OddThinking

Sure, you might make the effort to get up on voting day, but will your support base? No. Our nation’s founding fathers ensured that voting was held during daylight hours specifically to prevent sleeper agents like you from worming their way into power.

Alan,

I think most people would agree with me that that Al Capone was being a little unethical in recommending “Vote early and vote often.”

The sticking point is which part of the advice we object to.

Sorry to butt in here, but “I’m in this lane already. Look where you’re bloody going” is one of the few valid uses of a car horn I can see. Having been nearly run off the road a few times because people didn’t look, I was glad to have a horn to let people know that There’s Someone In Their Blindspot.

However, I’m all for the ban on “Taxi’s here! Wake up everyone! There’s a Taxi waiting for someone in your neighbourhood!” This ban will help those of us who like to sleep through the graveyard shift too, as taxis are wont to do this even at 5:30am.

Living in Mac Fields, the only noise I heard when I was sleeping was the lawnmower, gunfire & explosives, and sirens. Contrary to what you might believe, the gunfire was actually from Holsworthy barracks, and has nothing to do with the youth in the area. Anyway, the point is, I knew I couldn’t avoid the sirens, and the 1am training exercises were probably unavoidable (how else is our military going to get that training?), but there needed to be a way of stopping the lawnmowers. Will your policy include early morning mowing of the lawns, or are you only about the Eastern Suburbs?

Now that I’ve moved to C’wood, the noise I most often hear is not horns, but screeching tyres, sometimes followed by a “clunk”. I’m afraid whenever I park my car outside. Hearing a car horn is downright pleasant in comparison…

Richard,

I believe that, if the choice is between being run off the road and enduring an unpleasant auditory experience, people will choose the latter.

I believe that if the choice is between getting out of the taxi to knock on the front door, or enduring an unpleasant auditory experience, people will choose the former.

This is consistent with the Australian road laws, which limit the use of the horn for car alarms and “to warn other road users or animals of the approach or position of the vehicle”. (Ref: National Transport Commission (Road Transport Legislation — Australian Road Rules) Regulations 2006 – Some states, including NSW, do not yet comply to this template, but their laws are still similar.)

So, the law doesn’t change, but enforcement becomes automatic.

screeching tyres, sometimes followed by a “clunk”

I used to live a short-distance from a minor intersection controlled by a traffic light. (For the record, an example of the 4-Cycle Clockwise pattern.)

The number of times I would get interrupted by a horrible screech, and brace myself for the possibility of the follow-up crunch, persuaded me to include this factor in future real-estate decisions.

Hearing a car horn is downright pleasant in comparison…

Agreed. That is an argument for spending relatively more effort addressing lawnmower and car-crash problems, not an argument against the car-horn improvements, per se. If the car-horn problems are relatively easy to solve (which I have demonstrated is the case) they may still be brought in relatively quickly.

Will your policy include early morning mowing of the lawns, or are you only about the Eastern Suburbs?

I don’t yet accept that this problem is inherently class-based or geography-based, but I assure you that the problems you highlight will be addressed by my government.

I look forward to receiving your support when the election/revolution [strike out inapplicable] comes.

I look forward to receiving your support when the election/revolution [strike out inapplicable] comes.

I thought the revolution *was* where we strike out the inapplicable.