Query : Australian Road Laws ??

[sx_iest]

Just after ready a hilarious thread about the funniest things cops have ever said to you, it seems you have similar laws to us here in NZ.

Whats with BOV's being illegal? Why?

The dumbest law passed here lately is no smoking in your own vehicle. That incurs a $60 fine.

Obviously we have unnecessary acceleration laws as well - all recently passed.

What other crazy road rules has your govt. passed targeting 'boy racers'

Oh, and on another note - how much is a Valentine Radar in AUD?

Thanks!

Helena

[Intensevil]

bov's are illegal because they are dumping air into the atmosphere without passing through a catalytyc converter. It doesnt matter that they do not have any gasses in them its just a stupid loophole law that exists to annoy people.

In vic we also have hte power / weight law and capacity / weight laws.

In most cases its either an airfilter or a fmic, not both (unless the vehicle came with a fmic stock).

[78vbsle]

BOV's aren't actually illigal, you must howevr show continued compliance to either ADR 37/01 or ADR 79/00 depending on when the car was manufactured.

To do this you will usually have to go through an a noise & emmissions test (free in NSW, not sure about other states though) and have an engineer sighn off on it ie. an engineers certificate.

The process is a little different for each state, but it's still very similar.

If I get time I'll put up the requirements and contact details for each state.

[MerlinTheHapyPig]

bovs are illegal, because the cars emissions computer recognises the air going through the airflow meter, but because it is expelled into the atmosphere after the afm, it's not picked up, therefor the computer is adding too much fuel, which is bad for the environment!!!

it also technically counts as an "emission" which doesn't pass through the catalytic convertor - even though it's just air!

[78vbsle]

bovs are illegal, because the cars emissions computer recognises the air going through the airflow meter, but because it is expelled into the atmosphere after the afm, it's not picked up, therefor the computer is adding too much fuel, which is bad for the environment!!!

it also technically counts as an "emission" which doesn't pass through the catalytic convertor - even though it's just air!

this only applys to bov's that vent to the atmosphere, and even then only on cars equiped with a MAF sensor.

cars that use a MAP sensor instead of a MAF sensor can run an externally venting bov's so long as they don't increase exhaust noise emmissions to more than 90db for 83 onwards cars or 96db for pre 83 cars.

If however a car runs a MAF sensor than the air will have to be plumbed back into the intake between the MAF sensor and the Turbo/Supercharger. This is done to stop something called high flow revision, where by the computer is tricked into dumping excess fuel into the engine while the throttle is closed, as the fuel can't mix with oxygen it can't burn resulting in unburnt fuel being dumped into the exhaust creating unexceptably high emmissions.

some of the supersonic style BOV's you see will also cause vehical noise emmissions exceed the 90-96db limit and thus not permitted for use.

[sx_iest]

What about certifications for 18" wheels and stuff?

[78vbsle]

I can't speak for other states but in NSW if you go up anymare than 2 inches in diameter and 1 inch in width than you need an engineers certificate to show that the increased size and increases in unsprung weight won't upset the handling of the car.

If it is deemed fitting larger wheels will upset the cars handling than the engineer may require you to improve your cars suspension and braking before issueing you with an engineers certificate.

[MerlinTheHapyPig]

in vic wheel sizes are

can go additional 25mm wider

can go additional 15mm in diameter (wheel + tyre).

So you can increase wheel size by more than 15mm provided the tyre is smaller.

If you have a GTS-t skyline for example, when you get it complied they will generally put the wheel/tyre specs for a GTR skyline because you could get them with 17s (using R32s as an example)

[The_Paladin]

the smoking one makes sense when you see someone trying to light a fag while behind the wheel..........it's taking your attention off the road, like using a mobile phone.........

[Shell]

yeah that...and then they chuck the butt out the window afterwards...which i can't believe you still spot ppl doing here in canberra on dry 30 degree+ days after the carnage of the bushfires a few years ago

[Guest two.06l]

yeah that...and then they chuck the butt out the window afterwards...which i can't believe you still spot ppl doing here in canberra on dry 30 degree+ days after the carnage of the bushfires a few years ago

Stacey is an approved person for the EPA, she carries a fine book in her work car as part of her duties. She was following some bogans in a 4x4 about a month ago who were throwing lit fireworks out the window of the car. What they didnt realise is that every time they threw one it cost them $220. Let me just say that the fine ran into the thousands. D1CKHEADS...Paul...DIRTgarage.

[Rezz]

it seems you have similar laws to us here in NZ.

Thats because NZ is an unofficial state of AU

[tridentt150v]

Like Bondi..lol

[nedb]

If you read the RTA demirit handbook you'll notice that if you have a drink while driving you're up for loosing 3 demirit points. This came in power at the same time as the mobile fone one but its not being pushed as much.

Not many ppl knew about this one including my friend who's a cop.

BTW we are not talking about alcohol here but water or soft dring from a bottle, cup or anything else they come in, and the funny thing is, you don't loose any points for drink driving.

[someonestolecc]

Till that law came in it was technically legal to drink a beer and drive (so long as you weren't over the limit).

[The_Paladin]

good point shell..........

and there's the people who drop their cig, only to bend down to pick it up...........

[FATGTS-R]

Technically, it doesnt matter what you are doing behind the wheel i.e smoking, drinking, eating, reading,writing something down, putting make up on etc etc if they want to fine you they can.

Forgot the exact fine but its either dangerous driving or wreckless driving or something very similar.

Basically doing anything behind the wheel which could be deemed as being hazadous to yourself, other motorists or pedestrians.

One of my neighbours was fined as she was putting eyeliner or some crap on while driving along the freeway, stupid bitch.

A classic example is watching people driving along with a street directory on top of the steering wheel with eyes fixed on the book and upcoming street signs and not the road ahead of them.

[78vbsle]

Intresting you brought up the topic of driver concentration, I pulled this off a thread on the OzDrive forums.

For a while now I have had a bit of a theory as to the cause of many of the accidents on Australian roads. So several months ago I decided to put my theory to the test.  

Now basically my theory revolves around driver concentration, or more precisely the lack of it (i.e. inattention / complacency). To test this theory I started to observe driver behaviour and then compared the driver behaviour to relevant crash statistics.  

There were three things I wanted to find out while observing the driver, and they are;  

1.How often drivers failed to pay adequate attention whilst driving?  

2.When did it occur most?  

3.What effect did it have on the driver’s ability to effectively control the vehicle?  

What I found was that as many drivers became bored, fatigued, frustrated, confused and / or distracted they would stop concentrating on their driving and start daydreaming behind the wheel or start focusing on something more interesting. For example, some drivers would just stare off into space or blindly stare at the tail lights of the car in front, others would start playing with their stereos or phones, turn around to talk to their passengers, some would try and apply makeup and some even tried to read magazines whilst driving. Basically focus on everything but the road.  

This had a very negative effect on the drivers ability to safely and effectively control a vehicle, not just in the obvious ability to spot and avoid potential hazards but even in there ability to just keep the car in a straight line.  

A majority of the drivers were very prone to veering off onto the wrong side of the road or off the road altogether. Many missed give way signs and failed to stop at intersections and tended to overshoot corners.  

Now where this really starts to get interesting is when you compare these findings with the relevant crash statistics. For example approximately 30% of accidents in Australia involve single vehicles running off the road.  

In the University of Adelaide Road Accident Research Unit (RARU) report called Travelling speed and the risk of crash involvement; about 69% of the 151 accidents involved a car veering onto the wrong side of the road and crashing into an oncoming vehicle (of coarse speed was blamed not complacency or inattention).  

In fact every statistic I look at supports my theory, now whilst I can’t get the details on each and every crash in Australia the information I have got suggests as many as 80% of crashes could be attributed to driver complacency / inattention. This begs the question, do authorities know this and if so why aren’t they doing anything about it?  

Maybe the fact that it’s hard to fine people for it has something to do with this or maybe some of there piss poor legislation and poor traffic management is actually contributing to the high levels of driver complacency / inattention on our roads and so they want to keep it quiet.  

Whatever the reason something needs to be done, this is an issue that needs to be made public and that needs to be addressed!  

So in closing I would like to ask everyone their thoughts on my theory, are there any problems I have over looked or something that I should have taken into consideration?