Hey all, there are a number of points to look at and I've deliberately stayed away from this thread, because as has been said, there will always be divided opinion.
The european licensing system, has vast differences in requirements and skill sets to obtain depending on the Country.
Whilst I would agree the German and to a greater extent the Finnish licensing models are incredibly good, long in time to get and very expensive comparatively. The data suggests that the models work for the better of road safety.
Of note, there is also a cultural difference in attitudes to driving that are far more compelling in judging relative safe speed limits. Driving is seen as a developmental procedure where children are encouraged to join various motor sport categories and undertake extensive real world driver training, not crawling around a few quiet suburban streets and using a couple of well placed stickers on the driving instructors car to enable reverse parking as in the case in Australia. Driving in Australia should be a privilege and not a right as it seems to have become!
The Australian roads are designed and engineered based on standard assessment models.
These models address everything from road surface design, lane width, emergency provisions and off road obstructions. These are generally the things that limit speeds on our local roads.
Does speed kill? A relatively inane question as I've seen peds killed at less than 10K's.
Is it a simple, catchy message to get to Australians via the mass media. Of course it is, who hasn't heard of drink and drive, your a bloody idiot?
The general concept of speed limits is that no Government can accurately assess the driving prowess or lack thereof of an individual driver, thus we have a determined safe speed for various roads based on models that even the worst driver should be able to cope with.
Are there always going to be people who can drive them quicker? Yes... But who can judge? and then from an enforcement issue, who says who can drive faster than others.
The basic rules are determined for the lowest possible denominator based on data. The various media pushes are simply created by marketing people to achieve an easy to understand and deliverable message to the community to enable an attitude change.
Can any speed limit or law protect you in every instance? Of course not; as old Mr Bilbo once said
"It's a dangerous thing stepping out your front door"
My 2 cents worth! How much is that with GST???????
