Re: Speed Limited

Despite the seething jealousy, that is truly unfortunate my friend. Please tell me you were taking it easy and noticed quickly!

Re: Speed Limited

Whats next then? You going to try again rebuilding it?

Re: Speed Limited

That's great if there are tracks you can go to. But here for example there are none..

Anyway as you say modern cars are much improved in every aspect than the cars that were around at the time those speed limits were created but think this. In Cyprus the max speed limit on the highway is 100kph but everyone regularly go at 120-140kph. And that includes good drivers, bad drivers, first time drivers, grannies and grandpas, lorries, bangers etc etc. The few people with performance cars usualy blast by them at 180+. Now imagine if they raised the speed limit to 130kph. Everyone would still go about 30-40 over the limit which makes it 170-180! And the power mad people? Now they would go at 240-250... Now tell me how that wouldnt cause more accidents! (at least here anyway).

Re: Speed Limited

pete917 said:

you raise a good point ga41.  Germany seem to have mastered it on their autobahns, so I guess it can work sometimes.

 

I am luicky though I only live a few mins away from Brands Hatch

Of course it can work but there are so many factors to take into account. A solution that works in the UK might not necessarily work for Cyprus for example. Out here as i;ve said before the main problem is poor road manners and a general lack of adequate training before you're allowed to hit the streets. The driver's attitude if you will.

Now i wont lie and say i dont drive aggressively or speed. I do drive quite aggressively and sometimes i do break the speed limit but i ALWAYS follow the rules of the road! (except for that speed part.. ) I always keep the correct lane, stop where i'm supposed to, always indicate if im going to turn and pretty much do everything any NORMAL driver is required to do. But the s**t i see on the road every day just makes me furious. People talking on the phone and driving with one hand while taking their kids to school, people not checking their mirrors or people who display piss poor lane disciple, people who dont even stop at freaking stop signs! And then when they cut you off and you honk at them they give you attitude on top! What they fail to realise is that by just obeying the law everyone wouldnt have to double check on what the other driver is going to surprise them by doing and just get to where they wanna go much faster!

Anyway, the common Cypriot driver is a bloody idiot. And then when kids spend all their childhood watching their bloody idiot mom and dad drive like a bloody idiot. Then what kind of driver will they grow up to be? Yes, a bloody idiot one.

Re: Speed Limited

A very interesting article Johhny here's an excerpt of  one taken from wheels ( www.wheelsmag.com.au ) a local magazine.

Removing the open road speed limit on remote highways in the Northern Territory has led to a disastrous increase in road deaths and a sharp upward trend in the toll.

In 2007, the first year of the reduction of the open road limit to 130km/h, the NT road toll increased from 42 (in 2006) to 58, up an alarming 38 percent.

Last year, the bad news continued with the death toll on NT roads increasing again, from 58 (in 2007) to 75, a hike of 29.3 percent.

The 2008 NT road toll of 75 is the worst since 1987.

During the first two-year period of the 130km/h limit, there was an increase of 33 road deaths - or more than 78 percent - says the National Motorists Association of Australia (NMAA).

Up until the 130km/h speed limit was introduced in the Territory on January 1, 2007, against great opposition from road safety experts, the NT road toll was trending downwards.

The open road limit was dumped by a cynical and soft NT Labor Government following a concerted campaign by the usual limelight junkies from down south, and an investigation by a road safety taskforce.

The open road limit was sensible in the NT with its long, straight roads and real prospects of driver boredom and fatigue. Territorians typically travel more kilometres annually than their southern counterparts.

The taskforce had found that 48 percent of deaths were alcohol related. The government acknowledged that drink driving, running red lights and seatbelt offences were the major safety concerns in the NT, and then it went about ignoring its own advice and applying the highway speed limits - 110 on all but the four main highways, which have a 130 km/h limit.

The carnage on the NT roads over the past two calendar years contrasts with the rest of the nation where death trends are largely down.
A general downward trend in road deaths is understandable given the emergence of life-saving features like stability control and airbags/side curtains on modern motor vehicles.

Official figures released in its annual reports by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau show that in 2008 every state and territory except the NT recorded a decrease in road fatalities (the ACT recorded the same numbers as in 2007 - 14).

The NMAA questions how much effort NT authorities put into diagnosing the causes of deaths on the Territory's roads.

"You can't manage what you don't measure," said Gavin Goeldner, a spokesman for the NMAA.

The association is urging the NT government to urgently release detailed statistics regarding the attributed causes of the 2007 and 2008 fatalities, and to highlight black spot regions, so that this alarming trend can be understood and reversed.

The NMAA has always opposed the move to lower speed limits for fear of increased fatigue related crashes.  

So there is also proof, recently of the negative impact of speed limits on certain roadways. 

BUT....

We, all of us ALLOW it to happen. I wonder if we made a unanimous gesture of protest by driving at half the posted speed limit (which is entirely legal) in a coordinated manner along highways would it change anything? Imagine the social upheaval if we all obeyed the law? Only on highways mind, that is where the problem lies. Imagine the congestion and the daily revenue loss!

Any takers?