Australians have a love affair with SUVs and Utes, if sales of new vehicles in March are anything to go by. Of the 105,410 vehicles sold in March 2017, 60% of them were light commercial and sports utility vehicles. What’s more, three of the top 5 sellers were Utes:
Tolls for trucks are on the way up. Whether you drive a truck or a passenger vehicle, these tolls will hit your pocket eventually. As truck tolls cost three times more than light vehicle tolls, goods that trucks carry must become more expensive.
Most drivers know the importance of keeping their eyes on the road. Even at only 60 kmh, if you look at your phone for only 2 seconds, you travel 33 metres blind. Too many drivers regularly travel blind because they use mobile phones.
It seems to be a quirk of human nature – when something goes well, we take the credit for it. But when it turns sour, we pin the blame on something outside ourselves. It could be other people, unexpected circumstances, or even the road.
Did you know you’re five times more likely to be killed on country roads than in the city? During 2016, 254 people lost their lives on NSW country roads. In fact, somebody is killed or seriously injured in a crash in the country every 85 minutes. In Dubbo and Mudgee alone, 12 people died in car crashes in 2016.
Riding a motorcycle has always been riskier than driving a car, but perhaps that’s part of the appeal. Unfortunately, it’s not just young men who have fatal accidents on motorbikes.
There may come a time when cars are no longer welcome in most cities. Already there are signs around the world this is starting to happen. The question is whether or when Sydney will stop its love affair with the car.
Diesel, once hailed as more efficient and less polluting than petrol, may be on the way out. While the VW saga drew attention to diesel emissions, there are signs this fuel is losing favour.
Authorities can see the polluting effect of diesel.
People who no longer live in Sydney often say they left because of traffic and parking headaches. Even Melburnians pay much lower fines for the same offences than Sydneysiders, who are racking up huge parking fines. Meanwhile, councillors in Adelaide are calling for CBD parking fines to be cut in half because they are deterring visitors.
The Get your hand off it campaign begun in June 2013 warned against using hand-held mobile phones while driving. Yet Queensland University of Technology (QUT) found using a hands-free mobile while driving is just as distracting as holding one.
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