FFS... when will it end?

[Bobman]

Inattentive drivers cause more accidents than speed or alcohol

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...01-661,00.html

Lol, now they tell us.

[oooooooooo]

Lowering speed limits just promotes road rage. People get impatient and try to pass other people obeying rediculously low speed limits. Then they crash and have their accident labelled as a "speeding accident". So what happens now? They lower the %^*((&^%$ speed limit again and it just gets worse. WAKE UP!
It always amazes me when they say women are the safest drivers based on how many accidents they have. How many accidents they actually 'CAUSE" is what it's all about. Problem is its hard to tally these incidents.

[Bobman]

Originally Posted by oooooooooo

Lowering speed limits just promotes road rage. People get impatient and try to pass other people obeying rediculously low speed limits. Then they crash and have their accident labelled as a "speeding accident". So what happens now? They lower the %^*((&^%$ speed limit again and it just gets worse. WAKE UP!
It always amazes me when they say women are the safest drivers based on how many accidents they have. How many accidents they actually 'CAUSE" is what it's all about. Problem is its hard to tally these incidents.

Can't agree more

Also see: http://www.roadwatch.com.au/forum/fo...s.asp?TID=1078

New breed of female hoon

www.camerascutcrashes.com.au may also be of interest.

[TUF_302]

Theres a section of highway here in tassie thats currently 70kmph, it runs near a school but isn't the actual road that the school is on, therefore doing 70 is safe, but they want to make it 50k an hour!, now during peak hour traffic the 70 limit is almost impossible to stick to but making it 50 would just casue more people to get fined, and slow traffic to much! :

[Silver Ghia]

Originally Posted by Bobman

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...01-661,00.html

Lol, now they tell us.

Yesss, they finally state the real reason, not the Vic TAC however who is driven by certain pressures, nor the Monash Accident Research centre who gets a major part of their funding from those same bodies.

They had it on Channel 7 news just then, along with female drivers also causing more accidents than before.

Has to be an insurance company however (AAMI) who reveals this fact.

[Silver Ghia]

They've now got the whole Bolte bridge and a section before it heading toward the Westgate Freeway at 80 kph instead of the 100 it was previously.

Admittedly there are roadworks happening along the Westgate freeway but that is a long way past this zone where conditions are unchanged.

Anyone travelling at 80kph would actually possibly cause a serious accident, not the majority of car and truck drivers going faster, but the authorities would say otherwise despite the speed restriction being totally unreasonable. I believe also that most drivers exceed the speed limit mainly for safety concerns if they travelled slower.

[stockel]

Yes it is a very scary day when you are relying on insurance companies for the truth :

[Bobman]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

They've now got the whole Bolte bridge and a section before it heading toward the Westgate Freeway at 80 kph instead of the 100 it was previously.

Yeah, 80kph increases the danger, as opposed to decreasing it.

They also reduced a good section of the Calder Freeway, past Keilor Downs to 80kph. Their reason was: "to alleviate traffic congestion". Yeah right :

[Silver Ghia]

Originally Posted by Bobman

They also reduced a good section of the Calder Freeway, past Keilor Downs to 80kph. Their reason was: "to alleviate traffic congestion". Yeah right :

Yeah, I was going to mention that also, travel along there every morning.

[Bobman]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

Yeah, I was going to mention that also, travel along there every morning.

Road toll is about a dozen up from this time last year in Victoria.

The road safety campaign is really working eh?

[Silver Ghia]

Originally Posted by Bobman

Road toll is about a dozen up from this time last year in Victoria.

The road safety campaign is really working eh?

Even with our safer cars that have the stability gizmos, ABS and airbags.

[drew`SEVNT5]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

They've now got the whole Bolte bridge and a section before it heading toward the Westgate Freeway at 80 kph instead of the 100 it was previously.

Admittedly there are roadworks happening along the Westgate freeway but that is a long way past this zone where conditions are unchanged.

Anyone travelling at 80kph would actually possibly cause a serious accident, not the majority of car and truck drivers going faster, but the authorities would say otherwise despite the speed restriction being totally unreasonable. I believe also that most drivers exceed the speed limit mainly for safety concerns if they travelled slower.

Is it?


I usually blast off up the Footscray Rd on-ramp to the top of 3rd gear then back off for the turn onto Westgate Fwy

[schnoods]

Originally Posted by balthazarr

I'm all for road safety, and getting idiots off the road. But at the same time, reducing speed limits, imho, will only serve to further dumb-down the skill level, attention-span etc. of drivers, increase road-rage incidents, etc.

Here's an extract from a recent MUARC report:

"Recent research suggests that there are still large benefits to be gained by introducing an “across the board” reduction of speed limits to 50 km/h on all types of urban and metropolitan roads that presently have a 60 km/h speed limit.
...
As a first step in this direction, the default urban speed limit on residential streets in Stockholm, Sweden has been reduced to 30 km/h. ... a growing interest can be noticed in Australia for similar speed limits to be introduced in order to meet the designated targets of the national Safe System approach and State and Territorial road safety strategies and action plans."

30 km/h? I drive over 70kms to and from work every day... maybe I should start walking.

More info here: http://www.monash.edu.au/muarc/reports/muarc276.html

I guess the getaway in stockholm movies did the damage.

[MITCHAY]

Even if the speed limit were 30km/h, I would not obey it :

[Windsor220]

So in the governments eyes, if someone gets shot and dies, then its the speed of the bullets fault? Not the psycho shooting the thing?

[DOC]

? There is no logic, every year new cars come out, improved performance, 1st gear 90 kph plus rady rady and at the same with each car improvement there is a speed reduction.

why the improvements ? we can only use half a cylinder and half a gear

[Supercharged]

Originally Posted by TUF_302

Theres a section of highway here in tassie thats currently 70kmph, it runs near a school but isn't the actual road that the school is on, therefore doing 70 is safe, but they want to make it 50k an hour!, now during peak hour traffic the 70 limit is almost impossible to stick to but making it 50 would just casue more people to get fined, and slow traffic to much! :

Sounds like Riverside, I find it interesting that most of the traffic congestion that they claim is unsafe is mostly School generated traffic at the student movement times, also there is no need for the students to cross the road at all as there is an underpass provided but they choose not to use it as it is not in their direct path direction and would cause a 30 second detour.
This has been raised with the school and the management refuse to do anything about it.

[GUTLES]

For the 6 weeks just near my work there doing road works where there putting a new housing estate in, for 2 km they've dropped it to 60km 24/7 & sometimes they even drop it to 40km whether there working or not & the cops are patrolling it. Its so hard to do these speeds when no ones there working :(

[Silver Ghia]

Originally Posted by drew`SEVNT5

Is it?


I usually blast off up the Footscray Rd on-ramp to the top of 3rd gear then back off for the turn onto Westgate Fwy

Been like that for about 3 weeks now. You're probably concentrating on the traffic too much, merging in, and changing to the middle lane to get on the Westgate to notice.
Less concentration on the traffic and more on your speedo and the signs. Naughty.

[Darkr]

30km/hr? Great! I'm going to have to drive with my foot on the brake rather then accelerator. Auto almost goes faster then 30km/hr in D!

[BOOSTDEF]

Reduce the flow rate -> Increase the Congestion.

Im sure they will realise that the revenue lost due to longer delivery times, travel, congestion.. will far outweigh the revenue gained by a few extra snap shots.

All about the $$.

[outback_ute]

Originally Posted by Bobman

They also reduced a good section of the Calder Freeway, past Keilor Downs to 80kph. Their reason was: "to alleviate traffic congestion". Yeah right :

That is the section where there are several roads intersecting the freeway isn't it? Outbound is 80km/h, inbound is still 100 but they have blocked access across the central median. Interesting at one of the roads there is space set aside for an overpass & proper on/off ramps. You can understand why there would have been lots of crashes as people try to cross a 3 lane 100km/h freeway!

[krt10]

the way i see it. if someone is going to speed, like to 150kph down an urban street then it dosnt matter if they lower the limit from 50 to 30. they are still going to speed.
all it is, in my opinion, is revenue rasing for the governmet from people doing 5kph over. just another quick fix which pi$$es off motorists

[Silver Ghia]

Originally Posted by outback_ute

That is the section where there are several roads intersecting the freeway isn't it? Outbound is 80km/h, inbound is still 100 but they have blocked access across the central median. Interesting at one of the roads there is space set aside for an overpass & proper on/off ramps. You can understand why there would have been lots of crashes as people try to cross a 3 lane 100km/h freeway!

No, I think the stretch you're talking about is between Melton Rd turnoff and Calder Park Raceway, thats been 80kph for a while now, outbound only as you say, Still has the two lanes with all the intersecting roads without the speedup lanes, except for a few that were closed off.

The section Bobman mentions outbound is between before Keilor Park Drive on ramp and Melton Hwy that is now three lanes, and also inbound from Green Gully Rd on ramp to the Keilor Park Drive on ramp, which is also now three lanes. There are no intersecting roads on the right side of these new 80kph sections.

When they opened these 3 lanes a few months ago, they reduced the speed limit to 80kph saying it makes the traffic flow better. The reverse is actually true by experience driving everyday on these roads where speed limits are reduced, it would actually cause congestion, if everyone obeyed the 80 kph limit. Its a farce.

I think the real reason for reducing the limit is that the emergency lane both ways have now been made the third lane, so there is now no emergency lanes along these stretches. The cheap way again of a half baked solution to the Calder "Highway" continuing shemozzle.

[Green X]

I wouldn't mind taking Harold Scruby and a few other twits from Monash for a tour of outback WA they can look at the roads and speed limits.

Can finish the tourer off with a close look at some abandon mine shaft's out the back of a adequateness Station or my mates old man's got a real neat well he's always telling his daughters boyfriend about LMAO.

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by DOC

? There is no logic, every year new cars come out, improved performance, 1st gear 90 kph plus rady rady and at the same with each car improvement there is a speed reduction.

why the improvements ? we can only use half a cylinder and half a gear

Buy a new Falcon. Speedo reads up to 260. So when you aer actually ising this guage they want you to onlyu use 20% maximum. Cars are designed will all the safety features, and are 1000 times more safer than 20 years ago, yet speed is reduced.

Now if you were to look at the big picture, posted speed isn't based on the cars we drive, it's a little on driver ability and mostly road condition.
Have a look at the uneven roads we have to drive on, no wonder they keep lowing the speed.

Originally Posted by LTDHO

Buy a new Falcon. Speedo reads up to 260. So when you aer actually ising this guage they want you to onlyu use 20% maximum. Cars are designed will all the safety features, and are 1000 times more safer than 20 years ago, yet speed is reduced.

Now if you were to look at the big picture, posted speed isn't based on the cars we drive, it's a little on driver ability and mostly road condition.
Have a look at the uneven roads we have to drive on, no wonder they keep lowing the speed.

Road condition you say?

Why is a single lane highway outside Melbourne a 110 zone where I have to contend with bush like roads, where the whole area stretching from the Burnley Tunnel to the West Gate bridge (a 4 or 5 highway) is all 80?

Oh that's right, it got brought down due to a crash in the tunnel, so they just lowered the speed limits of all nearby roads, whilst leaving the tunnel in questions speed untouched. All of this despite the fact that speed had nothing to do with the crash.

We need to vote this Vic Labor govt out. Bunch of friggin nit wits.

[outback_ute]

Thanks for the clarification Silver Ghia - I hope that change has happened since last time I was out that way! More likely I would have just thought the limit was dropped for roadworks...

Shounak - I see it as the 80km/h zone is because people can't merge & change lanes properly or with courtesy and impacting on the logjam created with traffic getting on and off the Bolte bridge, Kingsway and the tunnel within such a short stretch. I don't really care that it is 80, it only adds perhaps a minute to the trip after all, I only wish that proper driver education was introduced.