130km/h speed limits

I'm with JDNSW on this one.

I'm mildly amused by how much of the conversation is about keeping in the left lane unless overtaking.

Some of us spend most of our lives driving on roads where there is only one lane each way. Some of us even drive on roads where there isn't even a lane each way. There is just the one lane.

I wonder how some of the posters here would manage on the back road through the snowfields from Inverness to Edinborough. It has just the one sealed lane with pull-off bays every several hundred metres. Many of the streets in Inverness became a single lane as soon as cars parked on one side of the street.

When I was there in 2008, I was determined to demonstrate that I was a thoughtful, considerate driver and tried very hard to be the one that pulled over to let approaching vehicles pass. However, I never had the chance. The driver coming the other way was always even more considerate than I was and pulled over to let me pass before I had the opportunity.

I wonder how many of the impatient drivers here would survive there.

On a slightly less provocative note, I believe that there was a significant improvement in the level of compliance when the the wording was changed many years ago on the signs used on overtaking lanes. Apparently people did the right thing more frequently when the wording was changed from, "Slow vehicles keep left" to "Keep left unless overtaking".

There's a difference between back country roads and multi lane freeways.
I have the good fortune ( :huh: ) to drive both fairly regularly.
And yes, there's not a lot you can do on small, single lane country roads.
You wait for an overtaking opportunity and you take it.
But the whole idea of the freeway is a multi lane, high speed limit road.
If people treat the system appropriately, it's fine.
Slow vehicles in the left, average speed vehicles in the middle, overtaking in the right (assuming 3 lanes).
It's when you get people who think that a freeway is a free-for-all and don't follow the system that it becomes not only frustrating but bloody dangerous.
Trying to avoid being pasted into a wall because the truck decides he doesn't like you trying to get past him when he sits at 70km/h in the middle lane isn't fun.
IF people actually used freeways as they're supposed to be used, 130km/h wouldn't be an issue.
And I'm slightly skeptical about people who want the limit raised. I wonder how many more will keep their hand up if they have to go back and re-take the license test or something similar.

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Originally Posted by Disco Muppet

And I'm slightly skeptical about people who want the limit raised. I wonder how many more will keep their hand up if they have to go back and re-take the license test or something similar.

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I think if the test was even somewhat relevant to daily driving then it would be a great thing.

In my test I didn't do over 60k's, nothing about open road driving is even included.

I fail to see how it can be a 'driving test'.

Education is the problem here, look at all the Muppets on the road :p

Cheers
Will

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Originally Posted by vnx205

I'm mildly amused by how much of the conversation is about keeping in the left lane unless overtaking.

Some of us spend most of our lives driving on roads where there is only one lane each way. Some of us even drive on roads where there isn't even a lane each way. There is just the one lane.

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Maybe that is because the topic of the thread relates to freeways and not back roads.

I'd agree, like I said driver "education" these days is about two things:
- repeating that speeding is bad, m'kay
- how to pass the test
Nothing about changing a wheel, using your hazard lights, nothing really practical.
My point was, how many people will still be keen when they have to pay for the privilege?

i would be happy to retake the test and have to retake it every 2 years

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Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

The last derestricted road out of Sydney was the Putty Road and in 1970 the speed limit signs went up. The derestriction signs in NSW meant the previous speed limit no longer applied and the driver was expected to drive at a safe speed in the prevailing circumstances. Police could and would, in the absence of a speed limit, charge drivers with driving at a dangerous speed or in a dangerous manner. The defence of "not so" was available to the defendant who was required to prove he/she was a competent experienced driver accustomed to driving at speed. Members of motor sporting clubs commonly employed competition experience as proof of competency.

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It's interesting the same sign meant different things in different states.
At the time in Vic, had a NSW diver been following the NSW law and been driving at, say, 80mph and was booked, he would not have been able to get out of it no matter how much racing experience he had.

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Originally Posted by garrycol

Maybe that is because the topic of the thread relates to freeways and not back roads.

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Perhaps, but only a tiny proportion of Australia's main roads and highways are freeways. In many places we look forward to when the road might get sealed, let alone an overtaking lane or divided road!

And isn't this Australia the normal provenance of Landrover drivers?

John

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

Perhaps, but only a tiny proportion of Australia's main roads and highways are freeways. In many places we look forward to when the road might get sealed, let alone an overtaking lane or divided road!

And isn't this Australia the normal provenance of Landrover drivers?

John

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It's taken 50yrs to get a 4 lane carrage way from Sydney to Albury and over 50yrs to get from Sydney to just past Port Macquarie, and then there's the notso Great Western Hwy:eek:

So don't hold your breath everyone in NSW, there's at the least, 50 more years to go before you'll be able to drive to Brisbane on a dual carrageway:(

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Originally Posted by Redback

So don't hold your breath everyone in NSW, there's at the least, 50 more years to go before you'll be able to drive to Brisbane on a dual carrageway:(

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Means I've got 50 years to come up with another excuse as to why I don't want to go to Brisbane :D