I have had many an argument with friends and coworkers regarding the speed limits here in Australia, but now I'd like to know how the thrifty members of OzBargain feel about this controversial topic.
Do you feel speed limits are adequate for 2018? Do you feel they are too fast? Do you feel they are too slow? Vote below!
Ps- I shall prophylactically say, there is no need for personal attacks in the comments. Pixels on a computer screen won't change a made up mind on the matter.
The issue is what happens whenever an accident happens on a road.
Someone doing 40 above the speed limit in an 80 zone wraps themselves around a pole?
Welp, better drop the speed limit, because that would have changed things.
About a year ago some idiot pushed his dash into his chest cavity by running into a power pole at an estimated 160kph in a 100 zone. The response? Drop the entire 23km road to 80, much of this road is arrow straight runs through sugar cane fields.
Those straights have become a favourite of the local revenue raisers, for our own good, of course.
favourite of the local revenue raisers
This is why the speeds were dropped. Not for road safety or to stop accidents. They want the road to be boring and painfully slow so people will speed. If they lowered it to 80 and everyone did the right thing and no tickets got issued, it would drop to 60 until tickets come flooding in.
Near where I live, we have a section of road that is now 60km/h. It was 100 for as long as I can remember. Never any accidents. But you could see for miles and cops couldn’t hide. The speed was reduced to 80. Still no accidents and still not a good place for coppers to hide. About a year ago, the 60 zone was extended from town all the way out for no reason. Now it just makes the portion of road frustratingly long to drive. I do the limit there, because the cops live on the section of road now. Other drivers tailgate each other, overtake down the emergency lane and do well over the limit. The change in the limit was due to no other reason within frustrating drivers into breaking the law. And it works.
Let me say this. If driving over the current limits by 5kmh results in you crashing or losing control of your vehicle, you should not be driving. Especially with easy modern cars….
Just increase my limits so I can beat everyone else to all the bargains
No option for lower limits? I think motorways could be increased, but many urban areas should be reduced, particularly busy shopping areas or where there is lots of pedestrian or cyclist activity. There is one local section where the limit is 60. It has shops, school, pedestrian crossings and a speed bump to slow people down. The limit should be dropped to 50 or even 40 through there.
Modern cars have you too detached from the outside world and are far to easy to drive to fast for the conditions, then we have all the distractions of phones and ‘entertainment’ units wich are increasing the road toll.
I wouldn’t mind a raised limit on the open highways and motorways, but the counter should be lower urban limits.
Modern cars with Automatic Emergency Braking AEB don't have fatal accidents -
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/15/britains-safest-…
But if a idiot is driving AEB cannot save them
I've had German visitors tell me that they are amazed at how high the residential limits are here.
We should change the speed limit
88km in the suburb of Chatswood.
Why eveen ask this question?
They are what they are and you can't change that.
You are always free to drive as you wish but challenge them and risk a fine
While I am of the general consensus that the speed limits need to be tweaked a little and get rid of the up and down yo-yo limits some areas have, a can pretty much attest to the fact that freeway/highway limits are plenty fast enough.
I drove back from Sydney this week on the freeway to Newcastle, and man, there are a vast number of inconsiderate, arsehole, no talent drivers on our roads. That last thing we need is these idiots doing the same shit as what I was witnessing, but increased to 120 or 150km/h.
Some of our speed limits don't make sense. In some places we can do 110km/hr on skinny, poorly maintained 2-way roads.
On the other hand we had a letter from a local MP boasting how she got the speed limit reduced from 70 to 60 on a nice 2-lane road with big traffic island separating oncoming traffic, and few side streets. We'd been saying it should be 80.
We build schools on major roads then reduce the speed to 40. In well designed areas, local traffic moves off to a service road, and main road traffic should be able to be much faster.
But I agree that driver skill is an issue also. Bring on automated cars and mandatory automated merging! I hate doing 0-20 in an 80 zone because people can't merge.
Roads can only handle a certain number of cars. This is based on flow theory. Once that number is reached (saturation) the speed at which those cars can travel starts to reduce. Certain roads in Australia are already at saturation, so in fact the speed limits should be reduced to improve flow. Anyone who travelled on the Pacific Motorway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane just prior to the Comm games will have seen the theory in action.
Yes, too much braking causes far more traffic jams than a lower limit. The key to traffic flow is limiting braking.
With every second person being fatigued from modern life and every third person using their phone while driving, the urban and suburban roads can't get any faster.
I'm not too concerned about the speed limits, but people not using their indicators, don't get me started!
I don't understand why it is so difficult to use an indicator? It is literally a few millimetres finger movement from the steering wheel and uses less than one calorie in energy.
You forget that they would likely have to put down their phone to use the indicator. Imagine if we required them to do a head check as well
Speed limits need to balance between modern ‘safe’ cars and old unmaintained bangers, and between ‘good’ drivers and the rest. The game changer will be self-driving cars. Sure widespread uptake will take time, but I’m thinking it will be faster than previous safety-update generations. Why? Self-driving should be a game changer for ride sharing. No driver = no labour cost, 24x7 no breaks, best route, max fuel economy driving, etc. Those with old bangers may well find using ride sharing a cost effective replacement. When we get to a high penetration of modern self-driving vehicles, speed limits can go up. Some roads may well be designated ‘self-driving only’ to enable extra high speeds.
We need to leave suburban roads at the current speeds.
But motorway and country road speed limits need to be increased.
The exisiting main road limits were set in 1972 and the quality and fitment of safety devices in modern cars are light years ahead of what existed then.
Also as a heavy vehicle road warrior for 30 years there needs to be a greater speed differential between light and heavy, as there is no allowance to overtake when both are limited to 100. Have a look at the Newell Highway through western NSW, this is set at 110 for light vehicles for large parts and it works really well.
I have read recently that NSW Transport were doing a study to raise the limit on the Pacific M1 to 120 or 130 but won't be done until the Grafton/Ballina section completes in 2020.
Another thing to remember is, to do the speed limit is not compulsory, you can travel slower if you wish.
Too slow, but decades of government propaganda will be hard to overcome.
Need to fix peak hour traffic and lousy public transport first. There is no point having a higher speed limit if you cannot even reach the current speed limit due to traffic.
fix …. lousy public transport first
Absolutely - this is key IMO.
Peak hour could be fixed if we all didnt go to the same places at the same time (i.e. to the CBD at 7-9 then home at 4-6)
Businesses need to stagger hours, spread the peak hour traffic over all hours of the day
Yes, ahhh…. I remember reading about that back in…. '78 was it?
Hand-in-hand with flexible working hours, and work-from-home. Yeah… those new-fangled ideas. We wouldn't even need to take our flying cars into the city in the future.
So… how has all that worked out in Australia over the last forty years?
Improve the driver.
Last time I was in Great Ocean Road, there were idiots doing 40kmh in 100kmh zone. And refusing to give way (going into slow lane).
After like half hour of doing 40, one of the pick decide to overtake.
Guess what, the douchbag speed up from 40kmh to 117kmh(I was following, 117kmh on my speedo) just to block the pickup from overtaking. It almost caused an head on, at 117kmh I saw an incoming car, so I slowed down to let pick up back in if he can't overtake.
Yeah, this shits me so much when slow people speed up when they get to an overtaking preventing those faster from overtaking safely.
honestly, what is it with that? Overtaking lanes are like drag races
I'm guessing it's their massively overinflated ego
Proably not in metropoliton areas.
However these are some ideas that I think where benefits out-ways the risks.
1. Fast Lane in all Freeways: Having the right lane at 20km/h higher speeds would be great.
- Have it like a carpool lane (double lined) where you can only enter every 2-3 KM. Would suit thoughs that are driving a longer distance and avoid randoms cars from merging in everywhere.
2. Nightime interstate freeways- Areas of no speed (where it's safe roads/lighting) coupled with areas where speed are much higher then the current 110/120.
As a person commented above, most of the accidents/deaths arise from drivers under the influence or lack of sleep, where it is irrespective of speed.
Toronto has a system on their freeways called local-express lanes which is similar to your carpool lane idea. Traffic there is horrendous though but the system in theory would work well in Melbourne where the city is centrally located.
The problem in Melbourne would be the number of people who get lost and back up traffic at the points where you switch from one to the other. Melbournites are absolutely crap at getting in the proper lane and prefer to drive as far as they can in the wrong lane, throw on the indicator at the last minute and block traffic.
I drive regularly from Melbourne to Bendigo and back and the only shitty parts are still when it's a major exit right after a major road merging in. No one can do a proper zipper nor allows traffic in. And local express lanes wouldn't really fix that because you'd need to introduce about an extra 6 lanes.
Honestly think we should first completely revamp the process to get a driver's license in Australia. Add some defensive driving techniques and proper road education because no one drives like they do in their driving test (Grandma driving). And yet the test pumps out P platers who are still scared to merge on freeways and change lanes/drive at night.
I'm all for increasing the speed limits as time is money but more importantly, driver education is key.
Or just bring on autonomous vehicles…
what is the point of increasing the speed limit on the Freeway when the right lane hoggers decide it is ok to stay on the right lane driving less than the speed limit.
Contrary to comments you read here… Australians are not bad drivers, at least relatively speaking. Our accident statistics aren't that remarkable, and our driver training is quite intensive. So much so that we reigned it in and reduced the learner driver hours a few years back.
As for speeds- most of the best evidence comes from the US when the national speed limit was repealed in 1995 and many states changed their rules. The results: crash rates per mile driven didn't change much.
The MOST important consideration for speed limits, isn't keeping them high or low. It is keeping them consistent, because accidents happen when traffic conditions change. What shouldn't surprise many people complaining about slow drivers in the fast lane, is that most people don't drive the speed limit anyway.
This means not only designing roads for consistency and removing speed bottlenecks - but making the limits consistent with what people on the road are ACTUALLY going to drive.
As much as I would like to say they should increase, the roads, particularly outside of metro areas are so crap, and I cannot see how we could possibly afford to bring them up to standard.
I believe low speed limits causes more accidents. ‘Speed kills’ is a massive government lie.
What U believe is wrong. Speeed does kill. So does fatigue and playing with Ur mobile. But that hard to police.
The stats back up the government on this one.
What you believe is not necessarily reality.
Many people believe in aliens or bigfoot or chemtrails. This does not cause those things to magically exist in reality.
There have been countless studies and reports world-wide into traffic speed limits. Due to all the factors raised in this thread, the simplest answer for authorities to reduce death, injury and damage is generally to reduce those limits.
When catering to a vastly diverse vehicle standard base, driver skill/ability base, road quality base, etc, etc there is no better cost-effective answer to the issue.
Of course in unicorn-fart world, where everyone is a super-advanced race car-level driver, who drives $200k German vehicles with all the latest tech, and only ventures out onto perfect surface autobahns at 2:00am, then raising the speed limit may be of little consequence.
Doesn't matter every 2nd driver I see is speeding anyway If U increase the limit by 10km. Bad driver will speed another 10km over making roads even more dangerous.
Maybe for freeway 120km would be good but definitely not normal streets.
I agree that speed kills but it's not because of the speed limit. Set a speed limit of whatever and someone with behavioural issues or poor emotional control will always exceed it. Changing the limits around doesn't seem to do much, I'd sooner overhaul driver training requirements. Being able to drive at the same time you're allowed to drink alcohol is completely stupid. I'd much, much rather driver training being much more stringent than it is now. Good, consistent training sticks. Having someones hoon parent or friends teaching their kid to drive and flout road rules on the other hand…
I really wish there higher speed limits on the motorways in Melbourne, it's like watching paint dry down here.
Driver attitude needs to be improved for this to happen.
In Europe it works well because drivers generally follow the rules with regards to staying in the correct lane, moving over if a faster car is coming up from behind etc.
We fail to adhere to such basic rules here, which is why it will never work. Faster drivers will be forced to weave in and out of traffic which will just result in more accidents.
Good cars are also cheap
I really recommend having a plate for overseas licensed drivers like what we have now for P/L plate.
some of overseas drivers are qualified in their country but just can't get used to local rules.
As much as I want speed limits to go up 10km… ie 70 to 80 like it was years back
Stats shows the heavy reduction in injuries and death from that reduction
People who are capable drivers generally want faster speed limits… what they ignore is not everyone is capable…
A good piece of advice I was provided years back, was its not that important how good you are… what you need to pay attention to when driving is other drivers/cars how they move .. react so you can adjust
As I always mention with this argument, if speed 'kills' then why don't we reduce all our speed limits to 40km/h, surely less people would die on the roads then?
I have yet to get a well constructed argument against my suggestion. If speed is such a big killer as the government states, why wouldn't you half all the current road speeds to reduce the death toll?
Truth is, speed on its own rarely if ever kills drivers. Speed though, is excellent for revenue raising, it raises A LOT more revenue than anything else on the road.
What kills is: Poorly skilled drivers, distracted drivers, drunk/drugged drivers, poorly designed/maintained roads, poorly maintained vehicles etc
I have known many drivers who have been 'speeding' all their life on the roads, driving at least 10 to 20 km/h over the limit for past 30 years, they are all alive and well. None of them have been 'killed'. Surely if speed is such a big killer, they should all be dead by now? Oh wait, speed on its own rarely if ever kills.
Our road toll is the lowest it's ever been: http://roadsafety.transport.nsw.gov.au/statistics/fatalitytr…
It's still not zero!
Indeed.
I didn't mean to imply that justifies any action to increase or decrease speed limits. It's just a nice graph (let's hope one day it at least nears zero).
It fails to take into account that back in the day alot less people had 1 car let alone 3-4 in a family… The old stats would be horrific if it was by 100000 motorists…
The speed limits are too fast.
It should be 30km/h everywhere.
Then everyone would drive at 60km/h.
It all comes down to Respect….. and common sense.
All have been lost in today's society.
That and we have a lot of multiculturalism that have learnt to drive in (often crazy conditions) overseas countries with very different rules/regulations and a different way of life.
Speed limits come down to respect? Huh.
I expect AMLagonda's reply was based on the threads of discussion here and not necessarily the OP.
Respect and courtesy, not much of that is shown on today's roads….
I hate speed limits but really they are not "speed limits" per say they are limits on the limited driving skills on a large percentage of drivers. some of which shouldn't even be on the road but apparently have a "right" to be there…
There should be more variable speed limits, where the limit changes depending on the road conditions.
At the moment we are restricted to speeds that are safe in the wet/night, for ALL of the time (even in dry/daytime conditions).
Improve the driver first.
I was behind someone the other day who, while merging onto a highway, came to a complete stop, checked for traffic and then got on. All in free flowing traffic.
I cannot wait for autonomous vehicles, or at least the stage where we have cars talking to each other.
Sad thing is that those drivers think they're being safe, by stopping and being so slow, when in fact is the opposite.
what's a speed limit? Just go as fast/slow as you need to and roll the dice. LOL.
On a serious note, it has to do with how ppl perceive speed limits. Here in Aus ppl respect the limit and are reasonably diligent about it. Back in Canada/US, the speed limit is considered the "minimum speed" ie on a 100km/h highway if u go 95 people is gonna fking take you down (press from behind, cut you off, honk, stare down on the side, etc.) All in all, speed limit in Aus has to be higher than the US to make sense. So yes. Up it guys. Highways 120km/h and make the default 70 instead of 50.
I am all for increased speed limit but changing the default from 50 to 70 could result in bigger issues specially for streets. 70 is too high for streets and changing default to 70 means putting speed limit signs on all streets (if limit remains the same for streets).
I agree on the increase of the speed limit but also concern of the many poor drivers out there.
Fyi: To those drivers who cross lanes just to make a turning. Stop driving like a F1 driver and just drive properly as you are going to cause an accident one day….sooner or later.
We need truck ban on right lane and under speed fine. Too many idiot driving 70/80 on 100 roads
I voted for the roads to stay the same because the drivers in my area drive like kundis.
Cars are getting safer yet people are still really bad at driving.
I want to see modified rules for off-peak travel when the roads are a completely different scene.
I'm talking like 130 on the highway when there's no-one around and turn on red after stopping at intersections with good visibility.
I drive at night a lot and the ineffectiveness of traffic lights at off-peak times absolutely shits me to tears.
I would love to find the people who voted "No. Speed limits are fast enough as is." and slap them across the face.
Nothing pains me more here in Melbourne than driving on our 3+ lane freeways with emergency lanes on either side and a speed limit of 80 km/h.
the reason you get people doing 60 in an 80 zone is if they accidentally go over and did 81, boom, $300 fine see ya later
the constant, constant threat of police "watching you" and ready to take your weekly wage away for the tiniest slip up causes people to drive in a state of fear
i even find myself, if going through a 40 school zone, spending more time with my eyes on the speedo to make 200% sure i dont even go near 40, than actually having my eyes on the road watching out for school kids
good job nanny state
The residential limits are too high- it's 30 in many areas in Germany- and the motorway limits are too low.
Dear Grasshopper,
Go to the supermarket and sit down near the checkouts.
Watch all the people buy their stuff, and as they do think "these people (probably) drive".
Then ask yourself "do i want these people driving faster than they already are?"
In that you will find the answer to your questions.
Phantom
Unless it has immmidiate benefit for the capitalists, nothing will be changed people.
Depends:
- Brisbane's M1 could do with a higher limit though that might be unsafe in times of heavy traffic. Certainly at night or offpeak, 130km/h would be sufficient.
- School zones should be 50km/h not 40. All the roads in my area have at least one school and thus between 7-9 and 2-4 (i.e 4hrs a day!) the ridiculous 40km/h limit causes constant traffic headaches.
- Certain roads eg. Nicklin Way have a 100km/h limit which is too high as the road is so short. Reduce it to 80.
I think as a general rule, Australian police should be prohibited from issuing speeding infringements for people who are going less than 10km/h above the limit (except for school zones).
School zones should be 50km/h not 40. All the roads in my area have at least one school and thus between 7-9 and 2-4 (i.e 4hrs a day!) the ridiculous 40km/h limit causes constant traffic headaches.
Kids are stupid, it's cheaper and safer to just reduce it.
The reduction of risk of death of car-peds crashes from going from 50 to 40 is so large (a reduction of 40% chance of death for just a 10km/h reduction), that it's not an entirely unfeasible change.
It's just annoying to the general public, at the very least they should reduce the scope of hours it operates in.
Maybe we should be like America and have the local "school bus" which drops kids off at their home/street so we don't have as many people in SUVs picking kids up.
IMO before the speed limit is increased all the road users be it driver or pedestrian must be properly educated on how to use the road safely and respect the law. Sometime the pedestrian just walk through the road without looking if the car is too near or not. Sometimes the driver just drive thru at school 40km zone without respecting the law! I felt sorry for Lollyman/woman whenever I was standing near them watching the car zoom thru.
We need to update speed limits on the relatively flat motorways to 130km/h (from 110km/h) and remove the dangerously slow restrictions on P and L platers while they drive on these motorways so that they 1) become comfortable driving at speed and 2) they aren't being constantly overtaken by trucks or being rear-ended by inattentive drivers.
Keep the suburban streets as they are since their speed limits serve a purpose (i.e. making sure you're able to slow down quickly for random events).
Because of worrying be fined by over the speed limit 3kms, I have to constantly watch the speedo rather then focus on the road. Driving in Canada and US do not need to worry about this, people know how to drive and speed tolerance is much better 10-15% above the speed limit. The police will come to book the driver doing normal speed limit and block the lane behind force all vehicles change lanes. In Germany there is no speed limit in autobahn but no more accident then us, to pass the licence test you have to go through all road conditions included the freeway, you will fail immediately if not merge into the traffic nicely.
Personally, I can't find anything wrong with Australian speed limits EXCEPT for those that go for (seemingly) mile after mile at a very low limit through roadworks. I accept that the workforce has to be protected but very often I find that there are either nobody doing any work or the workforce is some distance from the road, generally behind concrete slabs. Imposing a 40km speed limit on a section of open road that one could safely drive at 60km seems like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut to me.
Nor do I find that the general standard of driving is THAT bad, but any improvement would be good. I don't find Australian driving standards to be any different from those in the European countries that I've driven in. The standards always differ from the time of day/those going to and from work who don't have a second to live (and one day they won't)/the school run/weekend motorists etc, and I always find that 'white van man' and drivers of large commercial vehicles seem to think they are playing games when they try to harass me. And you'll always find drivers who think that they're budding F1 material but who can't actually control the vehicle they're driving yet have the belief that they are 'fireproof'.
There has to be some control over erratic drivers who are a menace and a safety concern to the general public so my vote would be to leave things as they are at present.
I agree with those above who feel that the roads need to improve. I find Australian roads to be poorly maintained but what I don't understand is the mentality of the planners who seem to have little idea how to manage traffic flow and actually design roads that could potentially be an accident area.
And, in my opinion, there should be tighter controls on vehicle insurance requirements and the testing (and control) of vehicles for their roadworthiness.
The value of a life needs to be lowered before speed limits can be increased.
Sleepy speed limits have made for sleepy mindless driver's. Having driven in Europe and Asia where there are more cars, faster speeds, less policing and sometimes roads of questionable conditions I feel safer there than in Australia. The slow Congo lines on Australian roads just make for angry frustrated drivers and the rules give justification to the slow and unskilled who like to ensure that poeple stay behind them even if it would be safer for all parties to just let them go past.
Sleepy speed limits have made for sleepy mindless driver's.
Are you suggesting then that higher speed limits make for more alert, less 'sleepy' drivers?
Having driven in Europe and Asia where there are more cars, faster speeds, less policing and
sometimes roads of questionable conditions I feel safer there than in Australia.
Really? Really? Less policing makes you feel safer?
Do you feel safer in Thailand? Ten times our death rate on the roads. India? Eighteen times. China? Fourteen times. Maybe you mean Indonesia (you know… Bali)? Only five times our death rate. (Based on per vehicle)
Perhaps you may mean a few very specific countries in Europe? (Norway, Finland, Sweden, Swiss, Germany, UK), because the overall rate in Europe as a whole is over twice Australia's death rate.
As for lines in Congo… don't even go there. Death rate 146 times that in Australia!
Oh… you meant conga lines. Ha. Silly me.
Still definitely prefer them to the lines of certain death in Congo.
I know… lots of snark from me. But I'm leading up to a point; you, and others keep saying things like:
I feel safer
and…
I think
Your personal feelings, anecdotes, experiences, view of your own driving ability, etc, etc, are utterly meaningless and actually counter-productive. Authorities in advanced western countries for better or worse, really do try to build road systems and design traffic flow, etc to minimise harm and maximise harmony.
Even in Australia there are millions of kilometres of roads, millions of road users, millions of vehicles. And funding for development and maintenance is extremely limited. So, of course things won't be perfect - we are not Norway, after all.
Everyone in this thread seems to want their own little personal road system, built just for them and their superior driving ability. Because they, and their super vehicles are so fantastic the entire system should be oriented around them and the metal extension of their ego.
I have no doubt there are many things wrong with both our urban and country road systems, but on the whole, given a world perspective, things are not really so bad. The fact that so few are injured or killed each year, despite the attitudes exhibited by Australian drivers is testimony to that.
I live in Melbs South East. Due to the constant upgrades and road works everywhere out here, it wont matter what you set it at. It will take most of us 2 years to actually drive at the set speed linit anyway.
I live in the north, despite the speed limit being 80 where they're doing work everyone knows there's no speed cameras in place and does 100 anyway.
You could fund the government for the next decade by putting half a dozen speed cameras on that road.
It's quite dangerous too, the number of people weaving through traffic doing 20-30km/h more than the rest of the traffic (because there's always people looking for a turnoff doing 60-70 too). Consistency would matter more than the speed limit.
Start by abolishing 40km/h zones, and changing minimum speed back to 60km/h. Reverse all speed limit changes made to roads since at least 2010, if not 2000.
I would also stop the installation of speed bumps and earmark all speed bumps for removal at the next road resurfacing.
Areas with roads arranged in a grid pattern would have roadblocks removed.
Where practical, all intersections with traffic lights would be converted to roundabouts.
Why bother with increasing speed limits when Australia has the worst designed roads in all the first world countries. From the poor quality roads, the amount of traffic lights every few metres, the ridiculous number of changes in speed limits along the same stretch of road and again the design of our roads and motorways are embarrassing. I am particularly speaking from a Sydney perspective. They do not know how to allow for consistent traffic flow with traffic lights changing at the worst possible time which creates bottle necks etc. I could go on and on but what's the point.
What goes up and never comes down? Your age.
What goes down and never goes up? Speed limits on Australian roads
OP it’s not controversial because you say it is. Do you work for a media outlet?
lol no.
I wish I had a job to fine people who drive too slowly below the speed limit or hog the over taking lane. Only way to make bad drivers learn.
Every time I drive on a highway I wish I could do 130+, but then I see someone in their 1986 Commodore doing 110 with the steering shaking and looking like a decent sized leaf could turn it into a fireball and realise I'm not too worried about it.
I would like to see better driver training/testing though THEN increased speed limits. Once every 10 years you have to go for a half hour drive with an instructor. I imagine we'd have a lot less people on the road.
There are roads in Australia where the limit is too low, yes, eg the 80 and 90km/hr sections of motorway on my drive to work. There are roads where we could likely safely do >110km/h. I don't think there's any reason to increase urban area speed limits. 40-60km/h depending on the road is fine, and I don't think a bump up to say 70 would make any difference when your average speed is more like 30.
I believe that there are certain roads where the speed limit could be upped. For example, most regional freeways in NSW actually have 'design speeds' in excess of 130km/h, but the limit remains at 110 because that's always how it's been.
I believe that in NSW, a straight switch to a 130km/h speed limit could easily happen overnight on the Hume Motorway between Casula and Berrima and the Pacific Motorway south of Mooney Mooney and north of Gosford to Newcastle. There are also isolated sections of the Hume and Pacific which do not have at-grade intersections which I believe could warrant a 130km/h speed limit.
'Unlimited' speeds like the ones in Germany - I just can't see that happening. There are too many (profanity) idiots on the roads who would see 'UNLIMITED' and blast down a freeway at 200km/h+ without regard to the traffic levels on the road and safety. I think if it were implemented (and I think it'd only be suitable on the 130km/h roads I mentioned above), the police should have the power to use their discretion to determine whether someone is driving recklessly beyond 130km/h, AND drivers should face extreme penalties if they cause an accident which causes injuries due to their speed exceeding 130km/h (I believe this is done in Germany on the Autobahns). For example, I believe that if you are passing traffic in an adjacent lane, you should not be permitted to pass them with a differential speed of more than 20km/h.
Many people believe that the entire Hume Highway and upgraded sections of the Pacific Highway should be converted to 130km/h, but I just can't support it because there are flat intersections on these roads, which are dangerous enough already with 110km/h speed limits.
In urban areas I believe that there are only a few sections of road where the limit could be upped. I see a lot of lunkhead morons commenting online who want urban motorway speed limits to be abolished so they can drive their BIG TUFF UTES and V8s at 200km/h down the M4 legally.
Doesn't matter what the limit is, you'll always get someone that's doing over the limit as well as someone going 20 under.
Variable speed limits are the key.
Yes increased traffic and congestion encourages decreases to minimise risk, however each road has different traffic flow at different times. Many highways are now dual carriageway and new self drive / radar technology in vehicles will contribute to lowering Rick of traffic accidents.
People need to learn to (profanity) drive before doing anything about the speed limits. 2 lanes everywhere should be a must, especially on highways if it can be done, people are always in such a rush to get to the destination and you see so many accidents.
I would vote for unlimited speed.
But unfortunately, you can't have that because people are idiots.
Just drive on the Tulla and see how many idiots are on the road. Funny, because there literally always NO COPS, at all (where are they?).
So, we suffer with inconsistent speed limits due to stupid people.
Sigh.
too many suicide squad kangaroo on the road.
Although our city and suburban roads are modern, the 3rd world standard of driving needs low speed limits.
Some neutral comments.
Talking about higher speed limits in a suburban environment is pointless. Higher speed limits won't make for a reduced commute time in general as adjusting speed limits on certain roads will just exasperate bottlenecks elsewhere in the system. The key to managing traffic in a city is FLOW, hence the successful application of flow management technologies like on-ramp signals and variable speed limits. Drivers can also help with flow by not abruptly changing speed or changing lanes unnecessarily.
Trying to reduce fatalities in an suburban environment by reducing speed limits is almost pointless. Based on a quick review of the Vicroads crash statistics the rate of fatalities per crash in Rural Vic are three times as much as the rate of fatalities per crash in Metro Vic. It is also noteworthy that 50% of fatalaties are in a 100+km/hr zone. Digging further into the data for 100+ zones in metro (2.6% of crashes are fatal crashes) vs 100+ zones in rural (6% of crashes are fatal crashes) shows us where the speed related campaigns should be focusd. Though I haven't found any hard data to back this up, I think that in a suburban environment a majority of crashes are caused primarly by distracted drivers..just watch Dash Cams Australia to get an idea.
Of those persons who lost their lives in a car crash, 51% of those persons were in a single vehicle crash. And of those fatal crashes, 70% were in a 100k/hr+ zones.
Comparison to European style "autobahns" are ridiculous. Those european motorways are bespoke engineered totally seperated freeways made in dedicated tracts of land to connect large towns together. In Australia our national highways have evolved from whatever hodge podge of dirt track was once used to connect various gold rush towns to major centers. It is a major pain in the ass to drive from Melbourne to Adelaide along the main highways having to painfully make your way through big and small towns every 30 kms. Of course every two bit town along the way wants you to stop in THEIR town so the local shires imposes 50km/hr speed limits and install traffic lights. Although it's supposed to be a national highway there doesn't seem to be any federal oversight on this behaviour nor any consistency on what each state decides is the best way to 'upgrade' the highway for safety. Maybe what we need is a "National Broadband-Road Network" that replicates the entire national highway network in a brand new high tech freeway grade road that promises fast speed for everyone….oh wait.
Some form of lane changing is still required to evenly distribute the load amongst lanes.
While i agree that people who change lanes 6 times per minute in stop start traffic make it worse,
lane changing is still a good thing in moderation.