The tui-sound-haters have every right to be unhappy, but the rest of us have every right to prevent them from making the Tui extinct.

If your analysis of the tui scenario has any validity it will remain valid if we swap the specific case for anything else we care to mention.

So let’s do that.

Forget the sound of the tui. In your analysis, suppose instead that some people want to build a mosque and broadcast the call to prayer many times a day over the entire neighbourhood.

What does you analysis tell us in this case, which is the same as your example in all the essential details?

I’ll swap your blackbird for a couple of Pukeko that keep wandering away from the QE2 expressway wetlands.

Or there again, I seem to vaguely recall a nursery rhyme about four and twenty blackbirds.

A speed-related crash is officially defined as travelling too fast for the conditions.

This definition predates speed limits by several years. It actually is an abreviated version of the reckless driving offence (circa 1930) “Driving in a manner or at a speed that is dangerous having regard to all the circumstances of the case including the nature, use and condition of the highway and the amount of traffic the driver should have expected to encounter” The last bit is ommitted from the modern law.

Speeding offence consists solely of exceeding a speed limit.

Between 1936 and 2005 a speed limit of 30mph (or 50kmh) applied on any road forming part of any Municipal Corporation or borough, town or city as those terms were defined in the Local Government Act on 27/9/1987. On all other roads the open road speed limit shall apply except where the Minister approves an alternative speed limit requested by the local authority and supported by a traffic engineer’s study.

Since 2005 speed limits have had to take into account the nature and use of the road and the amount of pedestrian and turning traffic.

Until 1973 motorways had higher speed limits than ordinary highways. Regrettably this has not been reintroduced in the new Rule for setting speed limits even though it is standard practice everywhere except in New Zealand and Australia.

That’s the problem. If I am turning right, and the other guy is turning right and its night and there’s stuff all chance of me figuring out what sign HE is looking at, if there is any.

I know the problem is there because I’ve seen it in action. Near as I can tell most councils have simply bought a sh!tload of yield signs and put them up all over the place… because someone in a high place has his/her head higher up his own bum than usual.

That’s a LITTLE thing, but it is indicative of people who are making rules based on consistency rather than reason.

respectfully
BJ

Most people probably started picking up their dog poo cause if they didn’t it was fair game to throw it at them, or at least tell them off.

& there’s where the difference is plain. you wouldn’t even approach one (or a carful) of those perpetually angry-eyed borderline sociopaths, as you would a dog owner, let alone open hostilities by throwing something at them.

can’t say i’ve encountered much of a problem with noisy vehicles (other than their stereos) yet. chainsaws should be banned in urban areas in my view. if they need a tree cut that badly, use a manual saw. especially since the contractors always bring their wood-chipper machine into the locality & that thing makes a noise like an aeroplane taking off. it’s preposterous that they could think it o.k. to make that sort of noise outside of an industrial zone. they should truck the offcuts away & chip them on their own base.
leaf blowers are about the worst manifestation of our generation’s insanity that i can think of.

incidentally a friend of mine has a car which chimes when it goes over a certain speed. the sound is really quite pleasant. we agreed it might put us to sleep!

But as to the main crunch of your argument. I agree operating a fine based system always leaves room for the appearance of, even if it does not exist, money grabbing. Solutions could be that all money should be collected into a fund and used to fund more speed cameras on dangerous stretches of road in the locality the speeding occurs in. So if you speed your making it harder to do so in future. And parking fines pay for more parking wardens. But these ideas suffer from many flaws too.

I particularly agree with your point that the fact the speed limit is their justifies that speed being obtained. Even if it isn’t dangerous. How to cope. Abolish all road rules apparently it can work (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,746877,00.html) but that is in a built up environment.

Would rural people accept a 70 km/h speed limit - probably all that is safe for most of our back roads. Not now. Especially after all the services have been stripped from the small rural towns meaning you have to drive for 45mins to an hour at 100 km/h to get to a supermarket to do your weekly/fortnightly shop. That would extend by 15 to 25 minutes. Pushing that long drive into the extended category. It all adds up weekend sport, getting the paper on a Saturday after school music and other activities.

Not sure what you mean by that last-but-one statement — on the main road you’ll have right of way, even at an uncontrolled junction. Unless you’re turning right. Probably.

If I am on the MAIN road I have no damned way to know if the fellow at the intersection has a yield sign or not. I’ve developed a fair local knowledge now, but this is one of the most STUPID things I have ever seen in a road code.

Conformity and Consistency are not objects of worship for me.

BJ

No respect for the law? Oh no… every possible respect for those poor sods who have to enforce the god-awful dogs breakfast of half baked, unfinished and desperately unneeded bills that seem to be the natural product of any legislature

That was fun to write but is a bit stronger than I really feel. Some of the stuff that we’ve got has worked out well and some laws are OK.

However, there are several areas in which I regard the law as being perversely guided by people who are ignorant of the truth and motivated by a strong desire to impose their morality on me.

Speeding is a “victimless” crime if it is done with an eye to what the actual safe speed on the road IS, and speed limits can give guidance in determining that, if they are actually reflective of conditions. Here in NZ they are not. Blind obedience is demanded. Actual judgement, exercised in control of a motor vehicle, is not required. Speed limits which are too high for conditions are almost as common as those that are too low.

It is apparently too difficult to actually make the speed limits informative. As a result I ignore the signs except to gauge the danger to my wallet from the cop with the laser. I suppose that this is worse than thinking the law is “wrong” in a way. I regard it as completely irrelevant.

I note that the cop with the laser WILL be targeting vehicles in areas where speeding is relatively safest… this occurs because more people will be caught speeding there and it appears more productive. Most people do actually slow down as the road turns into a goat track.

Parking illegally is a half-half. Disabled parking is a no-go zone. Parking in places where it makes driving dangerous is ALSO a no-go… whether it is illegal or not. Not paying when there’s no shortage of space is however, perfectly reasonable to me.

Both Parking and Speed laws have been subverted over the years to become cash-cows for various municipalities. I have seen this enough to be QUITE cynical about these laws.

Smoking Pot is a “victimless” crime … as is ingesting almost ANY psychotropic substance. Taking various nutritional supplements, importing them for my own use and using them myself…. shouldn’t be against the law.

Similar criticisms can be leveled at a number of things.. but these examples will serve I think.

So maybe a bit of both civil-disobedience and a lack of respect…. I am not a sheep. I decide for myself. The law in general…. is considered…. but I also generally reject anything that smacks of nonsense.

I’m the guy with the CB and the Radar Detector slipping past the bears on the I-95 and rocketing over the I-5 between LA and San-Francisco… I have not found these tools useful HERE. The roads where speeding is “safe” are too short to make it useful… particularly as heavily patrolled as they are. The roads where speeding is unsafe are far more common here. The limits that are set aren’t even informative. The price of petrol is too high. The car I have isn’t that much fun to drive. The kids get carsick.

Anyone want to buy a Valentine or a good CB radio?

respectfully
BJ