A different kind of filling up – but would you make the change to electric? Photo: James Coleman.
Can you speed safely? Even just a little bit?
ACT Policing says no.
“Infringements or warnings can be issued to drivers who exceed the limit for any amount above the posted speed limit,” they warn.
Once your car is travelling faster than the posted speed limit of the road, you’re classified as speeding. The first penalty level in the ACT backs this up, encapsulating “any speed up to 15 km/h over the limit”. For this, you’ll lose $297 in fines and one demerit point, although there can be some wiggle room for the police officer concerned to issue a warning instead.
But when we posed a question in last week’s poll about whether it’s OK to accelerate through the lights and nudge the dial on a long empty stretch of road, the answers were not necessarily law-abiding.
We asked, Is it OK to exceed the speed limit by just a fraction? A total of 1,224 people participated and the votes were surprisingly close.
Your options were to vote No, it’s the law and speed limits keep us all safe. This received 39 per cent of the total, or 481 votes. Alternatively, you could choose Yes, if conditions warrant, it’s no big deal. This was the winning option, with 61 per cent of the total or 743 votes.
This week, we’re wondering about electric vehicles.
They’re promoted as the future for everyday motoring and there’s plenty of discussion about charging points, distance and other issues.
But the biggest hurdle for many ordinary people is cost. At around $50,000 for the most basic models, electric vehicles are still a steep climb beyond a new car starting at just north of $20,000.
And that’s before you consider that Australians have one of the oldest car fleets in the developed world. Many motorists will never buy a new car, and the transition to electric is bound to be lengthy, whatever incentives are offered.
Range remains a perennial concern, associated with a lack of charging stations in public and at home and concerns about whether you can tow a caravan or risk ruining the weekend.
But would it make a difference to you if the price came down substantially? Would you be prepared to switch from an internal combustion engine if there was no meaningful difference to your hip pocket?
Or are you convinced that electric vehicles are still a long way from matching the performance of a conventional internal combustion engine?
Our question this week is:
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