[Rainchild]

The pigs here in Australia are starting to get really stupid with their speed cameras (a friend of mine was fined for doing 81 in an 80km/h zone)...

In mah old car (1984 toyota supra) I'll set cruise to 2km/h below the limit which usually is fine, but find when going down moderate hills it'll still get to 5km/h over.

How good is the Mazda6's cruise control at maintaining speed up and down hills?

Thanks,
-- Rainchild

 

[Steve 6er]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

Rather good, actually.

 

[Blackbird]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

81!!!!!!!!?!?!!?! Isn't there a fault tolerance?! Like if your speedo is a little off or... MAN 1 KM/H and he was fined!?!!!!! Pigs is the right word then...

 

[mpulse1]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

When I was in Melbourne in Nov 2001 I remember all of the signs about speed cameras and speeding. And then hearing the government outcry over Alfa Romeo's 'festival of speed' ads made me want to choke. No offence to the Ausies, but your gov't needs to get a life.

81km/h in an 80km/h zone? When they said 'wipe off 5' they weren't kidding. Sheesh.

Then again, you can always go up to the NT and have some fun, or know where to find the roads with no speed limit.

 

[Torgo]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

Jeez, even the speed-control nazis here in the states let you go five over at least. That's five MPH over.

They tried to install speed camers in the States a few years ago. There was such public outcry that they're not really used here at all.

Don't get me started on the utter ludicrousness of speed limits...

 

[Rainchild]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

Also, along the freeways there are fixed speed cameras, 19 on the northern ring road and inside the burnley tunnel there's like one every 120 metres (and they're talking about halving it to one every 60 metres!!!!)

What makes it worse is the tunnel slopes down significantly at the start, so you have to ride with your foot on the break to keep the speed under control. It's retarded.

I mean I can understand putting speed camera's in 'black-spot' accident prone places, but when only 5% of all fatal road crashes happen on the freeway how can you justify that many cameras if it wasn't just to raise money. Some stats:
* Over 86,500 speed camera fines pulling in $11 million were issued in November (1 month!!!)
* The average per month for the last year is 62,000 fines per month ($271 million per year)
* They're expecting to make $392 million next year
* They're installing dual red-light and speed cameras at traffic lights to photo people speeding or running read lights
* They're installing new point-to-point speed cameras which read your number plate and take your average speed between two points -- so even if you slow down for the camera, they can calculate that you got to it too fast and fine you accordingly.

And this is just for Victoria, the rest of Australia must be earning good money too!

*growl*

I'm resigned to the fact that it's time to give up speeding, but it's no fun if you're being watched by a camera at every second intersection you drive through etc. You can't watch your speedo all the time just to maintain the speed limit

I hope the vandal's get out and destroy all the fixed speed cameras

-- Rainchild

 

[slaag]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

QUOTE

Originally posted by mpulse1


 No offence to the Ausies, but your gov't needs to get a life.  

81km/h in an 80km/h zone?  When they said 'wipe off 5' they weren't kidding.  Sheesh.

Then again, you can always go up to the NT and have some fun, or know where to find the roads with no speed limit.[/b]

Tell us about it!!!!

P.S. the cruise control on the 6 is fine. It wonders about 3-4 km/hr either side from the set speed on hilly terrain but otherwise it's pretty good.

I haven't heard of anyone getting booked so close to the limit before but nothing would surprise me.

 

[Steve 6er]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

Don't get me going on speed cameras!

George Orwell, 1984...here we come... Next thing we know, they put a chip in us all so they can keep track of us. "See the good side. Now there will be no crimes, since we always can check who was where..."

I'm a sucker for integrity...:sarc

 

[applejax]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

I thought, at least with US guns (not sure if they are worldwide); that they had to give you 5mph over the speed limit due to inaccuracies in the radar itself.

But for the question, I can't count how many times (mostly when I had a sportscar ) that I've had a cop follow me. So I just relaxed, set the cruise control at the speed limit, and took small pleasure in knowing I was probably annoying him for going so slow.

 

[LBJay]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

Just remember that it is all about revenue for the state, it has nothing to do with making the roads safer.

 

[bihus]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

1 km/h more? Here, in Portugal, there was a stupid campaign called "Zero Tolerance". A lot of people were fined because of 1 km/h or 2 km/h. And they bragged for doing it!!! It was government throwing sand to our eyes. The roads are miserable, and when you get new asphalt, it's sure that in that year it will be ripped to put new pipes, or cable, or gas. The highways only have draining asphalt in less than 20% of their full lenght(being optimistic). The signs are either scarce or covering each other. And then we have the roads itself, generally badly designed, even highways, with a lot of bends where you least expect.

 

[applejax]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

QUOTE

Originally posted by LBJay


            Just remember that it is all about revenue for the state, it has nothing to do with making the roads safer.[/b]

Dingdingdingding! What do we have for him, Johnny?

 

[Steve 6er]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

wind him up, perhaps?

 

[Driver6]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

Actually most if not all cars are lying regarding their top speed. They're not going as fast as the speedometers are trying to tell us. That's the car industry's 'service' to the customers to prevent them from being caught going too fast.

Funny that your speedometer seems to be that precise.:sarc

 

[adim_v]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

QUOTE

Originally posted by bihus

The roads are miserable, and when you get new asphalt, it's sure that in that year it will be ripped to put new pipes, or cable, or gas. The highways only have draining asphalt in less than 20% of their full lenght(being optimistic). The signs are either scarce or covering each other. And then we have the roads itself, generally badly designed, even highways, with a lot of bends where you least expect.[/b]

Bihus ... man ... are you sure you're talking about Portugal ... to me it looks like you've just described Romania.
Also, inspite the fact that we have no good roads ... the police just bought dozens of new VW Passat Variant 3.0l V6 with super sofisticated radars and a lot of other equipments. Lucky for us they do not know to use them yet (all those equips.). Unfortunately ... the new fines are in average more than the monthly average salary!!!
Lucky for me I'm way over the average salary ... otherwise I could've give up my drving license

 

[Omega]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

QUOTE

Originally posted by Rainchild


            The pigs here in Australia are starting to get really stupid with their speed cameras (a friend of mine was fined for doing 81 in an 80km/h zone)...

In mah old car (1984 toyota supra) I'll set cruise to 2km/h below the limit which usually is fine, but find when going down moderate hills it'll still get to 5km/h over.

How good is the Mazda6's cruise control at maintaining speed up and down hills?

Thanks,
-- Rainchild[/b]

Why don't you go to court and fight it. Radar systems usually have a 10% error and that is why most cops in Canada only give you a ticket if you are going 110kmh for a 100km/h zone cause they know if you go to court YOU will win for sure.

 

[Steve 6er]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

I bet 81 was after rebate for inaccuracies in the radar. Probably your friend was driving 91. That's how they do it here in Sweden.

 

[Guest]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

QUOTE

Originally posted by LBJay                Just remember that it is all about revenue for the state, it has nothing to do with making the roads safer.[/b]

$$ KA-ching $$

:bsflag

 

[chindo]

Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

QUOTE

Originally posted by Rainchild


            Also, along the freeways there are fixed speed cameras, 19 on the northern ring road and inside the burnley tunnel there's like one every 120 metres (and they're talking about halving it to one every 60 metres!!!!)

What makes it worse is the tunnel slopes down significantly at the start, so you have to ride with your foot on the break to keep the speed under control.  It's retarded.

I mean I can understand putting speed camera's in 'black-spot' accident prone places, but when only 5% of all fatal road crashes happen on the freeway how can you justify that many cameras if it wasn't just to raise money.  Some stats:
* Over 86,500 speed camera fines pulling in $11 million were issued in November (1 month!!!)
* The average per month for the last year is 62,000 fines per month ($271 million per year)
* They're expecting to make $392 million next year
* They're installing dual red-light and speed cameras at traffic lights to photo people speeding or running read lights
* They're installing new point-to-point speed cameras which read your number plate and take your average speed between two points -- so even if you slow down for the camera, they can calculate that you got to it too fast and fine you accordingly.

And this is just for Victoria, the rest of Australia must be earning good money too!

*growl*

I'm resigned to the fact that it's time to give up speeding, but it's no fun if you're being watched by a camera at every second intersection you drive through etc.  You can't watch your speedo all the time just to maintain the speed limit

I hope the vandal's get out and destroy all the fixed speed cameras

-- Rainchild[/b]

Ouch! Down here in Toronto we have redlight cameras as well but only at accident prone intersections. And you most likely can get away with 20-25 km/h over the speed limit.

 

[diesel5599]

Reading Topic: Replying to Topic 'How good is cruise control?'

I just changed my mind about visiting Australia one day. I would get a phonebook worth of tickets in less than 2 miles. Here it varies greatly from state to state. The poorer states, SC/NC/Tenn/Ga/etc are really bad on tickets, its the only way they make any money. States like Florida with plenty of tourist revenue and your lucky to see one cop for 3 days, and when you do he's half awake and headed for the donut shop. I've been in FL for about 2yrs and have only seen 3 radar traps the entire time.
The coolest thing about the cops here is they have the most outdated equipment available. I saw a cop the other day that still had a handheld radar gun that had to be aimed at a 90 degree angle from oncoming traffic and the cop had to be sitting still with the windows rolled down. Funniest thing I've seen in awhile.