130km/h speed limits

If the speed limit is raised to 130kph, does that mean that we have to drive that fast? I thought you drove to a speed which matched the conditions and your own skill level. That's how I drive anyway.
Sometime this means doing just 30kph in a 100kph limit, and sometimes I know I could be running at 150kph with no issue.
Trouble is that we legislate to the lowest common denominator, bypassing natural selection.
By the way, I used to do 150kph on a single carriageway with my left hand mirror in the hedge as the road was so narrow. I did that for 4 years as my daily commute in the UK. Imagine that here....

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Originally Posted by Eevo

theory is sound :)

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Don't know about sound,,, but damn funny,, :D

Well, when I had a "car", as in Falcon, and then in the D1 V8, I'd happily sit on 125 constantly travelling up the Hume, even had police pass me at that,,, its amazing how awake you suddenly become when that happens :eek: I still managed to fall asleep at the wheel :(

As others have said, probably one of the biggest problems here in Aus is the crap drivers we have here. I'm sure 3/4's of us don't know the rules to start with. They don't know how to keep left, they cant merge, they cant even hold speed, and considering how many cars have a "tool" for this last point, it just annoys the crap out of me. And then there seems to be a huge percentage of people who are just so indecisive as to what/when to do anything involved with general traffic rules concerns me greatly too.
So stupid too, is as previously mentioned as well, lack of mirror use. I remember distinctly being told by a taxi driver when I was on my Learners, that he and most of the professional drivers probably spent 70% of their time checking mirrors. Dad confirmed this, although he didn't think it was quite that high, but every bit as important.

130 for these people,,,, NO WAY

And besides,,, who's going to pay for my Defer to be made "speed friendly"? :eek:

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Originally Posted by Chops

...
As others have said, probably one of the biggest problems here in Aus is the crap drivers we have here. I'm sure 3/4's of us don't know the rules to start with. They don't know how to keep left, they cant merge, they cant even hold speed, and considering how many cars have a "tool" for this last point, it just annoys the crap out of me. And then there seems to be a huge percentage of people who are just so indecisive as to ...
130 for these people,,,, NO WAY

And besides,,, who's going to pay for my Defer to be made "speed friendly"? :eek:[/SIZE]

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Doesn't that just top off some drivers, I click the D4 onto cruise at 110 by the GPS and sit back, left lane overtake on right.

You come up behind and pass another driver (to use a polite term) whos been travelling 8-10KPH below the limit. Immediately you pass he's on your tail to get around and when he does, he goes back to his previous speed. And I havn't touched the accellerator for 100km.

:confused:

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Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Doesn't that just top off some drivers, I click the D4 onto cruise at 110 by the GPS and sit back, left lane overtake on right.

You come up behind and pass another driver (to use a polite term) whos been travelling 8-10KPH below the limit. Immediately you pass he's on your tail to get around and when he does, he goes back to his previous speed. And I havn't touched the accellerator for 100km.

:confused:

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I had an audi Q7 Driver do something similar.
In between Orange and Bathurst there are lots of overtaking lanes, most on hills.
Old mate would trundle along nice and slow, then as soon as it got to the hill he'd cane it.
Now I understand having to accelerate to maintain a speed up a hill, but screaming along so no one can overtake is a bit different.
So then I had the audacity to overtake him.
He sat about a metre behind me for a good 8ks, ignoring overtaking lanes before cutting me off at the very end of an overtaking lane.
So naturally, I returned him the favour.
It's funny how people react differently when a lifted 4WD sits close behind you.

Mick 70 mph is 112 kph:eek:
So using your assertion are you any less dead at an impact speed of 110(69mph) or 130?
And those dang statistics always seem to wreck a theory, you know the one where road fatalities INCREASED in the NT after speed limits where introduced!

130km/h on many outer country roads (long straight sections, few trees, daylight) is perfectly safe so long as you're not sharing the road with idiots. So the government will always take the cheap option, holding down speed limits instead of educating stupid drivers.

My favourite peeve on our local freeway is when you are travelling at the limit of 110, you see a truck and sundry vehicles trolling along in the left lane at 60, you indicate and pull out in plenty of time and at the last moment the idiot at the back of the queue pulls out because it wants to travel at 70. Until people like that are banned from the open road a 130 limit is madness.

Then there's the sort that travel at the same speed everywhere, regardless of limits, visibility or hazards. They are completely impervious to variable speed limit signs and are sometimes involved in dreadful pileups because of total dipstickyness in the face of danger. What use is a raised speed limit for this lot? A self drive Google car would be a safer bet than letting these morons continue to hold a licence.

The hume in general is 130 safe. But in winter around here it can be dangerous at 80 with thick fog. Often I will push myself to keep up to 80 knowing that the nut overtaking at 110 or higher only just missed rear ending me.while I will come up on a truck going slower.
I have even overtaken trucks to then pace them from in front so I have protection from a rear ender in the fog.

In good weather the hume could be 130.

But then there has been almost 1 fatality a week recently even in good conditions. A couple were fires and obviouse sleeping drivers but some you are just wondering how.

we only live 300 or so km from the city so not huge distance to travel but still
As fuel rises i find i now drive slower and just allow more time. Vmax of a 100kmh vs lets say faster. Works out to save about $30 on a Ctn to Cns trip. ? ? And only adds 20 minutes or so.

130 limits would be expensive at $1.60 a litre?

S

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Originally Posted by roverrescue

we only live 300 or so km from the city so not huge distance to travel but still
As fuel rises i find i now drive slower and just allow more time. Vmax of a 100kmh vs lets say faster. Works out to save about $30 on a Ctn to Cns trip. ? ? And only adds 20 minutes or so.

130 limits would be expensive at $1.60 a litre?

S

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we should be given the option.

if you want to do 100 (and stay in the left lane) we're not going to stop you.

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Originally Posted by Disco Muppet

I had an audi Q7 Driver do something similar.
In between Orange and Bathurst there are lots of overtaking lanes, most on hills.
Old mate would trundle along nice and slow, then as soon as it got to the hill he'd cane it.
Now I understand having to accelerate to maintain a speed up a hill, but screaming along so no one can overtake is a bit different.
So then I had the audacity to overtake him.
He sat about a metre behind me for a good 8ks, ignoring overtaking lanes before cutting me off at the very end of an overtaking lane.
So naturally, I returned him the favour.
It's funny how people react differently when a lifted 4WD sits close behind you.

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For a while while we were starting a wholesale icecream business I drove for the family. We had an old ACCO 1830B with a Neuss diesel that had trouble pulling the cream off a custard tart. Cars would sit on their brakes at 80K down 100kph hills, do the same along the flats but go fast enough that it wasn't safe to overtake and then when you got to the long winding hill they'd take off while to old ACCO was two gears lower than it should have been had it had the 100KPH run at the hill.