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Mark Hinchliffe·
Tips/trainingRiding/safety tipsTips on laws
··9 Comments·1 min read

Radar warnings aid Easter road safety

police radar licence checks low lidar

No doubt police will be out in force this Easter, so it is important to alert other motorists of their presence by flashing your lights or waving an alert.

Must Check out this article about Radar Detectors Under $100. Note that radar detectors are only legal in WA in Australia.

The law says you can flash your high-beam headlights to warn other motorists of dangers in certain circumstances, so long as you don’t dazzle other road users. Some road rules indicate that you cannot flash your high beams at closer than 200m.

However, if you do it in the daytime, you can’t be accused of dazzling drivers with a few hundred watts of headlight when there’s a multi-billion-watt lightbulb in the sky, can you?

Riders can also warn other road users of incidents ahead – oil spill, gravel, crash, traffic jam, police presence, etc – by using hand gestures such as waving your hand downward to indicate they should slow down, the “whirlybird finger” gesture indicating police ahead (either at the scene of an accident or with radar etc), or a camera-clicking finger gesture to indicate a speed camera is ahead.

At night, motorists won’t see your hand gestures, so you could perhaps use your hazard lights instead of high beam to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic.

It’s nothing more than what radio stations do when they alert motorists to crashes, traffic jams or speed camera locations.

While some police may say this is preventing them from doing their duty, it could also be seen as assisting them in the execution of their duties – that is if their duty is to make our roads safer and slow down motorists at that particular “black spot” as determined by the positioning of a radar unit.

However, if police duties are to collect revenue, then, yes, we are preventing them from doing their tax-collecting “duty”.

One Melbourne man has gone a step further and created “Speed camera ahead” warning signs which can be printed out (CLICK HERE) and used to warn drivers.

radar warning signIf you decide to use them, be aware that you should not deface public property by pinning them up.

Wouldn’t it be a better and safer place if we all pitched in to help the police this Easter?

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9 Comments

  1. In the past I have worked with Traffic, Motorcycle and Highway Patrol Police. If you don’t meet a certain quota in issuing Traffic Infringement Notices then members are asked why and should it continue they are eventually ‘shipped out’ to another division. Particularly in Queensland, instead of maintaining high visibility/profile deterrence, police hide behind telegraph posts and trees and in certain circumstances they themselves may be breaking the law in doing so. For example hiding their vehicle on pedestrian pathways and in one particular case they parked themselves not on the footpath (which is also contrary to traffic legislation) but inside private property lines at the bottom of a hill in an area where there have been very few accidents. In the ’70s in the ACT, the High Speed Pursuit vehicles were 351 Ford Falcon GTHOs and sections of the Kings Highway between Canberra and Bateman’s Bay were often patrolled at speeds in excess of 200kph (3rd gear in a HO). On night shift at about 3pm the bikes routinely pulled 160kph around State Circle. In those days roads were like private raceways for police.

    I believe these practices have somewhat abated but there is no doubt in my mind that speed cameras (particularly in Queensland) are often used as revenue raisers. After all, they need to pay for themselves or they become a drain on government coffers. How many times have I gone a little over the speed limit when traveling down a slight incline?

    Like you, I will continue to warn other motorists that there is a hazard (whatever it might be) in an endeavour to slow traffic where appropriate.

    I ask but one question to make my point. Who is the most dangerous driver – a motorist focused on what he is doing at 115kph on a highway marked 100kph or a motorist on the same section of highway traveling at 85kph talking on a mobile phone resting on his/her lap? And yet a speed camera is incapable of discerning between the two motorists. I’ll let you guess who will get the fine.

    1. Actually the driver doing ninety nine in a one hundred zone with eyes glued to the speedo in misty rain is more dangerous than the person paying attention but possibly over the posted limit. Besides the mobile in the lap is not illegal if hands free is used but the eighty five is a rolling road block that can cause accidents .
      Major pile ups have happened when some fool gets frustrated and does something stupid to get around such road blocks, or they are so busy staring at the speedo they plough into the back of them.
      I would like to see the random road tax machines ban from use in any place other than genuine black spots and only used at other locations to target hoon activities not ordinary motorists.

      1. Hi Al,

        All road users shouldn’t use mobile phones at all whilst driving. If it is that important, pull over. Simple.

        Using a mobile phone on loudspeaker in your lap is actually illegal if it has to be touched.

        Can I rest the phone on my lap and use it on loud speaker?

        No. A driver is not allowed to rest or hold the phone on any part of their body. If the phone has to be touched to activate the loud speaker function it has to be secured in a commercially designed and manufactured mounting affixed to the vehicle in the manner intended by the manufacturer. If the phone is remotely activated it can be placed in the driver’s pocket, or a pouch worn by the driver.

    1. No the QLD auxiliary taxation service will be out in force on the highways but nowhere near the large roundabout near my home that is part of the local drift circuit and know magnet for hoons. Who should be out in droves if it rains.

  4. My 1st bike speeding ticket was many years ago near Dalby qld. I was doing 177kph, hiding behind my small fairing on a Honda VF400F along a long straight road , no traffic when a cop run out from behind a tree . I backed off down to under speed limit , with the cop behind with lights going. I pulled over , helmet off and was asked for license , didn’t have one on me (48 hrs to produce ) what speed do you think you were doing ? I told him it was a new bike and decided to give it blast along this straight , safe quiet road . He booked me for under 115 kph . Lucky I got a friendly copper .Got my father to drop into Southport police station and give them my license number details . My car license took the points . Only 3 years ago , I actually went and got my RE and R licenses . Its not the 80’s anymore and the police force has grown in numbers and speed devices everywhere . Good time to sit at the back of a riders group over the long weekend .

  5. Given that Australia has become a nation of conformist sheep, dispelling the ‘larrikin’ myth, most motorists are too scared shitless to take a punt and warn other motorists of the Government Pokie revenue collectors. We all know that the road safety bullshit is just that. Bullshit sprouted bt politicised coppers and brainless politicians to justify their clandestine and sneaky tactics in fleecing soft targets. We the motoring public. The pathetic cliché used by the brainwashed that ‘if you don’t speed, you won’t be fined’ is absurd. Why? Because if the sky is blue, the road is clear and the conditions excellent, then what is the point of having a 300kmh motorcycle when you can only use one third of its potential. Abolish the Nanny State, implement graded licences, where lifelong riders have much greater leeway to speed due to experience…and still walking the earth despite some tin top drivers worst efforts. Raise the speed limits and utilise the different lanes for different graded licences. E’g’ Right hand side lanes for P platers and trucks, middle lane for Open licence holders and right lane for Premium licence holders. If the Government was serious about safety then there would be squads of marked police cars and bikes on the road. Pity most riders just whinge and aren’t prepared to get off their arses and do something about it. Apathy, thy name is Australia.

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