NT Speed Limit

But perhaps due to you higher speed you missed the other 2 camels that you would have hit if going slower as they came out on the road shortly after the 1st one and may have been unavoidable.

Just something to ponder

Oh and obviously I am against the now regulated Speed limit on the NT HWY's.

Not cause I think we should all be able to drive as fast as we want, but because I don’t believe Speed is the big problem or the Evil villain laying in wait to cause death and destruction to anybody who tip’s their Speedo past that mystical figure inside of the red circle that we are told is safe.

I for one will wait and see what the NT road toll does over the next few years particularly on the now regulated HWY’s that were previously sighed //.

I suspect not a lot will change or maby it will get worse and the Road safety counsels will still blame speed and push for a reduction in the limits yet agene.

Exploder all I can say to you comment is ... AMEN! BLOODY AMEN!

It will be interesting to see how the road toll changes in NT. I'm pretty happy to put money on it not going down that's for bloody sure.

Its amazing to see the News on public broadcast get carried away with road tolls , particularly around Easter and Cristmas.

" once again NSW has topped the number of Easter road tolls " Apparently population density and the state of our main roads has nothing to do with this, I particularly like battling to get round someone thats doing 80 km in the 100 zone only to catch up with the next guy doing 80 . With no overtaking oppertunities this is what causes road rage and adds to the road toll cause people sometimes get fed up and want to overtake no matter what.

If I get the chance I try to get Northern NSW out of the way at night if possible.

I have also been to Alice Springs and Ayres rock in my WRX , definitely had no problems with no speed limit . Wouldnt like to have a go at going fast in something like an XF Falcon with retread tyres , this was the type of car that you would see wrecked at the end of long skid marks in the bush.

I have come to hate inconsiderate drivers .

Glenn.
Glenn

But what or who is this Speed?

Is 60km/h speed?

I think if we get rid of this sudden stop character then this speed should be right.

Oh bugger I just ran out of beers, Just going to pop up to the BottleO and grab some more, I hope this sudden stop isn’t around my aria at the moment or it and speed might have a run in.

HAHA, yeah just like "speed related" crashes, I love those ones.

Yup... He was going a speed, and he crashed. Bloody speed.

Matt has a point.
Back in 1991 a group of about 20 of my MC club rode from Canberra to Alice springs to attend the biannual Centre Ralley.
The last time Id been up the centre was 1977 and it was dirt from Pt augusta to the NT border, this in a HG holden with 13ft caravan with the oldies and 5 kids.
Nice corrogations, not. The "new" road is a vast improvement.
Anyway the ability to do whatever speed you like was an attraction and it was explored to the full limit of my and my bikes abilities, yehaaaaa!
I might add that the time between Kulgera and Erldunda was something slightly less than 20mins, it was also the only time we did this due to "logistics", Fuel consumptiom was 9.5 kmLtr, pretty good you reckon its usually 16 kmltr (25ltr tank), used 150ml(3ltr sump) of oil, removed 1.5 mm of tread from the rear tyre all in 80kms. I was working on getting 10,000 km out of that rear tyre for the trip up and return, I think it lasted 8,000 and just got me back to Adelaide. So you pay for it one way or another.
Following that continous white line in the centre of the road was tireing, then when you stop you notice the line isnt continous but spaced something like 20 mt apart, all youve seen over the last 80km was the line, the tacho and a redish/green blur in your periphial vision, not very conductive to sight seeing.
The other major thing we noticed was 99% of fellow travelers, bikes ,cars, 4x4 or trucks rarely exceeded 120kmh.
It seems most people are happy and competent to drive at this speed so I dont see 130kmh as a real impediment. Now if we could only get the nanny states to raise the limit to something similar.............

I remeber the guys who taught me how to "ride" sports bikes in WA told me their rule of thumb. If you're going more than twice the speed limit, don't stop. 9 times out of 10 they won't even bother because by the time they've put their donnut down, zipped their fly back up and come after you in their V6 dunnydore you've already got home parked your bike and are enjoying a beer in front of the telly.

If they do feel adventureous and decide to come after you they won'y have a hope in hell anyway. No V6 dunnydore or even a V8 can do 270kph. ;-P

But for the rest of us, yeah I quite often do below the speed limit when I'm cruising in the 4by because it saves fuel, BUT it peeves me off that I still have to constantly be glancing at the firggin speedo instead of looking where I'm going and driving at a speed that is safe for the conditions. When we trip up to Perth in the missus BF falcon I would feel quite comforotable on those big wide straight deserted new dual carrage way roads to do 120-130kph without even considering it to be unsafe, I still reckon 130kph in a brand new falcon is safer than 100kph in a loaded up 15 year old 4by, but hey, it's not (apparantly).

Something that is interesting is that with the New 6 Speed auto’s and manuals in the Pro-Formance falcons is people report better fuel economy cruising on 140km/h that at 110km/h and a bugger all increase cruising on 160km/h+

From memory At 160km/h a XR8 with the ZF Auto is doing under 3000rpm!!!

"People aren't stupid and will drive according to the conditions".

Cop this one.
17 year old P plater (had license for about 3 months) radar pinged for 179 kph in an 80 zone, police had to take evasive action when the f###wit saw them and slammed on the brakes. Skid marks were 100metres long and all over the road.
His P#ss weak excuse "I wanted to see how fast it would go".

And people aren't stupid????

This was reported on Perth news yesterday.

Disco.

So what are you trying to say? I KNOW! Let's drop the speed limit to 70kph, that'll stop him! That's what they've done all over Perth. Drop all the limits by 10kph to stop the hoons....? WTF? Do you really think that hoons give a bleep what the speed limit is? Of course not, it just pisses off everyone else who's trying to do the right thing and of course increases revenue when they place those piece of bleep multanovas on roads that a clearly speed limited way to low.

Jeff M
You don't have any idea of where I am coming from.
When I was your age, a good few years ago at that, I held similar opinions to you. But now having had a number of friends injured or worse by other drivers who basically thought that they had the ability to drive at high speed and/or with high blood alcohol levels, I wonder about Barnesy's comment about people not being stupid.
The hoon incidents and the number of cars siezed as a result show (at least to me) that some drivers are indeed stupid or driving without brain in gear.

Nuff Said

Disco

disco driver, I'm interested, how old am I old wise one?

Where were you comming from then?

"17 year old P plater (had license for about 3 months) radar pinged for 179 kph in an 80 zone"

The discussion in the thread is around the issue of speed limits in the NT and how they would or would not improve saftey.

Do you think this 17 year old cares what the speed limit is? Do you think that if there wasn't a speed limit on that road of 80kph that he'd be going faster? I doubth that, he was probably going as fast as he could. I know when I was young and dumb I didn't even look at the speed signs, I drove as fast as I wanted where I wanted. It was only after injuring myself and a passenger quite badly that I relased that I was not industructable and started to grow up.

People who are likely to obey the speed limits are not the ones doing these kinds of speeds, it's only the people who don't give a bleep what the speed limit is. So really, the whole point of them is rather questionable.

Driving on country roads everyday I have learnt one thing, and that is the majority of people don't even do the speed limit on country roads. It wouldn't matter if it was 110, 120, 130, 140 you'd still get bleep s travelling at 170kph+. The fact that WA police find it rather amusing to setup speed traps in overtaking lanes on busy highways proves to me that they are not interested in saving lifes at all, they are interest in $$$. I know I don't overtake on those overtaking lanes anymore, I wait for a random stretch of road that I feel is safe as I don't feel like coping 3 points and $200 for exceeding the speed limit by 10kph so I can pass a truck safley and spend less time facing my family down the wrong side of the road.
Saving lives - pftt, if they really wanted to save lives they'd let average joe pass on an overtaking lane without the fear of costing him his license and his next week rent money.

Jeff,

Not withstanding the view I have stated above, you have an extremely valid perception mate. I totally agree with you.

The other thing that amuses me about all of this "don't speed - save lives" propaganda that our governments keep feeding us to justify their greed and rediculous speed traps and absurd speed limits is the fact that in WA they have a compain called "drop 5, save lives". They have all of these comercials that show us how much damage 5km over the speed limit causes and how we are going to mame and kill peope by driving 5k's over the limit (obviously to justify their ever increasing tolerances with their fines).

If 5kph makes SO MUCH DIFFERENCE in saving lives, why is it that:

Driving on a straight clear highway in Vic: 100kph
Driving on a straight clear highway in WA: 110kph
Driving on a straight clear highway in NT: 130kph

???

Man you guys in NT must be killing people left right an centre! ... Oh hang on, you have the lowest road toll... Hmmm, somthing doesn't add up.

If 5kph makes such a differnece maybe we should all be doing 50kph EVERYWHERE. Not just on suburban streets, on the highway, on the freeway. Man the road toll would HAVE to become less then!! But I bet it would'nt.

Thats it, barely anyone (except for the stupid) drive open roads at night, a water buffalo jumping through ya windscreen at less than 130k wud be devastating & a roo just makes a bloody mess of the car & on my bike i cant afford to hit a dam thing (i am the bullbar) ban driving open roads at night, simple. (but that wont create revenue)

and as for people racing, nobody bothers to drive that far, ive followed the turbos' & "fully sic" V8s' from the city & they dont go open, they go to a industrial park out palmerston way for their street racing.

Id barely call myself a "sensible" rider, but im cautious, ill only ever open it up if its flat countryside, without cliffs & clear visibility to see what may be running towards the roadway. but my bike is a SPORTSBIKE, they are nowhere near "comfortable" especially under 150k where i dont have the headwind to hold me up from leaning on my bloody wrists, so this is why i wont bother to ride anywhere anymore.

There shud be more education on what "open" means, it doesnt mean open throttle, it means open choice of decision on what your vehicle / the roadway in front & you are safely comfortable with, on my bike i havnt found the top speed as yet (260K so far) but 220k is the most i feel safe at & thats with open visibility of the landscape around me, sometimes 180K is the go & in through thick scrub, maby only 100k