WEBBER CALLS FOR INCREASED SPEED LIMITS

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Originally Posted by alan48

I fail to see why limits should be increased and I believe they will not be for many reasons. Today vehicles are safer no question but there are also many many more on the roads ie traffic density is way above what it was and as mentioned many people now tend to drift along rather than really drive as we all had to do once--eg drive a true LR eg series and compare to a modern car that you can talk and it talks back. Then there is driver behaviour and the increase in aggressive driving behaviour that if speeds were higher would lead to even more crashes etc--try driving on the NSW M1 for a lesson in poor driving behaviour, tailgating, rushing up onto cars in front trying to intimidate/frighten them out of the way, weaving from side to side--and for what--just trying to show off. Sorry but such commentators needs to keep quiet and not chase a headline!

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I take it you have heard of the German autobahnen, French Routes National, Italian autostrada, USA Interstate network . All have speed limits (if any) far higher than ours and many millions more people live in these countries than here.. State of Nevada does not have speed limits except in built up areas except for a nominal unenforced limit of 80 mph on the Interstates. For congestion go drive in Los Angeles for a while. For rude and impatient drivers Italy sets the standard. Sydney traffic congestion is the result of too many people crammed into a relatively small land area. Perhaps one day a statesman may emerge who will take and shake the problem and ban private vehicles from certain areas except for service vehicles and bona fide residents. You want to go there? Get on the public transport.

Our speed limits are arbitrarily set by bureaucrats, politicians, police without regard to the prevailing circumstances. Exceeding the arbitrary speed limit is almost never the sole cause of an accident. Excessive speed in the prevailing circumstances may contribute to an accident. There are usually other contributing factors. Driver incompetence and driver stupidity are the main ones. There is a solution to these. Stricter testing to get a licence in the first place and re-testing every (say) 10 years. Tests to include a skid pad. Persons who have three or more tests to gain or regain a licence should be short listed for a follow up test at (say) two years. This will also cure congestion as about two thirds of drivers will fail the tests.

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Originally Posted by 87County

Madness? Doesn't Webbwer realise that roads are not F1 tracks.

Experts have pointed out that the road toll could be substantially reduced by having everyone reduce their usual speed by 10km/hr.

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Google Dr Michael Henderson
He's probably well and truly retired by now, but he's one safety expert that had an opposing view to that. ;)

If people were taught to drive and not merely pass a test...... [bigwhistle]

Higher speeds = higher fuel consumption = more pollution, Not to mention the extra carnage this will produce.
Seriously Guys with all the ****wits that are now on the road you want to allow them to drive even faster[bigwhistle]

On 4-6 lane divided high standard motorways where head on crashes are impossible I think there may be a case for a 130 kmh limit.
Elsewhere, no change, I think.

I would love to see them up the speed limits. Living in a rural area and driving on the highways to get from home to anywhere and back again, I would fully support the speed limit being raised. We're doing 100km/h on some pretty good roads with sweeping bends. The highways could very easily be 120km/h and I understand are designed for 140km/h. All the highways are doing these days is sending people to sleep beause nothing is happening very slowly. As already said, its amazing that years ago with narrow roads with broken shoulders and crests with cars that did't drive straight, accelerate or stop were fine at 100km/h and modern cars the authorities seem to think are no better, well around here, those shoddy back country roads still have the same speed limits as the highways.... 100km/h, and there is a very big difference in the roads.

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Originally Posted by rick130

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If people were taught to drive and not merely pass a test...... [bigwhistle]

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This is the problem.
Govt/VicRoads/local state roads dept in your state .. they know they can't do that(test everyone properly and expect them to pass!) .. how many millions in licensing and rego income would they lose if they actually forced people to know how to drive, or more importantly how to NOT drive)

Like the moron last week that bounced from one side of a wide three lane freeway to the other .. perfectly straight/flat road, proper wide verges nice weather .. not that much traffic around as an annoyance.

When folks can't drive on a dead straight multilane freeway with car width verges(effectively 5 lane road) and keep it on the straight and narrow .. last thing we want is them allowed to go any faster!

Halve it I reckon.
Slow it down to an almost dead stop.
Give a couple of years, hopefully get those idiots off the roads, and onto public transport or any other faster means of movement .. and then raise it to whatever you want.
Any increases in allowable speed now, until drivers are forced to know how to drive .. will see everyone bashing into everything without respect for it, because they've now all been brought up to think that life is just a video game! [bighmmm]

And don't get me started on mobile phone users while driving!

Just look at how the Germans teach people to drive vs how we do it.
They are even taken to the Autobahns and taught to drive at high speed, safely.
Oh, and it costs thousands of euros for the privilege to learn to drive.

I think they could definitely be increased on the free-ways, in theory up to 200kmh as they allow people to drive on single lane roads with no central barrier at 100kmh, therefore an approach speed of 200kmh, whereas a proper free-way with a central barrier or large run off area and traffic all going in the same direction should be much safer, as no chance for a head on collision.

Our freeways are not designed for a large increase. On ramps are not long enough in a lot of cases.....drivers already struggle to get to 110 to merge.

In NSW at least, most fatalities are in rural areas and are either single vehicle accidents hitting something solid or hitting something going the other direction. Speed limits seem to have little to do with it, as most of these drivers have ignored speed limits all their lives anyway.

Typically, the driver is a local, and under thirty-five, and these accidents are about ten times more likely to involve a driver above the legal alcohol limit than is found in random breath tests. And are likely to involve an unlicenced or suspended driver. And most of these accidents happen around midnight to dawn on Friday and Saturday night.

Freeways and other divided roads are far safer than undivided roads.

Of course there are well publicised accidents that don't fit this picture - like the one not long ago in my area where a semi drove into the back of a line of traffic stopped at roadworks without slowing - in broad daylight and good weather.

It is far from clear to me that driver education and testing is the major issue - most delinquent drivers know how to drive, they just think the rules don't apply to them.