philips:
I would be cavalier enough to say that I have spent more time driving on the roads in the NT than you have spent eating hot dinners, and accordingly I stand by what I originally said!
I strongly suspect that although you may be living in the NT, you are NOT a born and bred Territorian! I also suspect that you are one of the many "ferals" who have invaded from places south and now seem intent on whining and complaining about the drivers and the NT way of life in general ( there are many of your ilk invading the northern states wanting to change things for the "better"!) If I am right, then I would suggest that you vote with your feet and return whence you originated and let the Territorians get on with their lives in the fashion that they are used to!

While I am on a roll, I might mention that I have driven from the Centre to every border around the NT and can say that if the standard of roads in general in the rest of the country were as good as the NT`s, then we might see a significant reduction in the National road toll!

I'm born and raised in the NT. I've spent 7 years away in the USA in the 70's; the rest of my time I've been here in the Top End. I'm 82 years old and I've been driving here since I was 22 years old.

Not "all" Territorians are defensive rednecks who are suspicious of outsiders (the "go home" mentality). The Territory now has a much more cosmopolitan population who have intelligence, insight, a "world" perspective. It's no longer the end of the Earth.

There's still however a percentage of "old style" Territorians here. The alcoholic, hard drinking, black hating, irresponsible, bad driving Territorian "still" exists, even in this modern age. They are a dying breed, but still numerous nonetheless, and basically only mix with each other. But times are changing, and the territory is advancing, despite it's problems and bad Southern press.

"Some" roads are superb here; the Stuart Highway for example. "Some" roads are terrible, just terrible.

Cuphandle,

"The reason being given is that the road toll this year is 37 (15 more than last year!)"

The DoTs that fund all his research or the governmental officials on MUARC's board are probably screaming at him to do so. If the road toll at 37 is 15 more than last year then a huge reduction can be expected next year with no intervention at all due to regression to the mean. His funding masters wants the limits introduced NOW and for MUARC to do an "independent" study showing that they worked by quantifying the huge reduction after the speed limit change. It could be a pinup for states speeding fine promotion.

How about:

e) The NT is about a third of Australia and well spread out. People's prospects of surviving a crash diminish rapidly. Life and death can easily be determined by how quickly emergency services get to a victim. An injury on a Melbourne freeway that would be survived will be fatal in a remote region of NT.
f) The NT has a significant "invisible' population being tourists so their road toll compared to population is inflated. From memory there are almost as many tourists as residents.

"If these "experts" were to spend some time in the NT travelling these roads, they would, or should realise that a higher speed limit than the rest of the country, is needed to travel the long distances between centres"

Without falling asleep at the wheel. Less boredom and getting to a location significantly faster. In a hypothetical 130k drive Driver A goes 100km in an hour at 100kph. Driver B at 130kph completes the journey in an hour. Later Driver B falls asleep in bed while Driver A falls asleep at the wheel.

Steel,

"Dangerous driving should be the focus."

Here here. But most people don't do it so the profit potential is limited. Lowering the enforcement bar considerably is much more lucrative even if a higher proportion of dangerous drivers slip through the net because enforcement measures aren't tailored to catch them.

“For the ‘road’, strict and thorough regulation is a necessity.”

Absolutely philips.

What should be done in NT?

1. Bring the policing regime into line with the law. The police allow drivers to do a few kmh over the limit. They don’t book highway drivers unless they are doing at least 11kmh over in Queensland and presumably in NT also. So let’s formalise this. Redefine existing speed limits so that they indicate a speed zone where the limit is 10kmh higher than the signs say. So a 100kmh speed limit sign will effectively mean a 100kmh speed zone with a speed limit is 110.

2. Place the onus fairly and squarely on drivers to know the accuracy of their speedometer, which can be easily determined with a GPS.

3. Then for goodness sake, make sure that the law…with all road rules, not just speed limits… is policed at face value and that there is no blind-eye policing when it come to road safety.

4. In order to do this, there needs to be a huge increase in the numbers of police. So how about the NT government utilising some of the Territory’s huge wealth…and exercising its duty of care to the community, to be able to travel safely on public roads…and get cracking on developing an effective police force?!

5. There need to be stationary speed cameras everywhere. Speed camera boxes should be popping up left right and centre. It doesn’t matter if only 5% of them actually have cameras in them. It’s the deterrence factor that counts most. Cameras should be positioned in pairs, with each facing in the opposite direction, and with each camera being within the field of view of the other one. This would just about eliminate vandalism!

continued

6. The police should be in unmarked cars! If this was the case, then practically every half-decent-looking car could be a potential police vehicle, in the minds of those who would break the law.

7. The number of random drug and alcohol tests should be greatly increased.

8. There should be a major education and awareness plan to accompany all of this, with special attention being placed on the most serious issues.

Exactly the same things should apply across the country, so that every state and territory is under just the same set of rules and the same level of enforcement.

I agree with Professor Brian Fildes that the 130kmh speed limit on the open road in NT is too high http://abc.com.au/news/stories/2008/07/19/2308445.htm. It should be 120…as it essentially is with the accepted leeway within 110kmh zones around the country.

The Territory absolutely does NOT need a blanket 100kmh speed limit, accompanied by no change in the policing regime. What it desperately needs is a vast improvement in policing.

Ludwig, your comment is like a sarcastic parody of a police commissioner or adminstrator whose eyes are gleaming at all the extra funding and taxes coming his way with the deceit he is giving politicians.

Perhaps some combination of your proposals would reduce costs, but punitive fines for speeding are a complete nonsense. Some people don't deserve to be driving over the speed limit, for a combination of reasons and they could be prosecuted and fined. But others should be able (with increased responsibility of course). We live in a huge country and the speed limits should reflect this reality. I'm not saying a blanket increase that applies even to idiots. I'm saying there must be something that allows capable drivers to do whatever is reasonable for them to do (and current rules are _not_ reasonable).

When there is a profit incentive, police can do all sorts of things to deceive politicians into giving them more money. Threats of increased crime by not doing their job properly ("lets increase the crime rate since polticians aren't listening"), to bribes of increased revenue (always seemingly the best option for politicans and bureacrats).