhat looks like a video camcorder. These traffic policemen with their white and shiny uniforms under the sun are either standing on an overhead bridge that is hard to miss or they are along the side of the highway with a shiny motorcycle or a shiny Subaru WRX parked next to them. At night, they will turn on all the lights of their Subaru WRX – of white, yellow, and blue – and you must be pretty drunk to even miss this blinking Christmas tree on your left. And if you talk to any taxi driver, they know all the exact locations where the traffic police try to hide and give us the drivers a surprise. So with all said, some Singaporean drivers (knowing that our government does scan our blogs) pay more attention to the “road conditions” other than speed limit road signs.
Within the state of Victoria, however, is a different story. They have hidden radars all over the place (even the speed limit around the road work areas are enforced). According to this dude from Metrocar, the state of Victoria receives AUD 300 million odd a week from fines. Those radars are capable of knowing if you have been speeding in a stretch of 5 or so km. I guess how it works is that once you enter a slower limit zone, you have the next couple of kilometers (or less) to slow down. The pattern is similar. When you are in no man land, you can go by 100 km per hour. Once you approach town, you are asked to slow down to 80 then 60, and if the city is pretty big, to 50 and 40. Once you leave town, you can increase your speed from 40 to 50 to 60 to 80 to 100. It can be pretty stressed up at times as I did from time to time forget if the speed limit has changed – especially when I turned into a scenic lookout location and when I was back in the main street, I usually turned to my navigator for advice on speed. More likely or not, none of us could remember what the speed limit was.
Highways in and around Melbourne are mostly toll free. Locals have a device in their cars that enable them to pass through the toll and have their accounts deducted (or it is like a monthly fee, I am not sure). For travellers like me, if you pass the toll, you have to visit a post office (or a 7-eleven) within 24 hours to declare that you have utilised which stretch of highway and pay for the toll. If you are unsure, it is not possible for you to enquire if there is a need for you to pay because your record will only be in the computer system 3 working days after you pass the toll without a valid device. By then, it will be too late. Failed to declare will result in AUD 100 fine as well as an administration charge of AUD 55 by your car rental company. If you think Singapore is a “fine” country, think twice.
