[marki]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Mark you are having an each way bet here.

Sure there is an engineering aspect, taking into account projected 85th percentile speeds, shoulder width, road width, curve radius etc.

The problem I have is many roads indeed have this physical analysis tossed out by some bureaucrat/pollie and replaced with a "populist" limit which has no bearing on whether a higher limit would still be safe.

The constant changing of posted limits along the same road ( in NSW ) despite zero change in the nature of road itself is laughable....and sadly does promote good traffic flow or driver awareness of that flow... I'd suggest staring at a speedo is not a great idea in high traffic density environments.

In my own area, a local access road had a 90km/hr limit for decades, which for inexplicable reasons was reduced to 70km/hr....begging the question how was it "safe" to travel at that limit one day, yet not so the day after the change was implemented? (There had been no housing development or crashes fatalities to justify the change)

Similarly with school zones. Time of day has nothing to do with the presence of a child...yet in NSW major arterial roads are choked for 3 hours every week-day due to the mindless implementation of this policy.

Of course slowing down for kids is a good idea...but grinding almost to a halt on a road (while kids are in class or have long since gone home ) that is no-where near the school entrance yet within a deemed radius makes little sense...yet we are told we are being "safe"??

As Roy and HG would say: "It's a joke!"

Hi Peter

No I am not having a bet either way, I am talking from personal experience. When I was in my early twenties I lived and worked in Karratha (1600km NW of Perth)for 4 years. Every 12 weeks I would get R & R and would travel to Perth. At that time I owned a GT falcon with a fully worked 428 SCJ big block (~ 650 BHP) and a 1000 cc CBR honda motor cycle (at that time considered to be the fastest production bike in the world). Sure I could have jumped on the plane but I liked to get myself home. The roads up there are tedious with not a corner in sight for up to 90 miles at times. If I rode the bike I would lay over the tank with my feet resting on the 10L fuel drum strapped the pillion seat and twist the throttle back to the stop (the 22L tank was not big enough to get me between fuel stops). The RPM would hover in and out of the red zone most of the way. I once made it to Perth in 9 hours including stops for fuel, police and food. The consequence of this was I was wrecked when I got home and it took two days to recover (sore, tired, deaf.....) and I gained 11 demerit points between Geralton and eneabba (I had reduced speed to about 140kmh for the last 400km). Same with the car, drive flatout in one go and get home taking 2 days to recover. The only time I took it easy was when I had 4 other people travelling with me. We left at 12 pm and drove about 600 km to Canarvon arriving about 6 pm. Booked a motel, had a shower then went to the local pub for dinner and a few drinks then bed. Left 6 am the next morning and arrived in Perth at 6 pm with lots of stops along the way. That night I went to a bucks party and had a ball. Any one saying it is better to go faster over a long distance and arrive earlier is quite frankly a fool, I know I have been there.

As for school zones on days off well here is a bit of info for you. Just because it is a student free day does not mean students are not at school. We often have year 11 and 12 students attending over school holidays (of their own choice) to take advantage of the facilities and study or attend revision seminars, tutorials etc etc. Schools are very active places and many events are often held during the school holidays. At my school we are only ever trully closed between Dec 24 - Jan 2.

As for being suprised and unfairly penalised because the signposted speed limit keeps changing....a good driver will be aware of the environment around them as they are observant and never take things for granted. It may have been 60kmh yesterday but its only 40kmh today.....that may have been an empty pedestrian cross walk yesterday but there is someone on it today.... Any licenced driver should have enough control of a vehical to be able to judge speed without keeping one eye on the speedo. See the sign, slow down, adjust mentally to the speed and hold it there. You only need to sight the speedo briefly. Personally I have my GPS set to warn me if I am speeding. It is blue toothed to my mobile phone so updates automatically. The moment I exceed the speed limit a chime sounds and I backoff until it stops. Dont even need to look at the speedo. I used this when I was in Melbourne at easter (did not know any of the roads) and never got a fine or anything else.

Penalties do not only occur on public roads. If you are racing at a sanctioned event and overtake under the yellow or red flags you will get fined. Whats more if you ignor them you are likely to become part of the problem that caused them to be brought out in the first place as you will most likely plow into a crash or car that has spun out. Try getting your head around that after you have been going as fast as you can with the adrenalin levels through the roof. Often the flag man is very close to the crash and you have bugger all time to respond. If I have been racing I never drive home nor for about day after as my judement of speed is shot to pieces. It takes time to adjust to city speeds and if we had widely varying speed limits I fear that more accidents would take place as people just wouldn't comprehend (myself included).

I had hoons racing down my street all the time and there are quite a few young families and pet owners around here. We got together, lobbied the council, had the speed limit dropped and S bends placed along the road at intervals to stop it. Guess what, the hoons dont bother here any more. Most of the speed changes are not due to some money grabbing politician but rather their response to concerns expressed by the community.

Mark