Well what will YOU do about it?

[sydr]

Your freedoms are being eroded by new laws that our pollies dream up every day. For a breath of fresh air, and some honesty, see what Miranda Devine had to say about speed limits:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/knee-jerk-reaction-to-a-non-problem-of-speed/story-e6frezz0-1226492352854

Do you support this?

If so, what are you planning upon doing?

Or will you just continue to 'take one for the team' every time you are pinged for going 65kmh on a road good for 80 but restricted to some stupid level like 60?

I'm not condoning recklessness or inappropriate speed, but I am against revenue raising under the old chestnut of 'speed kills'

[wasserkuhl]

Lowering speed limits does not save lives.

Spending money on roads and early driver EDUCATION does.

We should be looking to germany and scandinavia for inspiration.

How about we teach kids to DRIVE cars and not just the road rules.

Discuss.

[T-Man]

This has become an ongoing argument between the use of cameras as revenue raisers vs their effectiveness in reducing road trauma.

All governments in this country have added revenue from these cameras into their budgets and now it's become such a big part of the coffers that removing that revenue will have a significant impact on the bottom line.

Unless they can find a way to replace it or manage the finances better then attention will not be paid to the expert road/traffic engineers.

Yes the rules are ludicrous. But in typical Australian fashion we acquiesce to the rules and complain silently amongst each other.

Are you suggesting a revolt? That would be fun!!!

[Chris-p]

What is interesting is what happened in the Northern Territory when they banned the derestricted speed and set it at 130km. My understanding is the fatality rate almost tripled the next year. Due to people falling asleep at the wheel! Drive the Hume freeway at 110 and what a mind numbing experience that is on a road that could easily accommodate a speed of 120 or 130 in parts.....

Driver education is certainly the key too.

Too much money in it though for governments to consider doing anything.

My two cents worth

C

[Mike]

Chris, I have to agree, since the 80's when I spent much time, money and effort racing, I have totally believed in driver education is the key to the problem. Living in Gippsland these days I find myself surrounded by some great driving roads and not being able to enjoy them as they could or should be due to 100km limits. Sure we have a whole 110Km on the highway, how generous of the powers that be!

We really need to support the whole driver education thing and people like Mark Skaife in supporting the raising of speed limits.

For one I know about the whole boredom thing and loss of concentration due to idling along down the highways at 100 km! YAWN!

[wasserkuhl]

Can of worms.

I look around at my fellow drivers and think, perhaps the slower they are going, the better.

Some examples :

1) Age advanced, sitting way too close to the wheel, with a look of absolute fear on their face. Doing < the prescribed speed limit in all situations - DANGEROUS

2) Young Persons - a) Young Girls texting, FB'ing DANGEROUS Young Blokes with a 3k stereo and bald tires.........errrm, ...........forget it. c) enthusiasts playing togue in the hills and killing themselves and innocent fellow road users in their Playstations(that crash when talent is required after the acronyms run out esp,asm etc..)

I could go on and on.

Germany has it right, driver courtesy and road craft are ever present over there and most of all, slower drivers yield to faster drivers. Its illegal for parents to teach their Kinder to drive. You can cover serious amounts of distance very quickly and more to the point - safely. Although the de restricted autobahn sections are decreasing and congestion is increasing, they still have 'suggested' speed signs of 130km/h (!!).

Scandinavia, probably due to the climate, put their young'uns through advanced driver training to account for different driving environments. Interestingly, fatality rates there are much lower per capita for young drivers. They seem to produce the worlds most talented drivers as well. Attitude , availability and logic at play.

If, for example, one could do an advanced driver safety course that was heavily focussed on both vehicle health, maintenance and control (practical and theory) After such training has been completed you can do +20km/h over and above prescribed speed limits in non built up areas. You would of course pay handsomely for this (instead of fines perhaps?) and have to your skills and your car(s) Health tested once yearly at your own cost...........

Not a bad compromise. Never would happen as the coppers still think they are the only ones allowed to do advanced driver training.

Even sunday morning targa's. I mean start at 5.30am head out to my favourite roads. I'm there, no other cars. But, theres cyclists.....................CANT WIN.

Back to the racetrack.

[hugh]

All good points of view...............

On the speed camera note: Just want to make everyone outside of Victoria aware that you have it EASY! In Vic the roads are littered with unmarked cars (of a variety of shapes & sizes & years) parked on the side of the road (hidden!) waiting to snap you at 3k's over! Not to mention the red light and speed cameras at almost every intersection, it is a serious business................

When with my Dad in NSW he yells at me "there is a camera up here" to what I reply " I know, there have been 3 signs telling me already!". As a result I do slow down, unlike Vic where it is not set up as a deterrent.

[wasserkuhl]

Hugh,

Vic does seem to be shocking for this.

We have random cars littered about the countryside, with no little warning signs anymore. Except for on comers high beaming us as a warning!

[tazzieman]

Apologies if this has been mentioned before ; came across this whilst looking up parts website for my old series land rover project (max speed on a good day 80km/hr , lol)

 

http://www.asmd.org.au/index.html

 

Raises some interesting points...

[Guest Harold]

Bearing in mind how old our vehicle park is, I think it would be dangerous to have many of the older cars doing over 110. Mind you, it could be argued they are just as dangerous at 110 as at 130.

[Coastr]

You cannot raise speed limits in Australia without first attending to road condition and driver education. Even having a law against undertaking and enforcing tailgating laws would be a good start.

Our highways are not built to a a standard like most interstate/ autobahn/ motorway systems. If an exit can't be the right length or radius in oz, they just make it shorter and tighter.

I would welcome a plan to raise limits based on quantified improvements in both roads and enforcement. But just upping the limits right now would probably end in disaster and kill the issue forever.

[OZ930]

Quote from Coastr: I would welcome a plan to raise limits based on quantified improvements in both roads and enforcement.

 

I would have to agree, but what happens is that a road is improved and the speed limit dropped and a camera installed.

 

As an example the road south of Swansea, NSW was mostly a two lane highway (one each way) and 100k/hr, twisty and varying surfaces, usually congested and slow at peak times. (Was fun !!) After the expressway was opened and the traffic numbers reduced, the road was improved to four lanes, good consistent surface, the tight twists removed and wire lane barriers installed.  All good stuff.......except the twisty bits, and then they dropped the speed limit to 80k/hr over most of it and added the obligatory happy snap machine.

[tazzieman]

Our local CAMS guy wrote this recently 

 

This time last year I drove several thousand kilometres in Europe including hundreds of kilometres on Germany’s unrestricted Autobahns.   Generally speed limits throughout Europe are significantlyhigher (130 KPH) than we experience here.

Noticable was the discipline of drivers, even in Italy (truck drivers excepted), the absence of old and mechanically deficient vehicles, no learners or provisional drivers acting as mobile chicanes, very low numbers of highway patrol vehicles and enforcement of very strict and lower speed limits in built up areas.

Perhaps if our Politicians concentrated more on the relatively large number of drivers affected by alcohol and drugs and the many unregistered and unlicensed drivers who have a disproportionate place in serious vehicle accident records and spent less time blaming those of us who enjoy driving vehicles at reasonable speeds on State roads we might get more productive results.

The other deficiency in the current system is the failure of our court system to deal with consistent offenders and again our politicians have a role where they should be legislating mandatory and minimum sentences for these scumbags who place us all at risk when they drive on our roads.

It was noticable in Europe that the general motoring public had confidence in their driving.  I believe that a driver’s licence in Germany for example is treated as a priviledge that has to be earned by way of an exhaustive (and expensive) training process.

[T-Man]

I was recently in the States and drove both in LA and from LA to Vegas. Leading up to the trip I was concerned not only for driving a LHD hut also the driving habits over there.

I was really suprused at how well the traffic flowed and the fantastic understanding on common sense driving that was evident.

Slow cars stay in the slow lanes as do the trucks. People move out of the way on the freeways to allow for faster approaching vehicles.

What a contrast to some of the morons I have to battle with on a daily basis.

And to the moron that stopped in the "keep clear" this morning as I was trying to turn in off the side street......my Hilux is bigger than your Barina.

[Coastr]

I was recently in the States and drove both in LA and from LA to Vegas. Leading up to the trip I was concerned not only for driving a LHD hut also the driving habits over there.

I was really suprused at how well the traffic flowed and the fantastic understanding on common sense driving that was evident.

Slow cars stay in the slow lanes as do the trucks. People move out of the way on the freeways to allow for faster approaching vehicles.

What a contrast to some of the morons I have to battle with on a daily basis.

And to the moron that stopped in the "keep clear" this morning as I was trying to turn in off the side street......my Hilux is bigger than your Barina.

I have logged probably 25,000kms in the US and around 15,000 in Europe.  Standards in Europe are better than the US, both in drivers and roads.  East coast US is better than West Coast.  The Autobahn has the best driving because not paying attention has lethal consequences.  Italy has the worst driving, especially south of Rome, where every car sports panel damage and the urban roads are shocking.

 

Australian drivers are aggressive, impatient and abusive.  They lack discipline and respect.  The constant nannying and fining doesnt help IMO, nor do the ridiculous limits of 70 and 80 popping up everywhere.

 

I don't know how to change the driving culture here.  It is very ingrained and almost hereditary.  I have never had a major accident, and I am the only one in my family to avoid it.  My old man comments that I am a safer driver than he is, which I put down to my stints overseas.  When you have been stuck in a LA traffic jam for 2 hours without moving, it gives perspective on the tosser in Oz who undertakes you in order to arrive 30 seconds earlier.  When you have had to drive through a medieval city with one lane streets, you learn how being polite and taking turns makes everything move along better.  Perhaps driving lessons need to include these scenarios to descript people from their learned road raging parents.

[J.J.]

no point even discussing it, we are getting more and more regulated every day in all aspects of our lives!

 

no govt wants to invest the dollars required in educating drivers, its easier fining people for doing 3km's over the posted limit.

[edgy]

I was recently in the States and drove both in LA and from LA to Vegas. Leading up to the trip I was concerned not only for driving a LHD hut also the driving habits over there.

I was really suprused at how well the traffic flowed and the fantastic understanding on common sense driving that was evident.

Slow cars stay in the slow lanes as do the trucks. People move out of the way on the freeways to allow for faster approaching vehicles.

 

I don't buy it when the yanks complain about LA traffic.. it ain't nothing compared to driving here! 

 

Actually most the world drive better than us (as a whole)