Speed Limits

[racer69]

Is it just me or does anyone find it amazing the amount of people who drive along with not much regard for the speed limit, in Australia at least.

I'm not a speeder, i'm tempted all the time to just depress the accelerator abit more and have a go, but the time i do it is probably the time there is a cop car around the corner.

It is amazing, especially in school zones and 50km/h zones, how many people don't slow down, and if they're right behind you, they ride your arse and when they decide to cross onto the other side of the road give you the look as they go past, even in 60 and 70 zones people always are willing to risk it and go faster than the limit. Why?

What are the tolerances on the Speed Camera's as well, could this be why, i have heard everything from 5%-10% of the speed limit to 10km/h over it.

[Wrex]

Well there is hot debate in Vicroria mate as they want to scrap the 2kph tolerance (regardless of the limit) to ZERO tolerance!

It used to be 10% of the limit plus 3 kph.

My friends father got a fine in the mail for 104kph in a 100 zone.

[StuiE]

Thats major unfair, the main reason for tolerances is for inacuracies in the car's speedo, with no tolerances there would be hundreds of people being caught when they believed they were within the limit

In WA the tolerance was 11km/h and a few years ago it was put down to 7km/h.......at least we're allowed radar detectors

[elephino]

Apart from Victoria, the normal amount is 7km/h. It used to be 10% across the country. Vic is now 3km/h - but even before it was official I heard of someone being pinged for 72 in a 70 zone.

If nowhere else, I'm always doing 40 in the school zones and even this morning (I go through two each day) I had someone a couple of inches off the bumper in one of them.

Speed cameras, in NSW, are a little less tolerant than the police with the radars but that might just be a paperwork thing.

I've been lucky twice in the past few weeks. One was just setting up at a road I tend to cruise at about 70 (60 zone) on (two lanes each way with a dividing section wider than a lane, so easy not to watch the speedo and creep up) and the other I tend to do 60 (50 zone) but was following a bus and so kept down to 50, with a cop car sitting in the middle watching on-coming traffic. Thank you Sydney buses. Most of the time I stick to the limit, but both are longish straight roads and it can be easy to move up a few kms in speed and then it just becomes habit to do that speed - a bad habit though.

[Crash Test]

The thing is, after a while, you know where they are going to put the radars. Either at the bottom of a hill, on a road that carries a lot of traffic, or outside of certain schools. I mean, I don't have a habbit of speeding, but I know where to be really cautious etc.

[Airhead]

I'm more worried about this other rule - where if your caught 30 kilometres over the limit it's goodnight. Goodbye licence.

Surely this isn't so?

[woodyracing]

IMO, whats more annoying is people who drive too slow

[marcus]

ok I put my hands up , I have been booked twice in the last three months for speeding each fine costing me $125 each , both times I admit i was in the wrong but a little hard done by , but in the wrong none the less.

First time I was cruising along at the required 60kph speed limit on my way to work and simply didnt realise I had enetered a school zone which is 40kph , but the copper in the unmarked car who had been following me sure noticed, my bad for not paying attention I guess.

then last friday I got caught again on the way home from work, when I was travelling down the Hume Highway at the required 110kph limit and it then changes to a 90kph limit , now instead of braking I simply just lift of the accelerator and coast to the required limit , my bad again as the policeman was right behind the 90kph sign and got me slowing down to 105kph in the 90 zone , I wasnt impressed with this one and told him so as I was slowing to 90 just not at the right time I guess , so what did he do , he decided to go over my car cause I was being cheeky , great now he gets me for a tail light out as well.

morale of the story is IVE LEARNT MY LESSON , and wont be speeding any more.

Promise

[djb]

geez, reading about 3k, 5k 7k over the limit makes me think of the various times of thankfully not getting nailed while 80 or 100 over the limit (on a safe open uncrowded highway thankyou very much--but I am presently touching wood frantically as I type-Moff, at least you'll sympathize)

There really isn't a black and white answer to this (from a policeman, yes) but in real life, sometimes even a bit over the speed limit, plus some inattention could mean the life of a pedestrian, and especially a child, as they often don't think before crossing. (just wanted not to come across as a dangerous you-know-what, glamorizing speeding at high speed, there's a time and a place for it, I usually am Mr.Boring in my old Mazda)

[DAVID PATERSON]

Every K over is a killer.

That must be true because the Governemnt said it, on TV!

[Spudgun]

When I'm traveling on the Motorway at 80mph (the limit is 70) people still fly past me.. If there's enough of them I just join in the train. They can't nick us all and I haven't been pulled up once in my 5 years of driving (although I have been involved in identity theft and ended up in court for no reason, but I didn't match the description so it got thrown out).

Besides I do a lot of driving in Hampshire and they aren't any speed cameras in that county for some reason.

[Alan Jones]

And as a Merry Christmas from the NSW RTA, from Dec 1 ANYONE caught doin 130k or over gets an immediate 1 month license suspension. Be very careful dudes, this one is gonna hurt. No TV ads, a few in the paper but basically they don't seem to be highlighting this new law like they have when making changes in the past.

[Warwick]

In NZ 50km over the limit means you get to walk home and your car gets put in storage for a month,plus automatic loss of licence can't remember for how long,you then have to pay a fine plus storage cost for a month.

[djb]

yowser!

AJ, quick, call your sibling! (I'm sure you have!)

oh, and if that was introduced here in Quebec, the roads would become quickly deserted.

[elephino]

Warwick, in Aus that is the same for 45+ over the speed limit, but this is 130+ in any speedlimit zone. ANY from 10km/h to 110km/h.

[Red Dog]

oh dear - I must be from a different culture / time zone / planet or something.....confession time....I got off to bad speeding habits very young (no cameras then) saw 105mph in Maida Vale once and 155mph on the M25 (before the Heathrow stretch opened) okay, I know its no defence.

I did get caught.... but only once in 25 years, for 99.6mph on the A1, but I considered myself lucky as I had been showing 115mph a mile before the radar trap.

I do keep the speed down these days especially round town, but everyone else seems to be really law abiding according to this thread. Very humbling.

[garcon]

Personally I think everyone else just isn't quite as honest as you are Red Dog, but there you go.

I did a circuit of the M25 in under an hour once. I wasn't driving tho - I was in the passenger seat of an RS500.

Mind you, I WAS driving when I did Manchester to Dover in quite alot under 4 hours... That would be physically impossible in today's traffic, even at 4am.

[Alan Jones]

I think in the past we have all pushed the limit Red, the problem is if you get caught these days the penalties are hardly worth the thrill are they. It's like bein unfaithful to ya wife, if you get caught you pay for the rest of your life....

[PEPSI]

After the many years of speeding all over Australia (including the years driving trucks) and mostly getting away with it, the last couple of years I have become very well behaved on the basis that I should quit while I am ahead (no at fault accidents and only a few, albeit major, speeding fines)

Like a reformed smoker, I am now constantly amazed by the those who continue to speed (and I am not talking about only a few km's over) especially in built-up areas and school zones

But I still get infuriated by people who dont "keep left unless overtaking"

[mtpanorama]

I used to be a bad speeder, but now with a family and the cost of the fines i dont speed nearly as much. I do love my cruise control now, i use it all the time.
I drove a car yesterday without cruise and i found it very hard to stay at the speed limit. Driving on the Great (ha) western highway yesterday doing my usual 105 in the 100 zone i was passed by haeps of cars. But my best laugh was the hyundai excel with 4 d*ckheadsin it who overtook me after tailgating for about 20km(ibrake tested the a few times,those damn animals on the road) and took off as quick as an excel can go, only for me to come over a hill about 10km later to see the pulled over by the highway patrol. I gave a little beep of the horn and a wave as i went by.

[PEPSI]

I agree that cruise control is a fantastic thing and likewise I will set it at 105km/h on the open road and yes, every man, woman and B-Double passes you like you are standing still but I take heart in the knowledge that while I may get there 5 or 10 minutes later, I stand a better chance of getting there safer and cheaper (fines & fuel)

[Alan Jones]

Me too, I even use it in the 60k sections around the central coast as it seems impossible for me to keep the car under 75k when faced with a 5 min drive down a straight piece of road in light traffic. I reckon in 9 months it has saved me at least 5 fines.I wish all the coppers were on the F3 booking people for sitting in the right hand lane 10 k under the limit. As a friendly tip for you guys, if the F3 is busy, usually the fastest lane of the lot is the slow lane. It's amazing. I reguarly sit on 115 in the 110 zone passing the two lanes of traffic to the right of me as they are all too stubborn, inept, or just plain stupid to keep left unless overtaking. Not to mention the idiots trying to read their paper, or check their makeup. While on the F3 !!!! No wonder there is so many accidents.

[Buckshot]

Cruise Control is fantastic.

This Xmas break I will be driving up the M3 to Jillibi and love just locking the VX on 113 kph and cruising on up - except for that poxy little 90kph zone North of Brooklyn Bridge.

The cruise control also comes in handy for drives to to Goulburn to go to races at Wakefield Park.

Yeah, I reckon the cruise control feature helps to keep me a lot more honest than my foot would.

[Wrex]

I agree about the Cruise Control. I would be gone without it.

Like AJ, I use it everwhere, especially at the lower speeds like 50kph and 60kph. I have 'cruised' passed many speed traps in the last 12 months which added together, would have close to $1,000 in fines and enough points to put me off the road.

[Airhead]

I jump in and out of different cars from the motor pool at work. I like cruise, but hate the ubiquetous speed alerts. I always put them on 140 or above, hoping the next sucker to use the vehicle let's it rip

Except for the very later model VX Series 2 Commodores. They seemed to have preset limits, 80, 100 or 110. And would beep above that no matter what. I don't remember this being a problem in the couple of VY's I have driven.

Generally though, you just have to pick your moments, sort of like other things in life.