Speeding facts vs fiction

[scumdog]

Not much use, they just run the number plate. If the system says you aren't rego'd but your sticker says you are, they will scan the barcode and see it's a fake

Same with WOF.

[FJRider]

Well Flying is more likely to bite if you get it wrong - if you run out of fuel on the motorway, pull over and call the AA, at 1,500 ft, its a slightly different story, you have to find a field and do an emergency landing. Imagine you have a major component failure in a Car, generally you will be able to bring the car to a stop or at worst be involved in an accident in the process of trying to come to a stop. In a plane, a major component failure can very easily result in a crash and Death.

On a Motorcycle ... with opposing traffic (at times) less than a metre away ... at 100 km/hr ... you have few seconds before you hit something if you get it wrong. A blowout in the right front tyre will put you there too. As will ice, oil, loose gravel, inattention and lack of ability to keep in your own lane.

"Pilot Error" is still the cause of most accidents ... on the ground or in the air. A seized engine on the motorway isn't fun either ... especially if you're in the right hand lane.

[MarkH]

Interesting info here:
http://www.investigatemagazine.com/july00speed.htm

[MarkH]

I do think it is long overdue to return to the old national speed limit from before the 70s oil crisis when the national limit was dropped temporarily to lower our national fuel bill.

Which old speed limit are you talking about?
50mph?
55mph?
60mph?
100kph?
80kph? (fuel crisis era)
100kph? (current)

[russd7]

I do think it is long overdue to return to the old national speed limit from before the 70s oil crisis when the national limit was dropped temporarily to lower our national fuel bill.

so you would like us to o back to 60mph, by the way that equates to 96kph meaning with a 4kph tolerance then anyone doing over 100kph would be due for a ticket we could go back to the oils crisis days of 80kph, that was painful, tho the last ticket i had in those days was for exceeding the open road speed limit, speed posted was 110kph and it cost me $30 bucks and that was on my xl500, pretty in silver it was.

[Big Dog]

Bloody hell!, I hope I don't ever have to share the road with you with that sort of thinking, If you feel you have to do 140 on our crap roads, best go to a track day once a month and get it out of your system.

I don't feel I have to do 140. I believe that there has been so much dumbing down of certain roads that it becomes difficult to maintain concentration.
The human mind is equipped to handle 2 mins of intense concentration, 10 mins of concentration or 1 hour of attention.
Put us on a road that does not even a significant change direction for 5 kms at 100 kmph. That is 3 minutes, 1 minute longer than can be dedicated to specific task.
At 140 the task could be concentrated on without the mind wandering.

On the approach to the Bombay hills I see someone wander over a rumble strip or into another lane almost every night.
Every morning it is even more obvious who has already been driving for some time. Those who have come a fair way already their driving and level of attention rapidly degrades as they get further from the hill. It suddenly sharpens up as they approach the first significant corner.
Not so for drivers who got on at the Bombay on ramp.

Surely you have noticed for yourself that on long straight stretches you are more aware of what song is on the radio, what the kids are doing in the back seat, that you can kind of see down your wife's top etc?

I am not proposing that all 100 km zones be 140s. Just that the national open road speed limit be restored (I can't be sure because I was born the year they changed but I think it was 120kmph but expressed in mph) and any roads that are not viable for these kinds of speeds have the signs changed from open road to 100.

I am also proposing that given "improvements" to our motorways this should be increased [I] where practical [I/] to 140.


Get rid of arbitrary limits imposed under different intents than current purpose and allow the general road user to improve.


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

[Big Dog]

On a Motorcycle ... with opposing traffic (at times) less than a metre away ... at 100 km/hr ... you have few seconds before you hit something if you get it wrong. A blowout in the right front tyre will put you there too. As will ice, oil, loose gravel, inattention and lack of ability to keep in your own lane.

"Pilot Error" is still the cause of most accidents ... on the ground or in the air. A seized engine on the motorway isn't fun either ... especially if you're in the right hand lane.

To a large extent the majority of the events you have described are no more risky at 100 than they are at 80. What changes is the degree of mess.


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

[Big Dog]

Which old speed limit are you talking about?
50mph?
55mph?
60mph?
100kph?
80kph? (fuel crisis era)
100kph? (current)

We were told when we covered it in economics at high school that the national speed limit was 120kmph. But expressed in MPH ( to the nearest 5mph obviously.)

If anyone on here was "there" in the 70s and remembers then I would like for them to speak up. Especially if it is to correct me.

Note: not sarcasm. Just wanting the real facts.


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

[Big Dog]

so you would like us to o back to 60mph, by the way that equates to 96kph meaning with a 4kph tolerance then anyone doing over 100kph would be due for a ticket we could go back to the oils crisis days of 80kph, that was painful, tho the last ticket i had in those days was for exceeding the open road speed limit, speed posted was 110kph and it cost me $30 bucks and that was on my xl500, pretty in silver it was.

And that is where the waters get muddy. The national speed limit would mean the posted limit was invalid. In your circumstance the ticket would be for the difference on 100 If the national limit was 100. Or 80 during the fuel crisis. For 110 to be posted the national limit had to have been higher or equal to the sign.

According to the same teacher, when he was a young man open road was exactly that.


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

[Big Dog]

I don't approve of speeders at the moment. Not because of the speed they are doing but because of the differential over expectation by other road users. I suspect people would make a less cursory head check before pulling into the fast lane if the speed limit in the fast lane was different.


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

[FJRider]

We were told when we covered it in economics at high school that the national speed limit was 120kmph. But expressed in MPH ( to the nearest 5mph obviously.)

If anyone on here was "there" in the 70s and remembers then I would like for them to speak up. Especially if it is to correct me.

Note: not sarcasm. Just wanting the real facts.


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

An interesting read from Otago University in 2012.

http://www.otago.ac.nz/wellington/otago041123.pdf

1973
On the 4th of December 1973, the New Zealand government implemented a 50mph (80.47km/h) open road speed limit. This was meant primarily as a fuel saving measure during the international oil crisis of 1973.

The open road speed limit was increased from 80km/h to 100km/h in 1985.

[Urano]

Well Flying is more likely to bite if you get it wrong

i think this is a common misunderstanding.
as commercial pilot, i always felt much much safer on a plane than on the road.
the reasons are vary.
the mains are that on a plane there is a constant focus on driver conditions (skills and physical), vehicle conditions (while almost the 85% of road vehicles are not constantly maintained nor verified. tyre pressure are out of range in near the 90% of the cases... every time i jump on the saddle i perform an external verification of the bike: how many do that? and on a car??), there is a constant focus on external conditions (before takeoff i always receive a meteo folder with condition at the place, at arrival and in any other different location i could need if an emergency should occur. do the majority of motorists know how's the weather before leaving home? do they know if all the roads are viable? don't think so...) and there is a constant concern about the position of anyone else around you (never heard "watch out, there is someone coming fast from your left at the next crossroad! slow down to avoid crashes" in a car or on the bike...).

normally you have much more time and space to amend messes on a plane than the 100 cm you spare from the one you're passing on a road...

How many pilots are there?
How many people with drivers licenses are there?
If there are over 2m people with car driving licenses then just how practical would it be to test each one every 5 years?

my point is that a good half of them shouldn't have the license 'cause they're not able to use it.
however this position wouldn't ensure me a lot of votes, so i'll be likely unable to make it real...
but the truth remains.
a large group of drivers don't have physical conditions to keep a license: eyesight, blood pressure, various levels of dementia, motor anomalies, medications (or else...) addiction. then there are the simple, plain, completely... stupid.
some would say that you can't put "intelligence" on a legal term, i'd say that you can, or at least you can avoid to give permission to move a 2 tons suv to someone who doesn't understand what he's doing...

then there are the ones physically fit but unable for lack of skills. as pilot i have to perform emergency maneuvers twice a year: am i able to bear with them? good. am i not? ok, go back to study and repeat in a week. am i still not able? grounded. full stop.
are emergency maneuvers checked in roads licensing tests? normally not. and once you gained the license it's something like a nobiliary title.
i'm pretty surprised you don't have the right to transmit it to your offspring actually...
i say, driving license should be progressive (no car license if you don't have bike one), short termed (every two years top back to a practical check), and emergency centered (emergency stop in turn at 70kmh. emergency stop at 90kmh while avoiding obstacle. correct stopping distance calculation. visual clues search and understanding techniques).
they're all test pretty simple in a large park with a water wall. are you able to stop the car consistently? good. not able? try again in a week. still not able? i'm sorry, you can't drive anymore. if you want you can file for a new license STARTING FROM THE BEGINNING)
human factor? never heard of it on the road. still, it's the main part of safety.

my 2c.
you see that speed comes pretty late while looking for safety

[MarkH]

We were told when we covered it in economics at high school that the national speed limit was 120kmph. But expressed in MPH ( to the nearest 5mph obviously.)

That would be 75mph, I am fairly sure that wasn't the limit in the 70s.

From a google search I found:
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/the-1960s/1969

In 1960, 374 New Zealanders lost their lives in road accidents. By 1969 the number had increased by almost 200. New Zealanders were driving more powerful cars prompting calls for increased speed limits. These occurred in 1962 when the open road speed limit increased from 50mph (80km/h) to 55mph (88km/h) and again in 1969 to 60mph (96km/h).

It was the early '70s (1972 I think) when we went metric on the road speeds and I remember the stickers we got from the Post Office to stick on our cars speedos, at that time the speed limit became 100kph.

[Big Dog]

If we are not going to raise the speed limit we need to shift the focus from dead straight and put enough bends back in to keep drivers in point. If you don't need to change something every 2 minutes you cannot stay focused.
And I mean change. Not subconscious automatic corrections.


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

[SMOKEU]

pparently that was changed recently that you only have to indicate left when exiting the roundabout if going straight through.

There's nothing recent about the roundabout indicating laws.

If there are over 2m people with car driving licenses then just how practical would it be to test each one every 5 years?

Very practical. It's not that practical to close roads and have emergency services show up each time some muppet kills someone.