Speeding On The M5 & M7

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Originally Posted by solmanic

You reckon?

I have to say that having travelled extensively, our road system is pretty damn poor! The only stretches of road we have that are built for speeds in excess of 110kph generally have too much traffic to be safe. Any two-way outback stretch of road which may be capable of sustained high-speed cruising only remains safe until the first bit of wildlife runs in front of you or a tyre blows-out.

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Yes, I do reckon. Main roads in the outback are now damn good. I can see no problems in increasing the speed limit from say Morven through Winton to 150-160, or Morven through Charleville. Wide straight roads, flat terrain, good visibility, light traffic, no houses or villages. When you consider I regularly brought cars from Sydney to Brisbane in the early 60's in twelve hours or less via the Putty Road and New England Highway. (twelve was the benchmark we were expected to achieve) and now with the speed limits you can barely do it any better with the cars and roads improved out of sight.

We obviously disagree then on what constitutes a suitable standard of highway for high-speed cruising. I don't think that Australia's outback highways are really all that safe for the kinds of speeds you are proposing.

The accident risk increases more than exponentially to the increase in speed. Here's just one example of this kind of study:
http://casr.adelaide.edu.au/ruralspeed/RURALSPEED.PDF

Take a look at the graph Figure 3.6 on page 24.

Even a perfectly formed rural road without traffic in Australia carries particular risks.
1. Most, if not all rural roads in Australia are not fenced for wildlife (I'm talking about roos here).
2. The extremely long distances people generally travel in Australia make drivers highly suceptible to fatigue.
3. The hot climate places additional stress on tyres thereby increasing the risk of blowouts.

The bottom line is that as speed increases, you are more likely to end up in the morgue than a hospital when something goes wrong. Keeping speeds down is more about managing the risk than the reality. Remember the lessons learned in the early days of motoring have resulted in better vehicle and road design and reduced the number of fatalities. Boosting speeds back up just because modern cars and roads are capable of it is certainly NOT going to reduce the road toll any further.

Conversely, I have seen a study in the US where raising the speed limit on a particularly long dull stretch of highway decreased the accident stats.

The police postulated that people got bored at the lower speeds and did other things that stopped them concentrating on their driving.

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Originally Posted by spudboy

Conversely, I have seen a study in the US where raising the speed limit on a particularly long dull stretch of highway decreased the accident stats.

The police postulated that people got bored at the lower speeds and did other things that stopped them concentrating on their driving.

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Scrabble is popular..

Oh well, in the not-too-distant future we will all be driving radar guided, cruise-controlled vehicles courtesy of Mercedes Benz trickledown technology. We will then have dynamic speed control where the car gets speed limit advice from external monitors and weather sensors which set the car to travel at the optimum speed for the prevailing conditions and magic sidelines which keep the vehicle on the road...

la la-la la-la :wacko: