Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

aardvark wrote:

seiko1 wrote:How's this then

Deep Ocean.jpg

How deep is that exactly?

Not very...there's too much light

I saw a thread with "common sense" in the title and Seiko was the last to post so I just had to look....

Q whats the solution ?

what really annoys me is when you are told by road-building engineers, that the Hume Highway section between Canberra & Sydney, is actually based on the smaller autobahns, and was designed for a safe travel speed of 130kmh. Almost the entire section between Canberra and Albury is the same now, and it will be a continuous length of dual-lane freeway within another few years. The entire Vic side of the Hume is already up to this standard...............and yet ............

..... the maximum limit is set at 110kmh....... WTF ??

Everyone denies that it is revenue-raising, when speeding fines are handed out at speeds that are less than the designed speeds on these same highways.... Clearly, there is something very very wrong with this picture.

Jase - nobody was suggesting that the entire country's road network had to be raised to 140kmh.....at all. The suggestion was limited to major roads around Melbourne and perhaps the Hume up to Sydney ?, and the reality is that the lengths of these roads is well within the boundaries of the map of Germany !!

There was also no suggestion that this country could support the sorts of highways that Germany has enjoyed since 1932, but the fact remains that the few highways we DO have, that COULD support a higher limit - exist right now ! No money needs to be spent to bring these roads up to some nirvana-like level of safety - the identified highways are already safe enough.

The greatest proof that higher speed limits save lives, used to apparent to anyone who lived in NT. For years, this place had unlimited speed limits and a low road-toll......but once speed limits were introduced there, the road-toll went through the roof !

Why is it that whenever the subject of *raising* the speed limit is introduced, the proponents are ridiculed ? Why is this question such anathema to so many ? Cars are far safer to drive these days than when the 110kmh limits were first introduced, drivers have better equipment to help them drive......the highways that exist *today* are far better than the single-lane goat-tracks we used to drive on.......there is nothing really that has not improved, except the speed limits which are a joke on dual-lane freeways like the Hume. There is also the tacit approval of low-level speeding by virtue of most HWP in NSW allowing a lee-way of 12-14kmh over the "limit" before they start booking drivers. Happens every day of the week. So the actual *limit* is around 125kmh anyway on the major highway in NSW, apart from the odd spot where the Revenue Camera's operate....

Slightly left-field here ......... why is Mad Sunday allowed at the IoM TT ? Normal speed limit suspended and basically a free-for-all allowed. Do the IoM authorities know something others don't ? And the mountain course is definiteley no autobahn.

6maniac wrote:Slightly left-field here ......... why is Mad Sunday allowed at the IoM TT ? Normal speed limit suspended and basically a free-for-all allowed. Do the IoM authorities know something others don't ? And the mountain course is definiteley no autobahn.

Maybe the IOM authorities ride bikes

Gosling1 wrote:what really annoys me is when you are told by road-building engineers, that the Hume Highway was designed for a safe travel speed of 130kmh...... the maximum limit is set at 110kmh....... WTF ??

Gos, I'm all in favour of increasing the speed limits on suitable roads. The road you speak of is a prime example. I honestly believe that we would manage just fine with a speed limit on these roads of 130 or 140, so you have no argument from me there. However, if we start looking at speeds much higher than that, then I strongly believe we need to improve driver skill and that raises a heap of other issues.

It's easy to call for speed limits on these sections of road to be increased, but I wonder what the statistics are in terms of fatalities on these roads versus other highways and freeways. I also wonder what Mr Skaife's opinion is regarding the further reduction of speed limits in residential areas is?

Gosling1 wrote:The greatest proof that higher speed limits save lives, used to apparent to anyone who lived in NT. For years, this place had unlimited speed limits and a low road-toll......but once speed limits were introduced there, the road-toll went through the roof !

I love it when people raise this point, and guess what, it's true... to a point. Let's consider this:
Year Fatalities
2002 55
2003 53
2004 35
2005 55
2006 44
2007 57
2008 75
2009 31

Speed limits on the NT highways were introduced in January 2007. So, 2007 was hardly through the roof. Admittedly 2008 wasn't a good year, but looking just a little further back we'll see;1998 (69), 1996 (73). What I would like to see are the numbers of fatalities in the last few years that occurred on roads that previously had no speed limit.

In most cases speed isn't the cause of a crash. However, it certainly has an effect on the outcome of that crash.

6maniac wrote:Slightly left-field here ......... why is Mad Sunday allowed at the IoM TT ? Normal speed limit suspended and basically a free-for-all allowed. Do the IoM authorities know something others don't ? And the mountain course is definiteley no autobahn.

There are limited parts of the circuit where the speed limit has been removed. In these sections bikes are only allowed to travel one way and chicanes are put in place to reduce speed and filter bikes down to single file.

Granted .... it is a limited section of the total circuit, but you have cars, CAMPERVANS , and bikes mixing it with each other with left and right side passing at vastly differing speeds, with the plod looking on seemingly uninterested.

6maniac wrote: with the plod looking on seemingly uninterested.

They're waiting for someone to die so they've got something to do for the rest of the year.

Oops, nearly broke my own rules there, so better add something else. The authorities there don't know something that the rest of the civilised world don't. The fact is that there are plenty of crashes on Mad Sunday, but the authorities love are reluctant to call it quits because of the number of tourists it attracts.

I agree too that limits on some hwys could be lifted 10 or 20 ks, but I dont think that newer cars, especially for young drivers is the anwser. ABS and traction control helps the car stay in control at normal speed, when a young person is being an idiot, and I'm as guilty of this as anyone back in the day, and trying to get sideways ect then Tc will help them leave the road at a higher speed, late model poverty pack commos and falcons are quick cars, nearing 200kw, remember when a HSV with 200kw was the shit hot car. maybe young drivers are better off in weezy ill handling HQs and XDs. And buy their there own first bloody car, they may have a bit more appreciation for it then.

I tend to believe that the speed limits are unofficially raised anyway. Anyone who lives in western Sydney and uses the M4 will know that during peak hour on the way out west if you arent doing at least 130 you are holding everyone up. Yet you very rarely see the plod setup with radar or pulling people over. Same with M7, it's a 100 zone but the general traffic speed is around 120, and more like 130 during peak hour in places.