Driving & Traffic

It will probably go close.

The current longest is 24.5 km in Norway.

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Are you talking combined length of all the tunnels or single longest?

Actually it would be interesting to compare in Australia. I still think the longest (almost) continuous tunnel experience might be the Clem 7 and Airport Link in Brisbane. Yes there is a very short section (maybe 200m?) in daylight when you ā€œcome up for airā€, but you go straight from the 5km long Clem7 to the 7km long Airport Link. When taken together it certainly feels like a long time!

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With Beaches Link included the longest distance youā€™d be able to drive totally underground for about 25km from the M5 to the northern beaches. If they go through with the entire F6 extension from Sutherland to Brighton itā€™d be 40km entirely underground.

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The Victorian Government today ruled out following NSW Governmentā€™s plan, saying drivers have the option of paying car registration in installments.
I think the Queensland Government should adopt the NSW plan given Brisbane has several tollways.

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Though QLD doesnā€™t have the same cost of living pressures that NSW has.

And I think QLD car rego and petrol is cheaper as well.

No actually rego is higher in Qld and petrol in Brisbane is the most expensive in the country. Housing is cheaper of course but even so some areas (like Sunshine Coast for example) have some of the highest mortgage ā€œstressā€ in the country too. It would be a great policy for Brisbane as there are a couple of toll roads under utilized (eg M7 Tunnel and M5 Legacy Way) and this would encourage traffic onto them.

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Why? this is just a shit policy designed to buy votes from Sydneyā€™s west

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I agree.

As even people outside NSW should know by now, our current Transport Minister (and State Premier who previously was a Transport Minister) is absolutely hopeless. We need someone who actually lives in an electorate covered by the Sydney Trains network rather than one thatā€™s a couple of hundred kilometres away from the nearest station in the network!

Or you just pay out the private operators and make it a freeway.

If the government is going to subsidise the cost of a road being built, then subsidise a private operator making money by cutting rego - they can afford to just build a public road.

It is insane that governments up and down the country are spending billions on roads that are then tolled by a private operator. If the government is paying a cent of the cost of building it, it should only be tolled for the purposes of paying off debt incurred in building it. Let a private operator run the tolling infrastructure in return for a flat fee per use, but donā€™t let them own the road or make money off the tolls themselves.

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At least until the Canberra-Bombala- Eden bullet train is built.

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Melbourneā€™s West Gate Bridge opened 40 years ago last month.

Just found this film documenting part of the ceremony and official opening of the bridge.

Also for any radio people, some snippets from 3DB, 3XY and 3AK

And it was such a different timeā€¦ smokers, small kids travelling in the front seat of cars with no seat restraint, and 60 cent tolls

YouTube: Documentary Australia

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Some NSW car owners getting fined for driving unregistered vehicles are blaming the RMS and Service NSW as it now (apparently according to the SMH) does not post out registration renewal forms. What is missing from this story is that every car owner gets a renewal form for their CTP Green Slip, and the renewal for their car insurance if they have it and itā€™s due at the same time. The notification for the CTP renewal surely should be enough to tell you that your rego is also due.

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Hmm I think theyā€™ve got a point. Qld still send out rego notices and if they didnā€™t I would likely forget. Unless youā€™re on a direct debit arrangement I think you should actually be billed, either via email or mail.

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NSW has just rolled over to the E series in the premium black/white plates.

I saw a new car on the weekend starting with EAE, the latest in the D series I had seen was DZW.

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Cars should still have registration labels, it is as simple as that. Most often the person getting fined for driving an unregistered vehicle isnā€™t the owner, the proverbial no hoper, as is often imagined. They may the child, employee, carer etc who have long term use of the vehicle, but unaware the owner has, for whatever reason, neglected to renew. A frequent user of the vehicle may notice the labelā€™s expiry and advise the owner. In Victoria, the mailed notice is the only clue that registration is due.

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I switched my rego to the 3 monthly renewals now on offer - immediately after I paid it, I got an email telling me that my rego was due in 3 months time.

That was helpfulā€¦

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It smacks of another money-grab from the state & territory governments, like the ā€˜speed killsā€™ nonsense (yes Iā€™ve just returned from Europe, including driving in Germany, and no the roads arenā€™t amazingly better).

The federal government - who has the constitutional ability to raise taxes - needs to properly fund the states & territories, and the fines which have become oppressive (especially for average people, as opposed to the well-off) need to be adjusted down to reasonable levels.

ā€¦many officers felt that the targets were at odds with their role in keeping the community safe as they were effectively being ā€œinstructed to avoid detecting impaired driversā€.
ā€¦
The report found falsifying roadside breath tests did not constitute a criminal offenceā€¦

ā€¦this despiteā€¦

The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) suspended $4 million of road safety funding in response to the issueā€¦

That sounds like some sort of fraud (Iā€™m not a lawyer)ā€¦ or is this another case of one law for those in positions of authority/power and another for the rest of us?

Great to see these issues reported, occasionally. Itā€™d be nice if safety actually became the objective instead of perverse targets & revenue raising, but Iā€™m not holding my breath.

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If a driver being tested somehow faked a roadside test it would be a criminal offence. So yes, you have to ask why a police officer faking the same test to manipulate their work records is any different.

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Shouldnā€™t it be a good thing that less drivers are taking roadside breath tests? Seems that police command set unrealistic targets or quotas and ordered lower ranked officers to follow.