Tag Archives: SMH

Epping Road’s cycleway – good, bad or mad?

Posted on by
91

NRMA Motoring & Services’ President Alan Evans last week questioned the logic and safety of the proposed $7.5 million cycleway on Epping Road (SMH 14/01/08). Given that only a small number of cyclists use it, compared with the 35,000 cars each day, he said that motorists face severe congestion between Mowbray and Longueville Roads when Epping Road is converted to a singe lane of traffic, a bus lane and a cycleway.

Alan Evans states that the NRMA supports cyclists where it is safe but “imposing cycleways on major arterial roads and worsening traffic congestion in the process simply does not make sense.”

He believes that placing the cycleway next to a heavily congested arterial is not the best or safest option for Epping Road. The cycleway could create more congestion by constricting the width and number of traffic lanes. If there is a crash in the Lane Cove tunnel and traffic is diverted to the single lane on Epping Road, cars and buses could be queued back to the city.

Some of the NRMA’s suggestions forwarded to the RTA include converting the bus lane into a T2 lane to encourage car pooling and widening the traffic lanes.

Have your say about the planned cycleway for Epping Road.

Read the full article here

Have you been caught with car rebirthing?

Posted on by
23

According to a recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald ‘Back from the Dead’ (13/07/2007) Sydney is the capital of a booming criminal trade in cars that have been rebirthed, where a write-off can be repaired with parts from a stolen car then sold privately with a legitimate compliance label.

The gut wrenching reality is if you’re caught this way, you have no legal comeback, even though you may have performed all the necessary pre-purchase checks. Since the introduction of the CarWise service in April, NRMA has found that 1 in 4 vehicles have had some kind of outstanding issue that could cost a motorist thousands of dollars.

If there are simple ways manufacturers can help with this problem then why aren’t they?

For less than $2 a vehicle we could have high security, self-voiding labels, instead of the current aluminium ones.

Why isn’t data dot security compulsory on all new cars and why can’t the re-registration of written-off vehicles be banned?

If the government is really serious about stamping out this blight, they need to use some muscle and insist that car manufacturers comply.  

Have you been caught with car rebirthing? What happened and what was the final outcome?