Police

Nobody likes seeing the red and blue flashing lights in the rear view mirror. A run-in with the law usually means you’ve done something wrong and are facing a penalty as a punishment, which typically consists of a monetary fine and some demerit points.

The City of Sydney council has been slowly reducing speed limits of high foot-traffic roads to 40km/h to enhance local safety.The 10km/h lower limit will now become the standard on regional and local roads within inner-city suburbs of Glebe, Forest Lodge, Beaconsfield and Waterloo.Illuminated electronic signs will be put in place in affected areas for a minimum of two weeks after the new limits become law.Suburbs further out with existing 50km/h limits including Annandale, Alexandria, Redfern Woolloomooloo and Zetland will also have some speed limits lowered to 40km/h.The City of Sydney's eventual goal is to implement more 30km/h zones in high pedestrian and cyclist areas.“It is everyone’s responsibility to make our roads as safe as they possibly can be for people walking, riding and driving,” said Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore.“Currently, 75 per cent of local and regional roads in our area already have a 40km/h speed limit or lower. That’s up from just five per cent in 2004. This has been achieved through our work with the NSW Government, which is funding the latest round of speed limit changes," she added.Myriad studies have shown a 10km/h reduction can benefit both pedestrian and vehicle safety in built-up areas.This latest reduction will only apply to local and regional roads. Motorways and State roads are spared.It is not all speed reduction in New South Wales, with the M4 motorway's WestConnex tunnel having its limit raised from 80km/h to 90km/h in March. Perhaps surprisingly, that speed limit increase was also for safety reasons.The number of deaths on NSW roads continues to climb despite newer, safer cars and generally lower speed limits. So far, 181 lives has been lost on roads in NSW compared to 165 in the same period last year. 

As modern performance cars have become faster and more complex, car companies have developed race track-specific driving modes as part of the search for the ultimate in speed and handling. 

Q: Is it legal to drive through a red light to make way for the police vehicle? A: Here’s one of those questions that is very difficult to answer simply. Not only do different states and territories have their own laws on this, there’s conflicting advice from legal and motoring club outlets, as well as some truly grey areas in the law itself.

We’ve all done it; you drive past a white or silver SUV parked by the side of the road and think, was that a speed camera? By the time you’ve looked down to check your speed, you’re past the parked vehicle and you discover, to your horror, that you were a handful of kilometres over the posted limit.

The incoming Kia Tasman ute appears to have set its sights on official police duties, with sources shown a ute dressed in police livery and modified to become a 'divvy van' - or division van, used to transport crooks and suspected criminals.The image woul

Police in Queensland will be driving more and more kilometres under electric power, as the state’s police service introduces additional hybrid cars into its fleet.

There’s a new sheriff in New South Wales… sort of. The NSW Police Force’s Highway Patrol division has a new toy, in the form of a BMW iX electric car.

It’s only taken five years, but the police may have found the ideal pursuit vehicle to replace the trust old Holden Commodore SS V8, in the unlikely shape of the Subaru Outback Turbo. Spotted by an eagle-eyed CarsGuide reader in Melbourne last month, several representatives of the Victoria Police were observed pouring over examples of the newly-released flagship version of the popular high-riding

Sources inside Ford Australia have confirmed to CarsGuide that NSW Police Traffic & Highway Patrol Command has expressed interest in the Ranger Raptor, and is in the early stages of assessing the high-performance 4x4 ute for a range of duties.