Akaroa GP faces new hazards

[rastuscat]

Worth a read.

https://abley.com/abley-insights/are...cted-to-speed/

[jellywrestler]

Worth a read.

https://abley.com/abley-insights/are...cted-to-speed/

it's just so hard to concentrate when the speed limits are dropped again and again, it's not a target, but when you are constantly driving spending time looking at your speedo it's tiresome.

[jellywrestler]

Worth a read.

https://abley.com/abley-insights/are...cted-to-speed/

be interesting to see now there is next to no traffic on the centennial highway out of wellington whther they put the limit back up to 100km/h, it was dropped before the cheesecutters were put in, now transmission gully is there there's only a tiny usage.

[rastuscat]

be interesting to see now there is next to no traffic on the centennial highway out of wellington whether they put the limit back up to 100km/h, it was dropped before the cheesecutters were put in, now transmission gully is there there's only a tiny usage.

I've driven and ridden that road, and even cycled up the cycle lane. It's not fit for 100 kmh, even with the barriers. Sure, bits of it might be, but most of it aren't.

[Berries]

be interesting to see now there is next to no traffic on the centennial highway out of wellington whther they put the limit back up to 100km/h, it was dropped before the cheesecutters were put in, now transmission gully is there there's only a tiny usage.

80 is the new 100 so you just have to get used to it. They used the lack of separation as the sole reason to drop the speed limit from 100 to 80 past the old Carisbrook in Dunedin and then a few years later put a barrier down the middle. Speed limit still 80 with a good proportion of traffic basing their speed on the surrounding environment - multi lane, median divided, no intersections etc - so travelling at 100. Obvious result being it becomes a fishing spot for the Police instead of having the speed limit reflect reality and the safety risk.

Some interesting research here which links speed with enjoyment which is something that rarely gets mentioned in a road safety conversation - https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...69847822000195

[rastuscat]

80 is the new 100 so you just have to get used to it. They used the lack of separation as the sole reason to drop the speed limit from 100 to 80 past the old Carisbrook in Dunedin and then a few years later put a barrier down the middle. Speed limit still 80 with a good proportion of traffic basing their speed on the surrounding environment - multi lane, median divided, no intersections etc - so travelling at 100. Obvious result being it becomes a fishing spot for the Police instead of having the speed limit reflect reality and the safety risk.

Some interesting research here which links speed with enjoyment which is something that rarely gets mentioned in a road safety conversation - https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...69847822000195

Interesting article. It seems to suggest that roads are there for entertainment, as many of us believe.

Unfortunately, it's not a view held in road safety groups.

[neels]

Interesting article. It seems to suggest that roads are there for entertainment, as many of us believe..

Or alternatively looking at the enjoyment people derive from using roads, which might be for functional or entertainment reasons, and how that affects safety outcomes.

A human is much more likely to be engaged in what they are doing if they are also enjoying what they are doing, an underutilised brain will find something else to amuse itself with away from and probably to the detriment of the primary task.

Someone who loves their lawn and loves mowing their lawn will do a much better job (and probably be less likely to run over the chrysanthemums) than someone who is mowing the lawn because it keeps growing and they have to.

The discussions seem to be around the amount of harm done due to the speed, rather than the number of accidents, almost as if it's OK to fall asleep from boredom and crash because if you do you're going so slowly it won't kill you.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Lets organise a proper old school Cannonball run on the Akaroa GP course like the good old days. Couple of hundred bikes, massed start, flat out. I spit on speed limits. What about my freedums? I didnt spend all that time camping at parliament and throwing bricks at cops to take any notice of your speed limits. I am a self appointed Sheriff. Of the community, and I say speed limits are bullshit and unenforceable because of the second amendment and the Admiralty flag. I am a person not a corporation and I do not consent.

[F5 Dave]

Well I'd vote for you - if elections were necessary , and not stolen by the elite.

[mulletman]

Last Sunday morn the Lake flies were out in force columns and columns of the feckers never seen them swarm like that messy bastards, natural speed deterrent.

[jellywrestler]

I've driven and ridden that road, and even cycled up the cycle lane. It's not fit for 100 kmh, even with the barriers. Sure, bits of it might be, but most of it aren't.

and the rimutakas, wanganui river road is? there's loads of roads that you can't even reach the 100 limit, yet they still are.
it was suitable before, the only reason they dropped the limit was because of a head on where they did no investigation to it's cause whatsoever, they dropped it before the funerals.

[pete376403]

and the rimutakas, wanganui river road is? there's loads of roads that you can't even reach the 100 limit, yet they still are.
it was suitable before, the only reason they dropped the limit was because of a head on where they did no investigation to it's cause whatsoever, they dropped it before the funerals.

Much like the road between Blenheim and Nelson - was 100Km,H for a long time then a few crashes in close succession and "something had to be done". Even though (as I was told) one of the crashes was a suicide so, not like a speed limit of any number is going to change that and another of the crashes was two drivers racing, so again, not like any limit is going to be obeyed.

[rastuscat]

I am a person not a corporation and I do not consent.

Best wishes with that.

[rastuscat]

Much like the road between Blenheim and Nelson - was 100Km,H for a long time then a few crashes in close succession and "something had to be done". .

Thing is, legislatively the speed limit on every road was 100 kmh. Unless a specific piece of legislation was used to reduce it. It's how speed limits were set back in the day. By default, we used to start from 100 kmh, and work from there.

So we have ended up with a lot of roads which, knowing what we know now and from international experience, are not really suitable for the 100 kmh speed limit we have.

SH75 used to be 100 kmh up and over the hill, going up from Cooptown. Few if any could do 100 kmh on that piece of road. Many who tried got an ACC funded taxi back to Chch hospital. So the Akaroa Road became a touch point for road safety advocates to target speed reductions to there. Do you really think they did that with no reason?

Just because a road has always had a speed limit of 100 doesn't mean it should be that way. There are gravel roads around where I live with 100 kmh speed limits. Another example is the state highway known as the Devils Staircase. 100 kmh, but few if any ever manage that speed on the majority of that segment.

International experience is that open roads with the only separation between opposing vehicles being a stripe of paint should have a speed limit no greater than 70 - 80 kmh. It's far more survivable, in the event of a crash.

And that's the key. Nobody ever thinks they are going to crash. It's called optimism bias. Where we think it won't happen to us. But each day crashes happen to people who think it won't happen to them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism_bias

Remember also, that kinetic energy is a product of mass times speed squared. So small increases in speed have a large increase in the kinetic energy imparted in a crash.

Of course, that's no problem, as none of us think we are going to crash.

[rastuscat]

and the rimutakas, wanganui river road is? there's loads of roads that you can't even reach the 100 limit, yet they still are. it was suitable before,.

Actually no. See my other post. Lots of roads with 100 kmh speed limits should have lower speed limits. We know more now about trauma reduction that we did back when speed limits were first set.