Years since it was announced that Victoria was keen on installing something called an alco-gate – which is essentially a breathalyser taped to a boom gate – the state has confirmed it will indeed be trialling one at an unknown location in Melbourne.
[jwplayer ojbAtUEk]
Presumably, it’s being kept a secret so folks roll up to it unexpectedly as opposed to, you know, avoiding the area completely, which is what everyone’s gonna do as soon as this bad boy’s location is outed. But assumedly, they’re portable setups to stop this from happening, which, uh, is just an RBT when you think about it.
The alco-gate idea was first used in Sweden, where they’re attached to ferry terminals to catch out anyone who had too much booze before driving off at their destination. If they’re under the legal limit, it’s happy days and the boom gate opens.
The idea to trial the alco-gate in Australia was called on by the NRMA, which is keen to see them used near high-risk areas for drink-driving like festivals and major sporting events. While the company was keen for NSW to get on board with the concept, it’s Victoria who will take the first step.
The alco-gate will be monitored by security staff and is expected to be installed around March of 2019 and run until the end of the year. The closest thing we have to a location is “Melbourne’s south,” News.com.au reports.
If you’re worried about hygiene while getting your mouth around a breathalyser attached to a goddamn boom gate, don’t sweat it. As the Herald Sun reports, tender documents suggest you won’t have to make contact with the sensors, you just have to breathe out in its direction.
We can’t pretend that drink driving isn’t a massive problem, though, because it is, but is an alco-gate a productive way to curb the issue, or is it just a really expensive way to generate traffic jams? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Placement is everything but if it’s confined to the carparks of pubs and other drink-driving hotspots, then I’m all for it.
