Posts by Tom Semmens
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I like how you slipped that 50% figure in there
I don't have the inclination or the time to really rush off and become an expert in road safety. I chose that number because it seemed a reasonable ball park figure for some back of the envelope calculatons to check if Mr. Matthew-Wilson (who is something of an expert) was making any sense.
The point is everyone rushes off to fluff about the edges arguing the small stuff around the legal alcohol limit and how to check for drug-impaired drivers when it seems to me a social engineering solution is a lot harder, intrusive and expensive over time to achieve than a simple, physical, highway engineering one.
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Motorcyclists call them cheesecutters with good reason.
Don't ride a motorbike then.
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But I do wonder how useful that kind of test would be for someone stoned or high.
It will be not much use at all for amphetamines. I suspect the main drug of concern is marijuana. One presumes they'll have to film it for evidence as well, providing a field day for defence lawyers.
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The government says that they are looking at cutting speed limits, lowering the blood-alcohol limit for drivers and raising the driving age as well as potentially drug testing.
But in most accidents I read about, none of those things would have made a difference.
Cutting the speed limit isn't going to stop high speed accidents, since those people are already exceeding the speed limit. It won't to stop some idiotic blinging boy racer losing control at 160 km/h. It won't stop a poorly judged over-taking leading to a head on smash. Lowering the blood alcohol limit/drug testing isn't going to stop anyone who still drink/drug drives now. Raising the driving age? To what? Most people who kill themselves due to poor driving are young men in their twenties, how old do they want to raise the limit to? 30?
Clive Matthew-Wilson (of Dog and lemon fame) suggests that it is easier to just physically prevent people from being idiots than trying to persuade them with ineffective ad campaigns. He wants to put concrete crash barriers or steel guard rails up on all our motorways. We have around 11,000km of state highways and 82,000km of other roads in NZ. Apparently, crashes cost us 2.74 billion dollars a year.
So if barriers on state highways and other key highspeed areas could reduce that by even 50% that is 1.37 billion dollars saved per year, or over five years a return on investment of 6.8 billion dollars. Divide that by the 11,000km of state highways and you've around $650,000 per kilometre to play with. I was told that the cheap as chips "Cheesecutter" barriers so disliked by motorcyclists cost around $100,000 per km to install.
Surely the best option is install median barriers on all our state highways before we embark on more pointless revenue gathering on Remuera road of people who had half a glass to much at the opera? It would be a good little stimulus in a recession, as well.
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Hmmm, I assume they'll slavish follow the Victoria police for roadside testing, just like they do for everything else in this country...
so from Victoria we read:Step 1:
Drivers will be required to provide a saliva sample by placing an absorbent collector in their mouth or touching it on their tongue until a sample is collected. The sample will be screened at the roadside, with the result determined within approximately five minutes. Drug tests will be conducted by specially trained and authorised police officers.So you have to sit around for five minutes while they make up their minds? What a pain in the arse that will be.
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What isn't there to like about the Air New Zealand Cup?
I just watched a gutsy Manawatu beat an Otago team that featured a somewhat petulant Adam Thompson, the entitlement dripping from him was well and truly rubbed in the dirt by a Manawatu team that just wanted to win so much they made it happen.
The third Manawatu try was so beautiful it make made me want to weep. League has got nothing on union when try like that is scored. It is like watching an orrery of God's of rugby unfold.
Aaron Cruden played a faultless game then came off and said with perfect aplomb and no false modesty that they "like to play with flair and finesse" and they managed it.
Hubris. Honesty. Beauty. Talent. Who needs stale Super rugby and the tired tri-nations, what a great competition so far.
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Just be pleased the VAG doesn't have a group In Northern Areas.
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I've always enjoyed being able to look my thesis up in the university library though. Made me feel all brainy, like.
Do you ever read your old work and have a strange feeling you are reading something written by another person?
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Mind you, I feel like I was part of a vanished age in sport. I was watching the video brawl between Kelston and AGS and I was struck by how poorly turned out the boys were.
When I played college rugby, if you turned up and your boots weren't polished to a reflective glory that would have pleased the Brigade of Guards and your white shorts a dazzling monument to your mothers domestic prowess you didn't play, not matter how good a player you were.
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I have to say private schools generally have a better class of nickname for teams.
I recall a "Woodcock" getting the moniker of "Penis Radiata" - surely a testament to the power of Latin to shape young minds. And an ancient fellow was nicknamed "Fossil". My somewhat wild curly hair earned me "Tufty" whilst my younger sibling got called "Skinny", which annoyed me vastly as I wasn't particularly fat.
No one didn't have a nickname, and the ultimate sin was to use a first name.
Nowadays i still have a nickname amongst my friends and associates, which is handy during team sports and a bit odd when out on the town.