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A controversial topic at times, but i'm pretty confident we'll be able to discuss this one here as Adults and not get out of hand.
For me personally i find it greatly frustrating that we have some of the best bang for your buck performance cars in the world, and some of the best roads too yet we're stuck with 110... surely some of our better roads can be let lose? 130 on the Hume shouldn't be an issue at all.
I agree Norm. I admit I haven't travelled a great deal on the mainland but on one occasion on one road the difference was a state border with 10kph difference.
I saw something today where James Courtney is out promoting the dangers of driving too slowly. We all know we have to drive to conditions but in terms of a risk assessment of where trouble is likely everyone travelling at 130 on a dual lane carriageway I would have thought be a safer environment than limited overtaking lanes single carriageway with cars and trucks having a speed variation of up to 30kph.
We tried to lower our speed limits and I am not sure what happened as it's all gone very quite but the assumption was it wasn't supported by the public.
Mark Skaife talks a lot of sense on this subject. if you have to cross the centre line to overtake the objective should be to spend the least amount of time on the wrong side of the road as possible instead of watching the speedo to make sure you don't cross another line of little consequence.
I believe the problem is that they put speed limits in for the lowest common denominator
When you look at it Ian can drive his GT, me my F6, at the same speed that someone can drive their 30 yo Datsun 120Y, or 50 yo EK Holden
Yet those cars, dont handle, dont brake, yet their limit is the same as for a good car
Around town I have no problem, apart from a different limit every 50 mts
But on the open road, bugger me, I sometimes find myself getting bored driving at a 100km/h
where as if i was doing 130 km/h my attention span would be wide open
I still dont think speed as such kills, its inapropriate speed
Drive to the conditions, and be reaslitic with your , and your cars abilities
I am so looking forward to getting the TS on the race track as part of the T series nationals, not to go silly but at least to let it use some of its legs, here that windsor roar
I thought we fixed this issue with a lane exclusive to Fords. I am sure this was agreed to on the Westgate Bridge while stuck in traffic attempting to work out how launch control worked on the F6.
well the other trip, I think it was the launch of the 335, remember we found there was a lane just for commodores
The emergency lane, how many commodores did we see with the bonnet up
hahaha
it was fair humming on the westgate bridge, had to work out ho to disengage launch control, book doesnt tell you
hahahaa
Speed limits by their very nature have to be conservative and anyone government official suggesting that 5 kph over that limit
will cost lives is simply wrong. If the margin was that close the speed limit is incorrect and should have been set much lower.
And that is why I totally abhor the idea of infringement notices for speeds less than 10 kph, they're just revenue raising.
Surely, we are now at the point of increased driver training and awareness to change mind sets and achieve real road safety.
If the governments can't fork out for something that will make a real difference then they are morally bankrupt
Agree with all of you, (gee what kind of place is this??!! LOL) legislating for the lowest common denominator, too much fear of litigation... The single worst thing i see on a daily basis is speed differential between cars, Slow moving traffic in the RHL... passing on the LHS of another car @ 30+kph difference is a disaster waiting to happen.
firstly, a lot of bad driver behavior would improve if it the law was upheld. unfortunately, as we all know there is a massive focus on speed and nothing else. i know plenty of people that have been done for speeding but i don't know anyone that has been done for breaking a myriad of other road rules. talking on phones, tailgating, right lane hogging, failure to indicate, not having indicators that work, bald tyres, etc etc. there just seems to be a relentless focus on speed. what this has done is convince people that if they don't speed, or if they just drive to the number in the red circle, then they are good drivers and safe drivers.
if ALL the rules were enforced, maybe we'd have better driver behaviour on the roads. there will always be idiots, but the reality is, they are a minority. they just make big headlines.
if driver behaviour improved, then increases in speed limits could be a possibility, but until then, i can't see it happening.
i travel adel - bris every year with the family on holidays which is pretty much the only time i travel on national highways, and to be honest (and this is probably a bit left field), i often have one eye on the economy as well as the speedo. north of 110 and the economy goes south. having said that, i find a 2 day journey is a different mindset to a quick squirt up the highway for business or something. an extra 20km/h would come in handy.
I am often amazed at the number of fatal and serious crashes that I attend when the news report comes out, always speed as the primary factor. What they never mention is that the driver was asleep when he hit the tree, or that he was speeding to race the yellow light, or he was changing his CD, or a non speeding driver failed to give way.
The reports and the propaganda will always be the same, the one offence the revenue raisers pick up is the cause, never the multitude of bad driving habits and offences the cameras do nothing about.
Just my observation, but I only get blood on my hands, see the carnage and talk to the victims, not statistics so what would I know?
Time to put the focus on the other issues to make real changes to the road toll, speed has been done to death and is of limited effect now.
How do you cope with those images Lynton?