Articles by Jim O'Rourke

If you drive an unregistered car, you will be caught thanks to revolutionary new cameras fitted to police cars in NSW.

"Hi-tech highways" could be the answer to Sydney's congestion crisis and put an end to the traffic bottlenecks and pinch points that plague our roads.

Sydney's much-maligned motorway and toll road network is saving motorists massive amounts of time and fuel, a new survey by the NRMA has found.

The "Stupid and dangerous" campaign urging drivers to fake roadside breakdowns to prevent mobile speed cameras from nabbing leadfoot drivers is set to be smashed by the NSW government.

More than 75 per cent of business owners in the region believe traffic snarls and peak-hour hold-ups are even worse than they were 12 months ago.These figures reflecting the neglect by a series of state and federal governments are detailed in the NRMA Business Motoring Survey of close to 500 businesses that run or use vehicle fleets.Heavy traffic is costing $5.1 billion per yearClogged roads and motorways - more than 70 per cent of the 800,000 workers who live in western Sydney use their cars to get to work - are hitting productivity with bosses reporting employees are finding it hard to get to work on time, are stressed after battling the traffic and businesses are knocking back work as a result.Figures show heavy traffic is costing $5.1 billion per year. That figure is expected to leap to $8.8 billion by 2020.Angus Sharkey, Sydney area sales manager for Golden Field Flooring at Wetherill Park, which supplies hardwood and bamboo flooring for sale through retailers, agrees congestion is a massive burden on business.Mr Sharkey said his delivery drivers could not guarantee when the products would arrive."They are always late because they get stuck in traffic," Mr Sharkey said. "We use a trucking company - GMK Logistics - for deliveries and they find it very hard to stick to delivery timetables because the traffic across the city is so bad."Congestion not only hurts the quality of life of families, it also made it harder for small businesses to make a profit and expandThe NRMA survey found more than 40 per cent of businesses have been forced to make changes to the way they do business in an effort to deal with the impact of traffic congestion.Mr Sharkey said his sales reps do not leave the office until 10am to wait for the traffic to die down.NRMA president Kyle Loades said congestion not only hurts the quality of life of families, it also made it harder for small businesses to make a profit and expand."Congestion is a job and productivity killer," Mr Loades said. "Fleet-running businesses in western Sydney are spending money on covering the costs of congestion when it should be spent on growing the business and hiring more staff."The current NSW Government said it had set aside $2.4 billion to "smash" congestion through a massive infrastructure program.But while close to 50 per cent of businesses surveyed believe this needs to be done, about 20 per cent are opposed to the policy.As part of its Rebuilding NSW plan for Sydney roads, the Government wants to build a western harbour tunnel, starting in 2020.

NSW's worst drunken drivers will be forced to pass a breath test every time they start their car.

It's supposed to be rush hour, but long-suffering Sydney drivers on popular commuter routes are barely travelling at a snail's pace.Weekday motorists battling clogged roads and motorways are forced to cope with average speeds as low as 11km/h on Sydney's worst route on the the Princes Highway, latest figures from the Roads and Maritime Services' Roads Report show.The quarterly statistics reveal that it takes motorists an average of more than 48 minutes to travel on an 8km stretch of that highway between Arncliffe and the city during the morning peak. That route includes congested King St at Newtown.Figures measured between September 30 and November 30 show that those making the journey home on the Princes Highway in the evening fare little better with the average speed reaching just 13.4km/h.Notoriously busy inner-city Cleveland St, running between Sydney University at Darlington and Moore Park, recorded an average speed of just 13.9km/h during the morning rush hour, a slight increase on the average speed during the previous three months.The RMS Roads report shows it is taking motorists a frustratingly slow 15 minutes to travel just 2.8km.Motorway speeds are slow, with the M4 between Concord and Clyde, where the speed limits are 100km/h, down to 48.4km/h in the evenings.Morning drivers on the M5 and M5 East have to contend with speeds that average 51.4km/h, while they can reach 54.5km/h on the homeward journey.North Shore and Eastern Suburbs drivers are also not missing out on traffic snarls. Evening peak speeds on the Pacific Highway between Roseville and Pymble are averaging 17km/h while on Alison Rd near Randwick, morning motorists are crawling along at an average 16.6km/h.NRMA President, Kyle Loades predicts traffic congestion will ease on major arteries once the NSW government builds the WestConnex and NorthConnex motorways and opens the north-west and south-west rail links."There are a number of short-term fixes we could be implementing," he said.Sydney's worst commuter roads Slowest AM peak hour speeds, km/hPrinces Highway (Arncliffe to City) - 11Cleveland St (Darlington-Moore Park) - 13.9Alison Rd (Randwick to Moore Park) - 16.6Military, Spit Rds (Balgowlah-Cammeray) - 16.8Milperra Rd (Liverpool to Newtown) - 19.4Slowest PM peak hour speeds, km/hPrinces Hway (City to Arncliffe) - 13.4Pacific Hway (Roseville to Pymble) - 17Pacific Hway (Lane Cove to Roseville) - 18.2O'Riordan St (Mascot to Alexandria) - 18.4Milperra Rd (Newtown to Liverpool) - 18.7Source: Roads and Maritime

If you do not want to be laid up in a Sydney hospital bed over Christmas, do not walk home from work on a Friday evening between 4.30pm and 8pm.Statistics released by insurance giant GIO show that Friday is the day of the week pedestrians are most likely to hit by a car - more than double the number recorded on a Monday.And after the company's analysts crunched the numbers from 7000 personal injury claims, they found that the evening peak period is the most dangerous.The end of the working week drive home is also the riskiest for motorists. Close to 16 per cent of all road accident injuries, including pedestrians, occur in the three-and-a-half hour period ending at 8pm on a Friday.Strangely, the most dangerous day for cyclists is Tuesday when 18.6 per cent of accidents resulting in personal injury claims occur.The worst time for a cyclist is the morning peak between 6am and 9.30am when more than 29 per cent of injury-causing accidents happen.

The National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council fears organised crime syndicates, including Japan's Yakuza, will latch on to the proposed trade in of 'grey imports'.Council executive director Ray Carroll said once the "channel is opened" the trade in stolen Australian cars could flow the other way.As part of a review of the national Motor Vehicle Standards Act, the government is considering lowering the barriers on importing new and used cars, which could lead to 700,000 used vehicles, mostly from Japan, ending up in Australia.The government argues that reform will lead to cheaper cars. It could, for example, be possible for Australian buyers to purchase cars online and have them delivered to their homes.But in 2008, police in New Zealand - where grey imports are allowed - said the country was becoming a dumping ground for stolen cars from Asia and the Yakuza "was at the root of the problem".The Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association has acknowledged there had been an increase in the export of stolen cars and illegally rebuilt or remodelled vehicles.Mr Carroll said until now Australia has been immune from a "very vigorous" international trade in stolen cars."Our biggest concern is that within those potentially hundreds of thousands of legitimately imported cars, it is extremely easy to just send as many stolen cars as you wanted," he said. "But there are no systems in place to do a stolen car check on them when they come into the country."

Car-share users could be forced to stick to dedicated parking bays in Sydney. Sydney on-street parking is at such a premium in the inner city that Clover Moore's City of Sydney Council will be asked to stop vehicles from car-share companies using council parking stickers reserved for local residents.Cars belonging to GoGet, Hertz 24/7 and GreenShareCar should not be able to park on the street unless they are in a dedicated car-share parking bay, Liberal councillor Christine Forster told News Corp Australia.If one of the 600 dedicated car-share parking spots is being used by another car, the car-share vehicle can park anywhere on the street, she said.Ms Forster will move a motion at tonight's council meeting calling on car-share owners to give up their residents' parking permits and face the same timed parking restrictions as everyone else.She said the council had already given up 600 publicly owned car spots, including 11 in the CBD, to car-share companies, making it even harder for locals to find a parking spot.Ms Moore has given car-share companies a total of $208,000 to help them set up. Since 2011 they have had to pay a one-off $2250 fee for each parking bay."If a car-share vehicle is being returned to its spot, and another car is illegally parked in it, then the car share vehicle can simply park anywhere on the street because it has a residents' parking permit," Ms Forster said."This effectively means a car-share vehicle can occupy two spaces on the street. If a car share vehicle has to park in another spot on the street then it should be able to be fined if it breaks parking restrictions." Under the Car Share Policy, Ms Moore wants 10 per cent of all households in the City of Sydney - 9500 dwellings - to use car sharing by 2016. About 20,000 residents and business owners have joined one of the three car-share schemes, which argue that they increase the number of spaces available.