Melbourne Academic proposes Some Country Roads be cut to 80km/hr!!!!!!!!!!

[Silver Ghia]

Originally Posted by XR6TCraig

There is no need to drop limits at all. The speed limit is the maximum you are allowed to drive to, not the bare minimum that you must travel at.

Instead just do the following instead.

1) Teach people to drive properly, to assess conditions and keep there eyes and concentration on the road instead of just sitting on the limit because the sign says you can do that speed. Also teach them about fatigue management. This is the biggest killer on country roads.

I agree on this. Years ago we were taught to drive according to conditions. We slowed down when necessary, whether it was a poor section of road, if it was raining or dark, entering traffic etc. etc. These days it seems the speed limit is being lowered more and more to suit the worst possible dangers on the particular section. Rather than teaching drivers how to drive properly. Years ago just about all roads had broken edges, we were taught to straddle these edges and learn the dangers of them.

Example of ridiculously lowering speed limits is the Melton Hwy between Leakes Rd and Melton, its now 70kph!!! It was 100kph, then 80, and now 70, for a section of road that is virtually unchanged over this time!!! Don't people know how to drive anymore???

[mickcoz]

Originally Posted by trublu

About time on some of those roads in Wyndham, speed to high in built up areas.

Cheers.

Do you really think dropping Heaths rd and Hogans rd, both two lane dual carriageways, to 60kms is realistically going to reduce road incidents; how many accidents or whatever on those roads are attributable to the speed limit being above 60kms.

I'll lay money on it that we'll see lots of speed cameras and not much, if any, reduction in road incidents.

[KiwiKilda]

Don't agree with it

hey that's all I do on the goat tracks

I mean country roads and not so busy high ways

but 70 is better

save gas
save tyres
save brakes
no tickets
pass all the lead feets at the station
filling up again?

if ya wanna do 110 in the wet like everyone
was doin on the way back from Marlo
jest pass me

[KiwiKilda]

the speed limit thing is a guide isn't it

Horses for Courses
I was driving on roads up the snowy river country
that had an 80km speed

I did 60km max
steep drop off into a gauge if ya miss calculate one of them turns
and then the gravel roads holey

jest wanted me brakes n all nice and cool for...
anything real dodgy

there was this bit as you climb out
kind of one lane
rocks face on one side
cliff on the other

jest kept it at 20km till i got outta that
and didn't look down

Best drive Heaps of Fun
Don't like braking on Gravel

[Franco Cozzo]

Meh, I was haulling *** down the Pyrenees Highway today at around 125km/h with just me on it, and its a single lane each direction country road, 100km/h speed limit.

I died a horrible death, this is my ghost posting this obviously.

There are multiple 100km/h DIRT ROADS around the corner from my house, which people travel on every day to and from their homes and they arent dead.

Academics are about on the same level as accountants IMO (Offence intended to any Accountants), think they know better than everyone else until it all turns to ****. His latte sipping *** has probably never been outside of Melbourne suburbs, and he probably thinks Sunbury is out in the sticks.

Take him from his university and put him in Melton and let him preach there.

[MercurySilver]

ohh
so it'll be like SA then?
especially the Barossa

no idea out here
none what so ever

[CyberWasp]

Lets reduce the speed limit to 5kph and all tie pillows to our bumper bars and frilly cushions to our doors. That way no one can ever get hurt.

[OCTANEBOSS]

I think the general consensus is that there is a bloody lot of people out there who do not understand the basic principles of safe driving & a few that should never be given a licence. Tailgating before overtaking, not checking ya blind spot, speeding up at the wrong times instead of the right times, pulling out into traffic that is doing a 100 k/ph so everyone has put on the anchors, no idea on how to merge lanes, cant understand the signage, white line fever, talking on phones, being a general co**head, ignorance, inpatients, list goes on. Scared the sh** out of me last year when I had the pleasure to drive in Vic again. Not much different to most of the big cities to be honest. **** the city limits are looking more like Echuca every time i come home. Speeding at 80 k/ph will still kill if ya fall asleep. My oldman always told me when I was learning to drive. "Remember you have to drive for every other **** on the road"

[KiwiKilda]

Meh, I was haulling *** down the Pyrenees Highway today at around 125km/h with just me on it, and its a single lane each direction country road, 100km/h speed limit.

I died a horrible death, this is my ghost posting this obviously.

<
But the reality is when coming into Melbourne when it was peeing down
with rain and absolute max should have been 90kmh
with extra space for stopping

What was everyone doing 110km + cos the sign says so
all bunched together monkey see monkey do

and there were packs of lemmings with what 10-20 metres between them
and then the souped up retard did the tail gate overtake and race away
at 120km/hr +

it was fascinating to observe as I left them to it

My objective after a great holiday is to get home in one piece

it was a public holiday it was raining
What is everyone in a hurry to get back to work or something?

Safe driving is really an attitude or habit

Here's something if you are letting people pass
let em do it within the ...... speed limit

I drop to 70k that gives speed freak in a hurry
30km/hr to pass safely now

if you can't calculate distance or control your vehicle enough
to pass safely at the ......
speed limit....

maybe your should slow down and ....
relax but do not fall asleep

What is your est stopping distance at 110km in the wet

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by mickcoz

Do you really think dropping Heaths rd and Hogans rd, both two lane dual carriageways, to 60kms is realistically going to reduce road incidents; how many accidents or whatever on those roads are attributable to the speed limit being above 60kms.

I'll lay money on it that we'll see lots of speed cameras and not much, if any, reduction in road incidents.

As I said, built up areas in which the speed on these roads were dropped from 70 to 60 kph, no big deal.... the push came from the residents themselves complaining of serious accidents involving death, try reading your own local newspapers.

[BPXR6T]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Meh, I was haulling *** down the Pyrenees Highway today at around 125km/h with just me on it, and its a single lane each direction country road, 100km/h speed limit.

I died a horrible death, this is my ghost posting this obviously.

There are multiple 100km/h DIRT ROADS around the corner from my house, which people travel on every day to and from their homes and they arent dead.

Academics are about on the same level as accountants IMO (Offence intended to any Accountants), think they know better than everyone else until it all turns to ****. His latte sipping *** has probably never been outside of Melbourne suburbs, and he probably thinks Sunbury is out in the sticks.

Take him from his university and put him in Melton and let him preach there.

The Pyrenees is a good road. Try that on the Sunraysia beyond Swanwater for some fun. It's lethal. If driving to conditions you'd be doing 80kph, but then you'd have cowboy grain trucks running you off the road. When is the government going to pull there finger out and fix the roads. Fix means resurface, not fill in potholes leaving loose rocks everywhere. Lost two windscreens last month after the road crews pathetic efforts.

[cheap]

Originally Posted by efirestorer

The last time I was in Germany ( 2005 ) ALL secondary roads were 80 KPH with down as low as 30 KPH in villages . Autobahn different of course , wonderful to be able to travel at whatever . Obviously , the academic , has stirred the pot for the rev heads , but I agree with him that 80 KPH is a sensible limit for some roads.

Last time I was in Europe there were 250+ million people, now 300+ million. All crammed into a land mass smaller than OZ with vast tracts of unusable/uninhabited land.

There are villages upon villages all located short distances from one another, it isn't like the huge uninhabited areas our small population has to live with.

Comparing Europe's situation and imposing the same here would not make lots of sense.

[Nashy86]

They have already done this in some areas of gippsland (south gipps anyway). One example is a fairly windy stretch of road that used to be 100, but on most of the corners you're braking to under 80, sometimes under 60. In between corners you could speed up a bit but you were nuts if you tried to sit on the limit through the turns.
Now there is a long section of that road they have brought down to 80 and one particularly twisty section with a steep drop off that has dropped to 60.

In the 80 section there are plenty of spots where it is safe to do 100 between bends without driving like an idiot, however there are an alarming number of people who enter the next bend too fast and cross the double white line. I think that is what they are trying to stop. There have been a few incidents in the last few years where bikes have done the same and met either a car or milk tanker on the blind corners (usually both at fault for both being too close/over the double whites). This comes back to driver education as others have mentioned - people believe it is ok to put their wheels upto the black part of road between the white lines, regardless of mirrors etc hanging over, because this is "my side" of the road.

I remember maybe 10 years ago when this road suddenly became littered with yellow and black arrows on every corner to tell anyone who wasnt paying attention which way the corner went. These were accompanied by a recommended speed, which i can understand being there to assist non locals who don't know the road. These were a much better idea.

[malazn mafia]

Academics: People who need to get a real job and experience the real world, not hide behind a textbook all day and imagine what reality is like....

[ryeman]

So let get this straight,
Your perfectly happy with your daughter being driven at the limit on poor narrow roads by an 18 year old P plater who think anyone who slows down is a p......?.
Of course from the P platers point of view......

[jmack]

[QUOTE=

Example of ridiculously lowering speed limits is the Melton Hwy between Leakes Rd and Melton, its now 70kph!!! It was 100kph, then 80, and now 70, for a section of road that is virtually unchanged over this time!!! Don't people know how to drive anymore???[/QUOTE]

and they have just fixed up this road thru the dip as well,dont even get me started on the calder as well from green gully rd.monash uni ,professional students,k***bs that will publish anyting to keep tac money rolling in so they dont have to get out in the real world and get a proper job and their hands dirty

[KiwiKilda]

with Victorias "Weather" I'd hate to be in charge of fixing roads
those "pot holes" can appear over night where you may not expect them
2 hands on the bl oody wheel

Did Wilsons Prom last year - J e s u s

I probably drove that windy bit you are talking about me driving style
meant I only tapped brake for the tight corners

The technical advantages of dropping to a cruise speed below speed limit are

less braking $
less fuel $
theoretically safer

the other things is those dips etc where you can go
over speed limit with no effort and get zapped by a camera

if you are always hugging the limit it is so easy
to get 10km/h over it then you have to brake

Victorias road toll was low last year - why ?

[jmack]

well according to the state revenue collecting service(police) it nothing to do with safer cars and advanced tech but all to do with fines

[Spinner77]

A passing cockatoo just told me that the Monash Accident Research Centre not only receives funding from the State Government, but critically depends on that funding for its existence.

So, if true, you can decide whether the Centre is an independent, scientific body; or a propaganda arm of the of the State Revenue Office.

The judgment is entirely a matter for you.

http://youtu.be/Kyos-M48B8U

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by efirestorer

The last time I was in Germany ( 2005 ) ALL secondary roads were 80 KPH with down as low as 30 KPH in villages . Autobahn different of course , wonderful to be able to travel at whatever . Obviously , the academic , has stirred the pot for the rev heads , but I agree with him that 80 KPH is a sensible limit for some roads.

The non-motorway speed limit in Germany is 100, in Czech Republic 90. Town speed limits are generally 50.

BUT

Towns and villages are quite close together over there, they don't have the long distances between settlements that we do. Nevertheless, they too would be pretty peeved if some academic talked about reducing the limit to 80.

They are pretty careful about those non-motorway speed limits though, particularly in towns. Generally though they rely on peoples' common sense. For example, Czech police will accept speed over the motorway limit (130) of up to 150 before they are likely to take action. But over there they don't have academics telling them "speed kills", they know there are other more significant causes. A little different from the "1 km/h over" attitude here.

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by cheap

Last time I was in Europe there were 250+ million people, now 300+ million. All crammed into a land mass smaller than OZ with vast tracts of unusable/uninhabited land.

There are villages upon villages all located short distances from one another, it isn't like the huge uninhabited areas our small population has to live with.

The population of Europe is about 750 million and the area is not too different from Australia - but your second paragraph is generally correct until you get to some of the "outskirts" where it's exactly like Australia.

[Spurious]

This newspaper article is simply inserted to increase circulation.

[KiwiKilda]

The real question is
what is your stopping distance
80
90
100
110
km/h
from those you can determine what is "safe"
and what distance does wet roads add to those

you can talk theory but if you want to talk practice
and test your theory
on a clear road
take it to 110km do an emergency stop
and let us know what happens and if you can
control it

it is all "academic" until you "have to brake"

[superyob]

double post

[superyob]

Originally Posted by jpblue1000

Again with the real world! where is this "real world' academics should be? what about their education, experience, access to data and facts is less real world then the interwebs anecdote and bias?

JP

I know it's a bit of a national sport to bash academics but many are hothouse flowers who sit in the hallowed halls of academia and pontificate to the rest of us plebs how things should operate. For such smart people, there is seemingly not a scrap of intelligence between many of them. That was my university experience anyway. Education is only useful if applied to the real world or lived experience... Data and facts can be used to suit any argument by selective presentation and omissions...

[csv8]

Put Sheldon in charge!!!!

[ryeman]

Originally Posted by FlivverFord

This newspaper article is simply inserted to increase circulation.

Not to mention the intellectual TDT and ACA.
Imagine 7 and 9 senior management going home and watching that c..p.....yeh right!
The old media saying....".you can never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the public".

[Bill M]

Some country roads could definitely have their speed limits lowered to 80.
I know of a few that fit this proposal. It is not the end of the world to rezone some roads with lower limits that have significant accident rates.
By the same token there are some major roads more than capable of accepting higher limits.
Unfortunately many govts compromise themselves with non transparency with the implementation of road traffic legislation and association with marginal groups like the pedestrian council!
Perhaps a body with representation from the many interested parties could make the process more accountable? Credible interested parties that is!
Bill.

[ryeman]

It is REALY only applicable to 'connecting' roads leading to the arterial highways.....it not as if yr going to drive Melbourne - Mildura at 80 or even Bright to Omeo.

[2011G6E]

Originally Posted by cheap

Academic is code word for inner city fringe dweller, bicycle peddling, organic latte sippin' genius, who's greatest achievement is having successfully spend all their adult life sucking on the public teat being nurtured by other like minded university dills.

I reckon before these people are allowed to utter a single word, they should be subjected to 5 years hard labour working on a farm, clearly they need a good dose of real life experience.

Good suggestion.
At least get the idiots out to actually SEE the country they're talking about. I can just imagine the fatigue related crashes going through the roof as people are forced to pold along like a snail doing hundreds of kilometers at 80kph.

Oh, and so what if "more people live in the cities"? Who cares? Does that mean all of us who DON'T live in the cities have to have our lives controlled and dictated to about things? More than they already do now anyway...