Cars used to be called freedom machines because once you had your own car, you were free.
Free to travel, work, play, go on road trips, and show off to that girl you never had the guts to ask out on a date. Or was that just me? Moving on. Fast forward to 2025, and our roads are not free, literally or figuratively, with tolls and fines and fees and charges lurking around every single bend in the road, including now fines of up to $3,300. And now in October 2025, hey, AI-enabled traffic cameras are being switched on all over the country, designed specifically to be able to catch you out for multiple different offenses at once. Ohoo. These new cameras are a one-way ticket to pound town. Sorry, impound impound town.
They’re so similar. It’s all in the name of safety, of course. And I’ve covered before how a zero road toll is a deliberately impossible target that would actually cost lives if we were to try and achieve it. For those who missed that episode of the Topher project, it is number 105. And in a nutshell, I make the point that nothing is for free. Everything is a trade-off, even the road toll. And if we try to stop anyone from ever dying on our roads, we would end up killing lots of other people in other ways, primarily through the reduction in wealth and quality of life that would come as a result of the extreme measures needed to have a zero road toll.
For a long time, the government has liked to claim that all these speed limit reductions, backed by a horde of cameras for speed and red lights and now seat belts and mobile phone detection,
were working because for a long time the road toll was falling. But since 2021, that’s changed. The road toll has increased more than 22% in just four years despite having more cameras now, AI-enabled, because you know, AI-enabled law enforcement doesn’t sound like the plot to a B-grade movie where everybody dies in the end. Oh wait, yes it does. Since 2023, thanks to new ANCAP laws, our cars ding and dong at us relentlessly if we look to the side or get close to the line, or our speedo shows 1 km an hour over the speed posted limit, even though the speedo might legally be out by as much as 5 km an hour. Today’s cars and today’s road rules expect humans to behave like robots. Forget freedom machine.
A road trip today is a journey through a digital prison system that demands perfection and punishes you for being human. Heaven forbid you actually enjoy yourself on an open country road and exceed the posted speed limit by 3 km an hour in Victoria. Heaven forbid that you check the navigation on your phone while you are stopped at a traffic light. Heaven forbid your passenger lowers their seat belt under their arm to take off their sweater. You are the reason why so many people are dying on our roads. Except that you’re not, because there are two key demographics contributing to the rise in the road toll, and neither you nor I are in that demographic. But the fact that the road toll is rising, whether it’s your fault or not, will most definitely be weaponized against you by bureaucrats, lobbyists, and politicians who are gleefully building entire careers on the dead bodies of the road toll and the vain promise that they can fix it.
My name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher project, and I help busy people like you to keep up with the world as it changes around us. I am 100% viewer-supported, so if you appreciate what I do, then please buy me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net and check out my books, DVDs, and merch at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com.
Okay, so who are the two key demographics responsible for the 22% increase in the road toll in the last four years? Well, pedestrians and people who completely disregard all laws. And guess what? Seat belt cameras and AI-powered doomsday devices and all the beeps and boops and dings and dongs in the world aren’t going to make a lick of difference to either of those categories. Let’s start with pedestrians. Pedestrian fatalities are tragic, but their number one cause is pedestrians, not drivers. The number one factor in a pedestrian fatality is the pedestrian stepping in the way of a moving vehicle. That’s not to say that it’s always the pedestrian’s fault. Sometimes car drivers are reckless, and sometimes cars or trucks fail to stop at traffic lights or at crossings with tragic results. But AI cameras and beeps and boops and dings and dongs fix precisely none of those problems. Also, some of these pedestrians that are now in the statistics were killed by e-scooters or in other incidents that didn’t even involve licensed car drivers, but they go into the road toll statistics that are then used to berate motorists and justify crackdowns. More cameras, double the merit points, and increased fines.
I was talking about this with a mate of mine some years ago, and he got very cross with me because I dared to suggest that pedestrian deaths were often the pedestrian’s fault. He told me that a friend of his had been hit and injured by a tram. As if that information was going to embarrass me or cause me to change my position. I simply pointed out that tram big tram, loud tram, bright colors with big lights, tram run on tracks so you know exactly where it’s going to go. If his mate got hit by a tram, then there’s no amount of road safety cameras and fines and warnings and cameras and crackdowns and beeps and bops that are going to save his stupid ass. And no, I’m not being flippant about pedestrian deaths. Of course, every single one is a tragedy for their loved ones and for their families. But to use those deaths as the justification for road safety campaigns, which won’t make a lick of difference to pedestrian safety, well, that is manipulative and disrespectful to the dead.
Now, the other major category of road fatalities right now that is increasing are people who are not going to obey the rules no matter how many cameras there are.
Just last week, a teenager was killed not far from me when a stolen car that she was a passenger in deliberately went onto the wrong side of the freeway with predictable results. And that’s a story we see over and over again in states all over Australia. Young people stealing cars and driving with complete disregard for their own or anyone else’s safety with confidence that far exceeds skill and often with fatal results. These deaths are a significant driver of the increased road toll over the last few years. And that road toll is now being used by states around Australia as a justification for more cameras, bigger fines, more road safety tech, and all the rest of it. But no amount of cameras are going to change the behavior of these idiots. These road deaths won’t be fixed without bail reform and real consequences for underage offenders. That’s how you fix that justice system reform.
But the truth, well, that’s not going to stop our state premiers and all the relevant bureaucrats from manipulatively using these figures to berate average, generally law-abiding motorists who might occasionally like to have a bit of fun on the open road, or might just focus on the road instead of on their speedo for a fraction too long. The fact is that a lot of fines are issued for actions that are not actually dangerous in that particular instance. And yeah, don’t come at me with nonsense about how every kilometer per hour counts or distracted drivers die because it is always and every time about the specifics of that particular offense, so-called.
For example, picking up your phone once you’re stationary at a set of lights kills precisely zero people per year, but is punishable with the same fine as if you did it while you were flying along at 100 km an hour. And yeah, sure, crashing at a higher speed is worse than crashing at a lower speed. That’s true. But the fact is my family sedan can stop from 120 km an hour way faster than a loaded minivan can stop from 100 km an hour and it’ll do it in less distance as well. So if it’s all about stopping, then how come the speed limit applies the same to their vehicle as well as mine? Because it’s not in the end about safety, it’s about two things: revenue and making it easy for the police to enforce and raise revenue. For decades now, states around Australia have budgeted their fine revenue into their budgets. If a state like Victoria is scrambling so hard to fix their budget that they’re looking at doubling the parking rates, and they are, then you’d better believe that they’re also looking at their road fine revenue and wondering if they can double that, too.
So, it’s no surprise whatsoever that they’re using the rising road toll as an excuse for more of what’s not working more of what won’t save pedestrians or teenagers in stolen cars. But they are continuing to target, punish, and monetize the people who aren’t actually the problem, the ones who aren’t actually causing the increase in the road toll because that is easier than dealing with the people who are. So be on the lookout because broke governments have turned to advanced technologies such as these new AI cameras that have been rolled out Australia-wide so that they can fleece money out of the people who aren’t the problem while they continue to do nothing about the people that are.
My name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher project, and I usually try to offer some sort of practical solution or something that people can actually do to make a situation better. But in this case, there’s not much we can do until our fellow Australians join us in finally being sick of being treated like children, and they start voting for people who will wind this madness back instead of adding to it. Sadly, I don’t see that happening in the next few elections. So, congratulations everybody. I guess this is Australia now. Something that might help would be to share this video and start conversations with people that you know and say, “Hey, it doesn’t actually have to be this way.” I am 100% viewer-supported here at the Topher project, so if you appreciate what I’m doing, then please buy me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And if you like my no-nonsense videos, then you’ll love my no-nonsense books, DVDs, and merch available at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com.
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