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| Down Under |
| Another frontier lost: OZ to end no-speed-limit roads |
| 2006-11-06 |
| h/t: Autoblog AustraliaÂ’s Northern Territory is one of the few sacred places in the world where you can drive at unlimited speeds – legally. Despite the regionÂ’s isolation and wide open landscape, the local government has decided to impose a speed limit of 110km/h on all open roads with 130km/h restricted for 4 of its major highways. That's 67 and 79 in real numbers. The move comes after the release of statistics from a damning report that found that three times as many people were killed on NT roads than elsewhere in Australia, per capita, with one person dying and nine seriously injured every week. The region is a popular spot for testing vehicles due to the long stretches of open highways and extremely hot temperatures. Porsche has favored the area because it could run its cars during high temperatures combined with sustained high engine speed, and recently tested its 911 Turbo there. Honda and Ford also confirmed testing in the region, but the new limits are likely to turn away carmakers. AmericaÂ’s Federal Highway Administration has found that thereÂ’s no correlation between speed enforcement and traffic safety improvement. Now that the NT is off the list of unrestricted roadways, that leaves only stretches of the German inter-city Autobahn, rural parts of the Isle of Man and some roads in India. Might as well adopt sharia while you're at it. |
| Posted by:Jackal |
| #7 Major segments of the Autobahn now have a maximum speed limit now -- I think of 130 kph (~75 mph, I think). It was doen for reasons of safety -- when there is an accident it generally ends up as a 200 vehicle pile-up) -- and to reduce pollution/improve gas mileage. The screams of outrage were audible throughout the land, but it passed anyway. A dear friend was pulled over in Bavaria a few years back for exceeding the fixed speed limit, and he was driving a BMW M-something or Z-something, and had gone through several training sessions at the BMW racetrack. Apparently the police had started chasing him just outside Munich, but didn't pull him over til they neared the Bavarian state line; "We were having too much fun chasing you at that speed to stop you before it was necessary," they told him, just before they took his licence away for the next six months. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-11-06 19:47 |
| #6 Well I guess that about wraps it up for any more Mad Max sequels...... |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-11-06 15:00 |
| #5 Divided roads. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2006-11-06 14:02 |
| #4 I have driven a lot in the Northern Territory, and it can be a nerve-wracking experience. Lots of cattle on the road, and they are predominantly black, hence invisible at night. The station owners are progressively fencing along the Stuart Highway, but there is a long way to go. I know one station owner who has been losing 3 cows every 2 nights on the Highway, for years. But the really scary thing is trying to pass the road trains. They are 55 meters long and even if you can see clear road ahead you can be half way past and a car can show up with a closing speed of 200 miles an hour or more. These aren't dived roads like the Autobahns. Pull out, press metal and pray. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2006-11-06 14:01 |
| #3 As I recall, the Autobahn is quite expensively maintained so as to make those high speeds safer. And aren't German driver's licenses quite expensive to obtain as well? |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-11-06 12:49 |
| #2 It's also not true that there is an unrestricted speed limit anywhere on the Autobahn. The truth is more complicated: you may drive up to the maximum safe speed of your automobile as determined by the police. That is, if you are driving a Lancia Scorpion that can handle 180 mph, no problem. But if you are pushing a shuddering Yugo at 50 mph, you might be breaking a very, very expensive law. That is, if the police think your are speeding, for your vehicle, on the autobahn, you could get a traffic citation in the thousands of Euros. It is also a well-established principal in Germany to let the police use their good judgement in enforcement. If they think you are DUI, *they* give you the blood test. Think about that. Plus, there are very few police brutality laws in Germany. If you mess with a cop, well, you will have a chance to ponder your mistake in the hospital. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-11-06 12:43 |
| #1 AmericaÂ’s Federal Highway Administration has found that thereÂ’s no correlation between speed enforcement and traffic safety improvement. I don't think that is strictly true. The variable is the other morons on the road. If they are aware that the freeway is a speed zone and stay in the slow lane there is no issue. If not, well there are few injury accidents at those speeds. Its a sad day though. I hope the Northern Territory rethinks this plan, or perhaps gets the big auto makers to fund a highway to nowhere that speedsters can zip around on thus keeping away from the toddler traffic. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-11-06 11:38 |