I woke up this morning to those asswipes Kochie and Co with calls for 90kmh speed limit on Australian highways.

Here's my take:
We have one of the lowest population densities in the world... necessitating fast transport.
We have comprehensive vehicle compliance laws.
We some of the slowest speed limits in the world (Japan slowest, Europe and USA is 130kmh).

We have below average accident rates for kms traveled.
We have some of the best racing car drivers/bike riders.

We have some god damn motherfu**ers wanting to slow us down EVEN further!

WTF is wrong with these people? If people are having accidents, teach them how to drive!

I've driven all over the world USA/Europe/Asia/Middle East and we are by far the slowest of them all, except Japan, cos Japanese women can't drive (some cultural thing).

The people who want a max speed of 90kmh are the same c***s that want us riding bicycles, not eating meat, paying carbon taxes, drinking our piss, etc, etc...

Am I missing something?
Is the answer to a couple people dying, to slow right down so that you get so bored you fall asleep or start playing with your in-dash DVD player/GPS?

If I'm driving at 130kmh I have both hands on the wheel and I'm focused, telegraphing everyone's move, if the phone rings I aint answering it!

If I'm driving at 70kmh I have 1 hand on the wheel, I start to look around, change tracks...

I've only ever had 1 accident... while driving to the beach (kitesurfing)... I was going so slow that I reached over to get my gatoraid bottle from the passengers footwell... and bamn a little fender bender...

That accident was caused by me driving too slow, and I should have lost my license or at least got some points cos I clearly demonstrated my inability to drive properly.

But no, the retarded mother****ers took my license away cos I was going 90kmh down a country road with no intersection on a DOUBLE DEMERITS day.

The animal kingdom can master speeds in excess of 100kmh.
The rest of the world can master speeds in excess of 120kmh.

So we either declare ourselves too damn stupid to drive at normal speeds, we shut the f**k up speeding or we learn to drive at normal speeds!


352KmhPeregrine falcon
112KmhCheetah
98KmhPronghorn antelope
80KmhLion
80KmhThomson's gazelle
80KmhWildebeest
76KmhQuarter horse
72KmhCape hunting dog
72KmhElk
69KmhCoyote
68KmhGray fox
64KmhHyena
64KmhOstrich
64KmhZebra
64KmhMongolian wild ass
63KmhGreyhound
57KmhWhippet
56KmhJackal
56KmhMule deer
56KmhRabbit (domestic)
52KmhGiraffe
51KmhReindeer
48KmhCat (domestic)
48KmhKangaroo
48KmhGrizzly bear
48KmhWart hog
48KmhWhite-tailed deer
44KmhHuman
21kmhHuman in Sydney




The LDP have the right idea: www.ldp.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1165:traffic-laws&catid=101:policies&Itemid=290

I dunno. You don't make much of an argument for speed.
Driving in Aus is, as you say, a lot safer than some other places in the world but it still kills 1 in every 80 odd Australians.

"We have one of the lowest population densities in the world... necessitating fast transport."
Does not follow!

"We some of the slowest speed limits in the world (Japan slowest, Europe and USA is 130kmh)."
Double wrong. I think you will find that 110kph is almost exactly the average. In the US there are "a few roads" with speeds in excess of 70mph. Over 99% of roads in the US have speed limits less then 70mph. In Hawaii thelimit is 80kph There are no roads in the UK with legal speed of 80mph. Motorway speed in the UK is 70mph (112kph).

"We have some of the best racing car drivers/bike riders." Not only rubbish but totally irrelevant.

"That accident was caused by me driving too slow" - Nope, it was caused by your inability to concentrate on the primary task at hand.

"I was going 90kmh down a country road with no intersection on a DOUBLE DEMERITS day" - So, you were speeding on a double demerits day? If only there were signs on the side of the road telling you what the legal limit is, or at least we should know when the double demerits times are! - Oh they do!! And still you broke the law!

"The animal kingdom can master speeds in excess of 100kmh." And we cannot without a contrivance called A CAR. Imagine how fast a Peregrine Falcon could go if it could drive?

Sorry, but if reducing the legal speed reduces the road toll then I am in favour.
However I do not believe that speeding is the correct target, I personally believe that L and P platers need to be addressed first, followed by tired/drink.drugged driving, followed by regular retesting to maintain a high standard of driving.

JB

I would bet that 99% of people who die speeding are doing so very excessively, ie 150km/h + !! I also bet that people who do maybe 5 k's over the limit for a few seconds only because they did not glance at their speedo every 10 seconds, are the ones who get pinged by the revenue camera's and do not cause accidents or kill themselves!

from the NSW Centre for Road Safety


In NSW speeding is a factor in about 40 per cent of road deaths. This means around 200 people die each year from speeding in NSW. Speeding was a factor in the deaths of 874 people over the five years 2004 – 2008. In addition to those killed, more than 4200 people are injured in speed-related crashes each year.

Pretty interesting?

Formulanova - Following are the factors the are taken into account in NSW (according to the NSW Centre for Road Safety) to determine whether speed is a factor in an accident. I do agree with you however that it may not have been the root cause of the accident.
The way I see it is that in general there is never one specific cause of an accident, but rather an accumulation of events (poorly maintained vehicle, distraction, alcohol, speeding, road surface, adjacent vehicles etc). If any one of the factors is removed then it is possible that the accident may have been avoided. Thus if we can reduce the incidents of speeding we should be able to reduce the number of circumstances when people die? I do know that there is a totally unaccpetable extreme that this can be pushed to, but everything in moderation ;-)

------------------------------------

Speeding is considered to have been a contributing factor to a road crash if that crash involved at least one speeding
motor vehicle.
A motor vehicle is assessed as having been speeding if it satisfies the conditions described below under (a) or (b) or both.
(a) The vehicle’s controller (driver or rider) was charged with a speeding offence; or
the vehicle was described by police as travelling at excessive speed; or
the stated speed of the vehicle was in excess of the speed limit.
(b) The vehicle was performing a manoeuvre characteristic of excessive speed, that is:
while on a curve the vehicle jack-knifed, skidded, slid or the controller lost control; or
the vehicle ran off the road while negotiating a bend or turning a corner and the controller was not distracted by
something or disadvantaged by drowsiness or sudden illness and was not swerving to avoid another vehicle, animal
or object and the vehicle did not suffer equipment failure.

-----------------------------
JB

JayBee said...
Sorry, but if reducing the legal speed reduces the road toll then I am in favour.
JB

Banning cars from the road entirely would reduce the death toll. Are you in favour of that?

... are we stupid? The short answer is, yes.

There's all these deluded numpties that think that all the other drivers are the cause of the problem. If everybody was as good as them then we could all drive around really fast and be really safe.

The reality is that the speed limits are pretty much irrelevant. If you were good drivers you would patiently drive around and observe the conditions, including all the other drivers and the signed speed limits, and smoothly and calmly get to where you want to go with a minimum of fuss. You would not mind that you were driving slowly.

Statistically the safest drivers are middle-aged women. They calmly and carefully drive giving due regard to everything else happening on the road.

If you raise the speed limit all these self-styled skillfull drivers will still be pushing the limit and driving 5-10-15km faster than all the other cars on the road.

The roads are a system where all the machines need to be moving consistently and smoothly. Cars moving faster than others just creates conflict and bottle necks.

In my opinion speeding (and the need to get places fast) is one of the worst things you can do on the road. Not because speed kills (which it probably does) but because of the behaviours that follow.

If you speed you:
- end up tailgating the car in front.
- harrassing people until you get past.
- erratically changing lanes and pushing in from the blocked left lane.
- and conversely blocking cars trying to legitimately change lanes.
- chasing across the gap to the next pack where you repeat it again.
- runnning red lights because being held up is the thing you hate the most.

The argument that driving fast combats boredom is just insane. Once you get used to it you get just as bored and inattentive at 130-140-150.

Yes. Lots.

busterwa said...

I drive on the freeway everday it amazes me how stupid and dumb people are. they cant even drive in a straight line at the same speed.
There is trucks overtaking cars in the Right hand lane People can merge.

Some peoople should just jump on the spin dizwizzcap helmet bus insted of driving.
The slowest drivers are usually the ones who cause the accidents.
I hate to be a turck diver

Do we have a keep left rule? I dont think we do as nobody abides by it.

I would hate to drive a turck as well

last time we had a thread like this, Dude posted that his mum had been killed by a drink driver.

Are you so effective at managing your time and so time poor, that the only time remaining to you is time you can gain by driving at 100 kph instead of 90kph?

JayBee said...

dirtyharry said...

JayBee said...
Sorry, but if reducing the legal speed reduces the road toll then I am in favour.
JB

Banning cars from the road entirely would reduce the death toll. Are you in favour of that?

Nope, I never suggested or insinuated such. You, however are the one suggesting it. Are you in favour of banning cars from roads?

What you did insinuate was that you would support measures on the basis that they reduce the road death toll.

This is too narrow a view of the situation. At the end of the day, as long as people are driving around on the roads there will be a death toll. Aspiring to a death toll of 0 is unachievable and unreasonable.

The death toll probably (definitely?) would be lower if all speed limits were dropped by 10km/h. And even less if all dropped 15km/h. Hell, even less deaths still if all limits were slashed by 50km/h (meaning you'd actually have to reverse through 40km/h school zones at 10km/h ).

ginger pom said...

last time we had a thread like this, Dude posted that his mum had been killed by a drink driver.

Are you so effective at managing your time and so time poor, that the only time remaining to you is time you can gain by driving at 100 kph instead of 90kph?

So where do you stop? Do you reduce the speed limit from 100 to 90, and then to 80, and then to 70? What about 40kmh on the freeway, just to make sure you are driving safely? There might be an old lady driving with poor reflexes there, so we have to keep to the lowest common denominator.

If you are relying on speed limits to dictate the speed at which you go, whats stopping the nutbags that clump together in heavy fog or rain on freeways, but that are still traveling within the speed limit? A very dangerous situation, and seemingly not policed.

One realization that I seem to have come to (or made up, whichever suits) lately is that people in cities drive aggressively because the roads in cities are crap and not much thought appears to be put into the way they work. I think this makes ordinary people turn into people that are in a hurry because they are frustrated.

I suspect that motorists in Canberra are probably a little bit less stressed than those in Sydney or Melbourne.

FormulaNova said...
...
So where do you stop? ... so we have to keep to the lowest common denominator.
...

In real life things tend to naturally limit themselves at a point of diminishing returns. I don't think the most rabid road safety advocate would want to continually drop the speed limit.

FormulaNova said...
...

One realization that I seem to have come to (or made up, whichever suits) lately is that people in cities drive aggressively because the roads in cities are crap ..."
...

Some people drive aggressively because they have a sense of entitlement that they should be able to drive where they want as quickly as they want.

They haven't learned yet that if you slow down and drive defensively you get where you are going with less stress, use less fuel and less wear and tear on your vehicle.

I think that is the fundamental issue about speed limits. If drivers habitually obeyed speed limits and slowed down when necessary we would not have this constant need to lower limits to try and force people to slow down when it is necessary.

I do lots of country freeway driving and have inthe past accelerated away from the pack so I had some open space to drive in. Unfortunately that strategy means you are constantly catching up to the packs in front and you are constantly battling the road hogs in the right lane (both fast and slow road hogs).

I tried slowing down by 5k and dropping off the back of the pack and suddenly I never had to deal with anybody again. The packs disappear into the distance and once they are a good way off I can go back to the speed limit and cruise.

Now my only problem is cars that speed up and overtake then slow down in front of me. I can slow down to escape them but becomes a problem if I have cars behind me.

That's because they nag us to death. [}:)]

Just a thought , why not try having an extra licence category.
" high speed driver"
driver hs to have X years accident free , demerit free to qualify, then does special training and has to have his vehicle checked regularly. loses licence for any alcohol reading / speeding / dangerous/reckless stuff.
no passengers allowed?
having passed all the criteria he can now drive at 130kph on country roads posted as 110kph.

maybe a trial for a couple of years , so the statistics can sort out IF it is actually safe to drive at these speeds on our long country roads that are so ' ideal' for higher speeds

personally , after hundreds of thousands of k's on outback roads for work and pleasure , 110kph ,and 100 with a trailer is just right 130 is just too tiring to keep up with