...I agree 100% with Rhosty who opines the lack of technology available to a driver, which would alert them to a change in road speeds indicated by out-dated dinosaur signage.

...In an era of advanced automotive technology which gives the motorist such applications as satellite navigation; cruise control; hands-free telephone communication; reversing cameras: self-cleaning water repelling, glare-free windshield glass; High technology suspension and sophisticated computerised engine control and more, the motorist remains saddled with “plonker”, antiquated and unforgiving speed restriction signage.

...How simple would be a technology which communicates directly from the speed restriction sign to a computerised receiver in a vehicle, which alarms the motorist to variations in speed limits?

Come on Rehctub, that is garbage, & you know it. My main car is a 35 years old sports car, & it is a damn sight safer than these box on wheels, front drive, new white goods cars, most are driving today.

More than that, in the 60s I regularly drove one of those type of old cars, on cross ply tyres, on narrow tree lined roads, averaging over 80 MPH, [something over 130Km/H] which was legal in those days.

I & most of my acquaintances regularly did this between Sydney, & both Melbourne & Brisbane, in about 9 hours. Guess what! We didn't have accidents either. With our mindless speed limits today, I'm much more likely to fall asleep through boredom, & run off the road.

Cunningham's gap is a prime example of bureaucratic stupidity. Where once we cruised up it at 100Km/H, comfortable in 5Th gear, they reduced the limit to 70, then 60. Now we grind our way up it in third, at these ridiculously low speeds, or have our auto hunting from second to top & back again, wasting heaps of fuel.

The local RACQ bloke tells me he is towing many more cars out of the scrub these days, & more trucks are having brake faioure, overheating, trying to go so slow for so long.

Houellebecq, that's simple, stay home! But don't order home delivery, as that endangers lives of others.

Rhrosty and Sam, if your theory were correct, the liability of accidents would not be altered, meaning, the conditions and other contributing factors would not be taken into account to determine who is at fault and at what percentage.

You see when there is a serious accident,resulting in death, the coroner takes all contributing factors into account, condition of vehicles, road conditions, etc etc, as you can be found part to blame if you are doing the speed limit on a rainy day for instance.

As for limiting vehicle speeds, this has been considered before, however, one often needs a burst of speed to avoid an accident, which is not possible with a limiter, this is why it wasn't adopted.

Leo Lane, governments, rather than doing something positive, have introduced this crazy 100 hour thing, whereby many of our non qualified instructors are now grand parents, as it is usually they who have the time to spare.

As for training, all video games that have a steering wheel should be banned, as they give useres, mainly kids, faulse confidence.

The solution to the 100 hour fiasco is ten one hour lessons, with a qualified instructor, the. You have a hex style debt to pay back.

What government forget is that for a learner to do 100 hours, a licensed driver has to be available, often for more hours due to one way trips.

Utter craziness!

Has been, I hear you, but you look after your sports car and, a 71 model XA ford sedan/wagon, in poor condition with a dodgy road worthy is no sports car and this is more the example I was referring to.

Simp,y because it is registered, it is allowed to be driven at max speed limits and that's crazy.

I have had three 911's, the oldest being a 74 model. It would still out perform and out run any modern day V8, but it was well maintained.

As for your past driving, I was there myself and know exactly what you mean. 160 to 220 K was not unusual, but I never have had an accident, but I did learn to drive in a bomb in the forestry, that needed to be driven, not a modern day, drive it's self car that most learn in today.

We learned how to handle a car that was out of control, whereas most young ones today have no idea what to do in a slide/spin, other than to jam on the brakes and hope for the best.

I agree with you all the way Rhrosty, except for school zones.

I originally thought that they were a reasonable idea. But having experienced great difficulty with them, I now see the folly.

So many of them are reductions from 50 to 40. Well….is that really necessary??

Then at the other end of the spectrum, we have some which are 100 to 40, which is ludicrous and actually quite dangerous.

Every school zone NEEDS lit-up flashing speed signs that get turned on only when the zone applies, so that they are unmissable to all drivers. We need to get rid of just about all the other signage and markings on the road, which actually desensitise drivers to school zones, because they are there all the time while the school zone slow speed only applies a very small part of the time. We also need to get rid of a lot of the pedantic school zones.

Speed moderating curves and bumps could be appropriate in smaller streets, which would mean that you’d have fulltime slower zones in front of schools. But this is impractical on highways or main roads.

Yes, there is merit in many school zone slower speed limits. But it just needs to be done a WHOLE lot better than it currently is.

While I do decry inappropriate speed limits here and there, especially ridiculous 50kmh zones on a flat broad straight highway, extending well beyond the urban and side-street limits in some small towns, there are much bigger problems with speed limits:

1 The most extraordinarily poor amount of speed limit signage! Very often, you turn into a road and don’t encounter a speed sign for a long distance. There is often a very long distance between speed signs. If you are travelling through many speed zones, you can easily lose track of what zone you are in after a while.

2. Fuzzy policing! The police won’t tell us exactly what they are policing! They say that there is some leeway but won’t tell us what it is. I think this is despicable. We need to know exactly what the effective speed limit is, especially given that the cruising speed and the effective speed limit are usually pretty much the same thing!

3. If you drive a few kmh below the speed limit, to make sure that you don’t ever inadvertently exceed it, which is what everyone should be doing, you actually become a hazard! Everyone else is travelling right on or a bit above the speed limit, and there are many very impatient drivers who have no time for a vehicle that is going 5 or 10kmh slower in front of them. You get tailgated, dangerously overtaken and shown various forms of contempt!

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