I'm sure I've complained about bad driving before, but I feel the need to do it again -- there are just so many fucking stupid people out there on our roads.

I have a solution! We need to greatly increase the fines and punishments for things that are just blatantly stupid and/or ignorant.

I would rather somebody cut me off and then give me the finger, than cut me off, and have no idea why I'm pissed at them.

These are my suggestions:

• In a traffic jam, changing lanes more than once because the other lane appears to be going faster. Newsflash, assface, it changes nothing. Fine: $1,000.
• In a traffic jam, waiting until the last second to merge when coming from an on-ramp. You wait like the rest of us, and making the people up ahead brake because you're nosing your way in is why traffic jams happen. Fine: $2,500.
• Letting one of the assholes who waits til the last second to merge in. Crime: aiding and abetting an idiot. Fine: $1,000.
• Sitting in the left lane when there's quite obviously 20 cars behind you wanting to get by. Fine: $2,000.
• Rubbernecking. Fine: Immediate 6 month license suspension, $5,000. Second offense: death.
• Ignoring the 'lane ends in 500m' sign until the last minute. Fine: $2,500.
• Police officer who drives > 40km/h over the limit without his lights on, or turns on his lights to go through a red light instead of waiting like everybody else, only to turn them off when he gets to the other side. Fine: Lose your job, $5,000.
• Driving a vehicle with no working brake lights at all. Fine: Lose you car plus $1,000.
• Transport truck drivers who are afraid of their brake pedal, so they come into the left lane immediately in front of a car travelling 20km/h faster than them to overtake a vehicle. Fine: $2,000.
• Transport truck drivers who come into the left lane to let one car be able to get into the right lane on an on-ramp, thereby cutting off 5 or more cars in the middle or left lane. Fine: $1,500.
• Lane changes without signals. Fine: $500.
• Pulling out in front of a vehicle, and then not accelerating to the same, or greater speed than they're travelling, thereby making them stomp on their brakes so as not to hit your dumb ass. Fine: $1,000.
• People who actually pull INTO an off-ramp lane to get ahead a little in a traffic jam, only to pull back in a few hundred metres later. Fine: $10,000. Second offense: death.

Sure these seem over-the-top, but I guarantee if you put these in effect, and then enforce them, traffic jams will go down, and a lot of people who shouldn't have their licences in the first place will no longer be able to drive. Obviously our licencing offices are failing us.

It'd also have the added bonus of gas consumption going down thanks to less drivers on the road, and less traffic jams.

And none of these punishments are for crimes that're just "oops" moments -- they're blatant ignorance and arrogance which signifies a much bigger problem. It has more to do with the principle.