Absurd Speed Limits

[Barry Edmunds]

The political wannabees in the inner Melbourne council of Yarra have come up with a(nother) brain numbing idea; lower the speed limit to 30kph, as if the current speed limits are not enough. There are few areas within the City of Yarra where a motorist can actually drive at the legal speed limit because of gridlock anyway so lowering the speed limits even further seems more tokenistic that practical.
I'm certainly not advocating raising speed limits, but surely the good burghers of Yarra would be better advised to devote some of their ratepayer's monies towards educating the pedestrians and cyclists, many of who appear to head out on the streets each day with a death wish and little consideration given towards their own well-being. Some might even regard this as being responsible for one's own actions.
A solution to the arrant stupidity of councils like Yarra, would be to make contact with any businesses or organisations within Yarra Council's area and advise them that they will no longer be able to patronise the business because of the actions of Council in wanting to bring in more unnecessary  restrictions on motorists.
Barry

[colcol]

Good point Barry, i absolutely try not to go anywhere near the city, due to all the money camera's and absurd speed limits, if you can get a service or product in your area, why would you want to go into the city to get fined by money camera's or parking fines, you know what the speed limits are like 30 - 40 - 30 - 50 - 60, in the end you don't know what you should be doing, and as for that 40 kph speed limit around schools that changes during the day, don't get me started, you should be watching for children, not your speedo, Colin.

[Repco Lad]

Sounds like an issue for your man in Canberra, given we all have the same issue to varying degrees

BTW, I'll take your 30 kph, and you can have my speed humps, raised paved platforms and 'one car at a time chichanes'!

RL

[oz3litre]

you should be watching for children, not your speedo, Colin.

You should be watching the road full stop, rather than your speedo, but that is near impossible these days. I'll bet there is an increase in rear end collisions and hitting parked cars etc in recent years. The mental pigmies who come up with this crap have no understanding of the fact that the human brain cannot concentrate on very many things at once. Asking it to concentrate on a speedo which has little to do with safety, in favour of watching where you are going, assessing risk, judging speed and direction of other vehicles and pedestrians etc, which have everything to do with safety, is just plain insane. "Sorry officer, but I was watching my speedo, which is of course, far more important than that cyclist I just ran over"

[colcol]

Goverments, now they have sold all their utilities, electricity, gas, water and roads could charge what they wanted but now they are short of cash so they have to turn to the cash cow motorist, here in Victoria speeding fines revenue is up for this year as they have increased speeding fines from the money camera's, but the number of motorists caught driving over the limit has gone down, its most likely due to the increased traffic conjestion.
The Goverments will tell you the road toll is down due to money camera's 'war on speeding', but the increasing number of new cars with airbags is increasing with old clunkers being forced off the road due to stricter roadworthy certificates.
But if you take away the money camera's they will find some scam to fleece people, how about this one that just popped into my head, there is a street light that has been out for 1 year near me, so why don't the council fine all motorists that drive past the blown street light without reporting to the council......oh hang on i already have and they haven't got round to fixing it yet, Colin.

[oz3litre]

I don't know what your equivalent of our RAA is like, but I found out today that the board members of this supposed advocacy organisation for motorists each get paid $400,000 per year and they are trying to get it increased to $600,000! It seems to me that they only ever make token protests or comments about government road legislation and spending and just roll over and accept it. Their magazine appears to be targeted to Prius or Camry buying old farts. I am only a member for the roadside assistance. That's why I think we need someone like the AMEP who might possibly have some balls.

[colcol]

In Victoria we also have a useless motorists organisation, they go under the name of the R.A.C.V., Royal Automobile Club of Victoria, they have a spokesperson that i will call Mr. John Shinybum, who agrees with everything that is done to, [not for] the motorist.
Their magazine was a great read about 40 years ago for engine reconditioners and tyre prices, but has morphed into a magazine for Grey Nomads travelling around Australia.
They always recomend Camry's and Prius's because of their reliability, value for money and resale value and they don't have those pesky rubber cam belts that need to be changed.
And you are right, i don't like them, as they don't do a thing for the motorist, Colin.

[Beatle]

Buy a pushbike Barry.  That way you can go as fast as you want (no-one has yet to ride a pushbike at maximum speed as you can always go faster....), ignore the road rules, pay no annual fees, not need a license, ..................     

[Evan Bottcher]

You grumble-bums might be interested in this article then:

http://www.themercury.com.au/news/national/police-slam-speed-stunt-melbourne-to-sydney-in-65-hours/story-fnj3ty2c-1226720458018

In a campaign to increase the limit between the two capital cities, the latest issue of Wheels magazine boasts "we drove from Melbourne to Sydney at 130km/h, didn't die and didn't get booked".

Defending the stunt, Wheels editor Stephen Corby said: "We've been told for years drowsy drivers die, but increasing the speed limit would reduce fatigue.

"You're less likely to have a microsleep, less likely to wander off the road. We see it as a positive for road safety."

The magazine was prepared to pay for three speeding tickets before calling off the attempt, done on a Saturday, but was amazed to find it didn't once get stopped by police in Victoria or NSW.

Travelling 20km/h above the posted limit cut more than 70 minutes from the 800km journey between the northern outskirts of Melbourne and the south-western outskirts of Sydney on the Hume Highway, to just six hours and 23 minutes.

The police were not amused.  I was amused however by the british journo's twitter feed though: https://twitter.com/thebenoliver/status/379865179615293440

Seems I'm not massively popular with the Australian police this morning:

There's also a campaign going on Facebook (for those who do that kind of social media wotnot - probably a bit modern for the grumpy folk on this thread) to increase the limit on the Hume to 130kph.  https://www.facebook.com/130forhume  - with over 40,000 'likes'.  I won't hold my breath...

[GTVeloce]

Having just driven through many countries around the world over the past few months, I can say we have absurdly slow speed limits on our highways like the Hume. Case in point, we drove from Budapest to Vienna this morning and held down a consistent 130-140, along with everyone else. When the road is suitable (like the Hume) I dare say it is safer than sleeping your way at 100-110.