why are highway limits so low?

aussie muscle · 17-09-2013, 08:23 PM

From Jalopnik
This guy makes some good points in his rage against speed limits. His arguments are well thought out and is quite funny too. recommended viewing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=2BKdbxX1pDw

source:
http://jalopnik.com/this-is-the-best...you-1302382244

Spurious · 17-09-2013, 08:37 PM

Limits are low 'cause they're made by people with degree's who wear glasses & know better than the rest of us.
We, the general public apparently can't be trusted to decide things for ourselves.

335POWER · 17-09-2013, 08:45 PM

Or because the country roads are crapola!

csv8 · 18-09-2013, 12:07 AM

so they can raise revenue!!!

**Full Noise** · 18-09-2013, 05:24 AM

http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11404742

monte.b · 18-09-2013, 06:57 AM

How would anybody text at 130 when they have trouble at 100

kennyboy · 18-09-2013, 07:30 AM

coz we have to share them with drop-kicks & sh?? heaps

kennyboy · 18-09-2013, 07:46 AM

Oh & I forgot the roos & wombats

Mr Hardware · 18-09-2013, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlivverFord

Limits are low 'cause they're made by people with degree's who wear glasses & know better than the rest of us.
We, the general public apparently can't be trusted to decide things for ourselves.

About a quarter of australians have degree's (sic) and two thirds wear glasses. Perhaps they are the general public?

2011G6E · 18-09-2013, 01:57 PM

Once they bring in a system of licence testing that deals with the seriousness of what you are actually doing, then they can raise limits.

I mean, you might trust yourself at 120 or 130...but look around in any average days driving, and realise that those drivers you are shaking your head at will also be doing 120 or 130kph coming the other way...

Maybe have a testing system like Finland...three years to get your full licence, high speed driving, skid pan testing, all sorts of difficult situations and techniques are covered...I mean, if you're going to do it, do it properly...

Mr G8 · 18-09-2013, 09:53 PM

Nice find!

Sent from my GT-N7105T using Tapatalk 4

GCRXR6 · 18-09-2013, 11:11 PM

Gee .. here we go again .... the speed argument. OK ... Speed does not kill. But it's the sudden stop that does it. That's why speed limits are set at various limts in various places .. so our poor little bodies .. or those of the other person we hit .. stand a better chance of surviving. Yes Flivver Ford .. I wear glasses, and I have studdied my but off. Why? So I can go out at all hours of the flamin' day and night to scrape up those broken bodies and try like flamin' hell to save their life or limb before gettin' the buggers to hospital. The vast majority of RTC's I've been to, can be attributed to inappropriate speed in the circumstance/location. All, of course, are top notch drivers ... like many on this forum, who believe they are up to the job of driving faster than the posted speed. The great Peter Brock found that tree was not going to move ..... and that guy WAS a top driver. I can spend more time explaining to you how the sudden stop causes death ... but it's been shown before in educational TV ads .. but most think it's BS.

cro142 · 19-09-2013, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GCRXR6

Gee .. here we go again .... the speed argument. OK ... Speed does not kill. But it's the sudden stop that does it. That's why speed limits are set at various limts in various places .. so our poor little bodies .. or those of the other person we hit .. stand a better chance of surviving. Yes Flivver Ford .. I wear glasses, and I have studdied my but off. Why? So I can go out at all hours of the flamin' day and night to scrape up those broken bodies and try like flamin' hell to save their life or limb before gettin' the buggers to hospital. The vast majority of RTC's I've been to, can be attributed to inappropriate speed in the circumstance/location. All, of course, are top notch drivers ... like many on this forum, who believe they are up to the job of driving faster than the posted speed. The great Peter Brock found that tree was not going to move ..... and that guy WAS a top driver. I can spend more time explaining to you how the sudden stop causes death ... but it's been shown before in educational TV ads .. but most think it's BS.

Yep, you are spot on - inappropriate speed in the circumstance/location is the always the problem.

The thing is that sometimes an appropriate speed, given suitable location, conditions, vehicle, driver skill etc, is higher than the posted limit.

Sometimes lower too!

It works both ways.

NAK302 · 19-09-2013, 09:05 AM

insurance companies own us, so they dictate the terms of your life through a mob called government.

malazn mafia · 19-09-2013, 08:56 PM

Metro and suburban speed limits make sense. But who invented highway speed limits? My driving record expresses my massive contempt for 110 kph zones (and have paid for it accordingly and hold no remorse) but stick to all other suburban limits with no fuss.

cro142 · 19-09-2013, 09:11 PM

I too agree with the urban limits, but highway limits are too low.

If we had a 130 kmh limit on good open roads, we could sit at reasonable 120 to 125 without the ridiculous clock-watching we have to do now.

xisled · 19-09-2013, 09:48 PM

To me it makes no difference if the limit is 100 or 500. On my average day of driving I would be lucky to get to 80. I drive in peak hour bumper to bumper. The limit on the west gate freeway could be 500 but I would still be stuck doing 10ks. Instead of fixing the speed limit, I would rather the gov spend money on the road system to fix peak hour and the worry about the speed limit.

TC200six · 20-09-2013, 02:09 PM

If you look at an update on the 9 News Facebook profile today, you'll see nothing but fear mongering regarding a story about raising highway limits. They must think every little street in QLD will be increased to 140. I believe limits should be increased where it's safe to do so. The only road in QLD that comes to mind is the M1 from Beenleigh to Helensvale.

irish2 · 20-09-2013, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xisled

To me it makes no difference if the limit is 100 or 500. On my average day of driving I would be lucky to get to 80. I drive in peak hour bumper to bumper. The limit on the west gate freeway could be 500 but I would still be stuck doing 10ks. Instead of fixing the speed limit, I would rather the gov spend money on the road system to fix peak hour and the worry about the speed limit.

Maybe there are other people in Australia who do not drive only in peak hour, and would benefit from a higher speed limit preventing rolling road blocks.

Drive in any developed nation other than Australia and NZ, and you will see the speed laws and enforcement are quite different. They also have lower death rates.

doktoravalanche · 20-09-2013, 08:10 PM

Because Australia is the home of the "nanny" state!
Oh, and raising money through speeding fines.....

blackf6 · 20-09-2013, 08:16 PM

The limits are only as slow as you want to go. What are you scared of?

4stanger · 20-09-2013, 09:01 PM

After a massive road trip over the last 11 days, where We (wife & son) drove from Rockhampton the Leichardt, Newell, Monaro, Princess, Great Ocean Road, Western Freeway (Ballarat to Melbourne in pouring rain) Hume, Mid Western, Pacific, Bruce Highways through 4 capital cities back to Rockhampton again. Yes some sections of these roads are suitable for 110 km/h speed limits and some sections deserve more (& some were questionable).
Problem is the idiot factor, when people still think they can drive at 110 km/h when there is the risk of caravans, trucks & wildlife in poor conditions (dusk, dawn, heavy rain, fog, smoke) that can appear without any notice. The government has to set laws for idiots to;), gee I saw some occasional shocking driving on the highways during this trip, drivers using mobile phones struggling to drive within their lanes and the "old speed up in the overtaking lane" drivers who create frustrations & desperate overtaking moves.

mad cow · 20-09-2013, 09:12 PM

IMO the limiting issues here is the state of our roads and the average quality of our drivers.

also if anyone else here has hit a roo at 100kph then had to pull the car up while the roo kicks the hell out of the interior of your car you may see the sense in going at a sensible speed on country roads.
but in saying that im not a nark. I do drive over the limit where I deem it safe. but in all honesty a lot of drivers on our roads are incapable of good judgement in these areas.

LTDHO · 23-09-2013, 07:32 AM

Two reasons.
1) Our drivers have NFI and would more than likely still sit in the right lane doing 80!
2) it would go against all the the goverment has said regarding 'speed kills'. Yup, the drones will awaken to the truth!

shane3 · 23-09-2013, 09:24 AM

Our license testing is whats wrong, nothing more then a car park test and that's all, not once have I seen a "L" driver doing a test on the freeway or highway to see if they can actually drive at 100km/h (not kph!!!), 99% of people jump in there cars and turn off there brains.
Like in Germany we need to do driver training NOT "driving classes", who has ever seen some on get killed from doing a 3 point turn in a small back alley, or from parallel parking (then again most drivers can't even do this in a small car!), real world driver training not the B/S they try and pass as driver education.

mechanic · 23-09-2013, 12:51 PM

It's identical to the Gun Control argument, guns don't kill anybody without a human's finger on the trigger.

As with motor vehicles, quite safe until a human gets behind the wheel.

What revenue raising govts. don't want to acknowledge is the idiots who don't stop at level crossings, drive while drunk or drugged, drive while tired,take no notice of traffic lights, drive like they own both sides of the road and have very poor reflexes and absolute rubbish judgement.

Much more profitable to sit a cop on overtime in a van and pick off the average taxpayer doing 2 k's over the limit.

It's obvious from the penalties applied after serious car crashes that driving in a dangerous or negligent manner is OK as a lot of offenders walk away scot free even after causing the death of innocent people.

Trevor 57 · 23-09-2013, 04:07 PM

If you think that the road safety measures in Australia don't work, have a read:
http://www.photius.com/rankings/road...ings_2009.html

cro142 · 23-09-2013, 09:44 PM

I learned to drive in the mid 60's, as was trained by a very demanding teacher - my father. He drove about 75,000 km per year as part of his job, and drove mostly at around 130 kmh on country roads. He did this this safely for many years.

I was trained to do the same - I remember travelling many miles with him as a learner driver at the usual 130 kmh. I gradually learned to handle many many different driving skill scenarios. As an example I was often required to put 2 wheels, and sometimes 4 wheels, off the bitumen, and recover. I learned to do exercises like these without any hesitation or risk of likely loss of control. So often these days, the simple error of running a wheel off on to the gravel verge seems to result in a swerve, spin and roll outcome for so many drivers. Just a lack of experience and skill. There are many similar examples where lack of skills causes disaster.

Under strict supervision, I drove around 40,000 km on L plates (and before), including towing a caravan across the then dirt road Nullabor Plain, on L plates.

In that ~40,000 km I gained experience of every possible road condition and vehicle behaviour - night driving, wet weather driving on bitumen and muddy slippery roads, secondary roads, highways, freeways, towing, passengers, braking exercises, skids, slides, high speed cruising, high speed overtaking, trucks, slower traffic, sun-in-the-eyes, fog, rain etc etc. Oh, about 5% of my training was done in City Traffic - this was the easy part, as you just have to obey the rules and not crash. Really simple compared to the skill development needed for broader driving conditions.

Since then I have driven just over 2 million km without an incident or even a suggestion of loss of control of a vehicle. In the early 20 years, most of my driving was at around 130kmh, until the revenue-raising started.
I love driving, I practice driving as a craft, and I constantly strive to improve.

So, you can see why I am horrified by the low level of driving skills I observe on our highways, and why I am so frustrated at our current politically and revenue based approach to traffic management.

If only more drivers could have experienced my early driver training I think we could have 130kmh limits without a second thought.

A very frustrated driver here!!

NAK302 · 23-09-2013, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trevor 57

If you think that the road safety measures in Australia don't work, have a read:
http://www.photius.com/rankings/road...ings_2009.html

Too many variables in those stats to really make a point.

noflac52 · 24-09-2013, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cro142

I learned to drive in the mid 60's, as was trained by a very demanding teacher - my father. He drove about 75,000 km per year as part of his job, and drove mostly at around 130 kmh on country roads. He did this this safely for many years.

I was trained to do the same - I remember travelling many miles with him as a learner driver at the usual 130 kmh. I gradually learned to handle many many different driving skill scenarios. As an example I was often required to put 2 wheels, and sometimes 4 wheels, off the bitumen, and recover. I learned to do exercises like these without any hesitation or risk of likely loss of control. So often these days, the simple error of running a wheel off on to the gravel verge seems to result in a swerve, spin and roll outcome for so many drivers. Just a lack of experience and skill. There are many similar examples where lack of skills causes disaster.

Under strict supervision, I drove around 40,000 km on L plates (and before), including towing a caravan across the then dirt road Nullabor Plain, on L plates.

In that ~40,000 km I gained experience of every possible road condition and vehicle behaviour - night driving, wet weather driving on bitumen and muddy slippery roads, secondary roads, highways, freeways, towing, passengers, braking exercises, skids, slides, high speed cruising, high speed overtaking, trucks, slower traffic, sun-in-the-eyes, fog, rain etc etc. Oh, about 5% of my training was done in City Traffic - this was the easy part, as you just have to obey the rules and not crash. Really simple compared to the skill development needed for broader driving conditions.

Since then I have driven just over 2 million km without an incident or even a suggestion of loss of control of a vehicle. In the early 20 years, most of my driving was at around 130kmh, until the revenue-raising started.
I love driving, I practice driving as a craft, and I constantly strive to improve.

So, you can see why I am horrified by the low level of driving skills I observe on our highways, and why I am so frustrated at our current politically and revenue based approach to traffic management.

If only more drivers could have experienced my early driver training I think we could have 130kmh limits without a second thought.

A very frustrated driver here!!

You did all this without being forced to by legislation and have a level of skill that should be attained by all drivers. Things would then be sooo different.

It is the attitude that should be taught to all new drivers that rough enough isn't good enough. We don't necessarily need legislation we just need an attitude adjustment and a will to be better on the roads and the rest will follow as more people take on higher levels of learning and skills development.

I share the frustration that so many people just don't care until its too late and that most of them don't even know that they don't know what to do because it has never been brought up during their training as a driver.
Its often not the driver's fault because their trainers have never told them how bad they are so they think they are ok. Then tragedy strikes and they cannot avoid it because they have never been trained or were even aware that higher levels of training existed.

The concern I have is that one of them takes me out one day so like you I have attained a high skill level to hopefully avoid the situation when it arises. So far I have been successful and it saved me more than once. Its that split second difference in acting automatically rather than having to think about what to do that does the trick.

I share your love of driving and consider it to be a craft and also try to keep improving. You have a great attitude and we need more like mindedness on the roads.