The What's Pi$$Ing You Off Thread

[Kimberley Scott]

There's lies, dam lies then statistics.

Government can stick its false concern for our safety up its ass and stop ripping is off.

[tab]

I've had a bit of a rant previously on the topic, but 'speed related incidents' also include the wankers that get wiped-out doing 80 in a 100 zone while it's raining so hard that visibility is practically nil. So driving too fast for the conditions regardless of the speed limit.

No speed cameras or radars will do anything to prevent that, only real solutions like proper training would. But that's politically unpalatable.

And blokes like NHASP don't mind that because apparently the only other solution is to build better roads. Which feeds an absolutely massive industry of over-paid and under-productive arsehats. Present company excluded of course.

It's one of the key things that provoked my early interest in the AMEP but they've since turned all tabloid and retarded with a few hidden agendas, and will only get worse with Clive's influence.

[Never had any say Panda]

Tab is spot on.. To put it in laymans terms.. Think of an error code 901. (I'm making this up)

First digit means what sort of accident (speed related, driver error)

Second digit means severity

Third digit means under or over the speed limit..

If you wanted to report on the speed related fatals you would query the database to report 95*..

In saying that I truthfully believe speed cameras were effective once.. But those days have long since passed..

I'll return more about the under productive arse hats later..

[Never had any say Panda]

Okay so I'm off the sh*tter now and back to my comfy seat..

Roads are big friggin business.. Maintenance/Planning/Design/Construction/Tolling/Development Planning/Traffic Modelling and so on..

I've only been in this industry 7 years.. In that time the estimated cost of reconstruction a two lane rural road has grown from $680k per km to around $1.2m per km. (When I say rural I am talking about roads with maybe 1500 vehicles per day). So imagine how much that will increase when you start talking 4 lane dual carriageways (8 lanes total) with >100k vehicles per day. (That's reconstructing an existing road.. Now imagine how big $$$ we are talking to build a new one completely)

Risk in this industry is huge.. Reward can be also huge..

But there is a massive amount of overpaid arsehats. I'm an arsehat and I'm well paid.. My team is well paid.. We get lots of perks like overtime/flexible working arrangements.. But we know our jobs.. And when we need to we sleep at work and the company picks up the lawyer bills in the event of a divorce (Yes surprisingly a necessary thing). In the last 4-6 weeks alone we've been talking 140-160 hour fortnights.. The company I work for isn't a major player in the road design and construction industry.. We are well placed but definitely not in the top 5 (much too small). Unfortunately alot of the 'boutique' consultancies aren't well placed and aren't staffed enough to be big players even though they would deliver a better job. Government bodies look at the size of the company and have these mindsets that the TOP 5 are the best! So the big boys say they can deliver it.. And they don't because all their staff are wrapped up in some massive over seas venture.. Then they bring in us little guys to get it finished. So basically my job revolves 90% of the time around either someone or something f*cking up and having to fix it or I get bought on board to protect the governments interests and make sure they aren't being ripped off..

Around 2009 the government started a blacklist of companies who weren't delivering and as such wouldn't be awarded any new projects.. I thought this was the best idea ever in government. What happened in 2009 onwards? Extreme natural disaster.. That list got thrown out the window as everyone came onboard to get sh*t fixed.. (OR in some cases make money with fixing the roads as a secondary priority).

Simple fact is roads are a big business. All the companies involved are big businesses.. Some are on the open market so they need to turn a profit to keep their investors happy. Like everything these days.. It's about the bottom line..

[Never had any say Panda]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-01/clem7-tunnel-investors-launch-150m-class-action/4045852

I wasn't involved and I haven't heard the outcome.. But this is an example of when things go wrong..

Whether they went wrong intentionally so the company could win the construction/design contract for the tunnel.. OR the predictions were accurate based on current data and the travelling public just decided against paying a toll I don't know..

But this is an example of major road project getting bitten in the arse..

[tab]

Huge sigh of relief here. Was just in a meeting thinking about my comments and hoping like fck you didn't take offence!

Cheers for the cost per km figures too as I was going to ask that. I suspected it was a ridiculous amount but it's even worse than I thought. What an absolute fckin disgrace.

So at the end of the day the taxpayer keeps getting screwed from all angles and we're no better off. Better roads and better cars are saving more lives, but better training and proper enforcement could do a whole lot more.

And yes the Clem7 tunnel and more recently Brisconnections/Airportlink tunnel were massive scams. Very clever on behalf of the government by shifting all the risk to the private sector, but it meant that constructions companies and investment banks collected massive fees at the expense of the mum & dad investors that were sold stinking sh*t sandwiches and lost absolutely everything.

[k31th]

Wow... that project was a disaster.

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter, SDP(NHASP). It's perfectly understandable, but unfortunately nothing we can do about it. Like most things that the Government(s) make descisions on.

[k31th]

From what I've seen in the media it's still active policing, just a big mother-fcuker lens that can see what's going on from 700m away and they pull you up and give a please explain.

I think it's bloody fantastic. As long as it doesn't follow the same farcical route as speed cameras where you get a fine in the mail a few weeks later. The public humiliation of being pulled over has far more effect than fines or demerit points IMHO.

Let's hope the first sentence of yours is correct... as that's fair and reasonable (as all laws should be, for the extreme majority).

Something tells me that "farcical" will be the most kind of words you'll be able to attribute to such enforcement, in the near future ... let's hope I'm a pessimist.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Torticollis.

I don't need to move my head today, no really it's fine.

[Never had any say Panda]

Haha don't worry tab I don't take offence that easily..

Good eggs and bad eggs in every industry.. Unfortunately like every industry it's driven by money.. People don't chose this job to better the country and do something for the public.. The reality is people in this job see it as a stable career with a decent income (Generally as a trade off against the time spent away from home and the work hours).. Climb the ladder and get more income. In my case it's accept more risk/responsibility get more income..

Good luck with the neck ralphy..