Does a lower speed limit reduce fatigue

In my personal experience, whilst an increase of speed increases linearly, fatigue and concentration required increases exponentially.

HI Honky.
I live in the Alice, So the drive to darwin and the drive to Adelaide are just about the same give or take 50 Kliks.
I find the drive to Darwin in either my Commodore or 105 Series, with the cruise set on 130 KLMS relatively easy, about 11 to 12 hours depending on how many smoko breaks for the Family. On the other hand, I am flat out getting to Port Augusta, let alone to Adelaide,in a alert state of mind.I have lived in the Territory for over 40 years and have driven to both Capitals many times, and its always the same .,Easy one way, hard the other. You are spot on about the MVA figures in relation to speed limits.
Regards
Greg

Honky

its just like the pacific highway here on the coast.......they cant fix the road so they lower the speed limit,then they get on TV and sprook how they are lowering the road toll..........as well as raising more revenue through speeding fines.

It seems some drivers are dangerous at any speed.



I find its the conditions not the speed which makes me tired.

One day last week went from Albany to Hyden with a side wind all the way,

really had to work with large van on the back.

In contrast from Hyden to Kalgoorlie which was further was a lot easier as

there was no wind

Certainly the faster you go the more you have to concentrate which will tire

you out if you are not used to driving long stints.

Hey Honky.

The Northern territory is a good example of increased accidents and road tolls when you reduce speed.

The above statement is not correct, in fact it is not even close.

I have lived in the Territory most of my life, the first year of the lower speed limit there was an increase in the road toll, however a very small percentage happened on the Highways and those that did were High speed accidents ( above 130 kph the now legal limit).

As for lower speed limits and fatigue, well it has never affected me and I have driven millions of km's both before and after they dropped the open speed limit up here.

Dropping a speed limit 10 kph wont kill people by fatigue IMHO.

Cheers Steve.

Sites like this show that road toll is not related to speed , and more closely aligned to various distractions , so its reasonable to conclude that spending longer on the road will cause more problems.




http://www.roadsense.com.au/facts.html

My answer would be yes, OK i know a lot of you will disagree with some of what I have written, I can go back to 1970 when I owned a 1969 Cortina GT 1600, I travelled from Coonabarabran NSW to Nuriootpa, SA 1,268 Klm in 14½ hours, during that time I did not feel fatigued , ...why...because at 80mph my concentration was full on , no gawking around paddocks etc, eyes glued to the road, and of course I applied the same level of concentration during my 30 years of truck driving, my favourite sections of road to go quick was the Putty Road, Windsor to Bulga, and the old sections of the Pacific Hwy between Balina and Murwillumbah taking in Burringbar Range, Never once did I ever come close to losing a truck, It's when people travel slower they tend not give as much concentration into driving, wander around on the road, takes longer to get from A to B , they rubber neck at every thing they see, you don't do that when driving fast.
Now having said that there are people out there on our roads that are unsafe no matter what speed they travel at, they just can't get the act together, I've had some say to me ....they hate driving , well why are they driving , I take an interest in driving, it's like a hobby, if you don't like it then one shouldn't do it, like... if your not into stamp collecting you don't collect stamps, if your not into playing sport one don't play sport, should be same about driving, catch a bus ,

.

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I have noticed over many years that the slower I cruise, the fresher I feel when the day is done. That is easy to say for a retiree of course - I have "all day to get nowhere", so to speak. People who make a living via the nation's highways in one way or another probably have most at stake in such discussions.

In a simplistic way......speed kills......if the car wasn't moving, you couldn't hit anything, but the faster you hit something the quicker it will probably kill you ....

Now, from a safety point of view....if all speed limits were capped at 40 k/ph, there would be a drastic reduction in fatalities.....but knowing how bad some of the drivers out there are.....there would still be some running off the road and hitting trees etc !!!!

Now, from a sensible point of view.....if all drivers were taught how to drive properly.....and all limits were the same ( or even higher )....then the road toll would still reduce drastically.....but we know that ain't gonna happen....

So, the pollies look at the stastistics.......and reduce speed limits,thinking thats going to solve the problem.....but even if they reduced the Hwy limits to 70 k/ph.....a head on at this speed is still like hitting a concrete wall at 140 k/ph, so its back to the drawing board......either make the roads so you can't hit anything or teach people how to drive..

The problem for policy makers is that you have to play to the lowest common denominator and even then it won’t be enough.

In a perfect world, drivers would be alert, drive to the conditions at an appropriate speed and display a common courtesy to all road users.

The problem is it ain’t a perfect world. So we need to have limitations imposed to take account of it. Does reducing the speed limit increase or decrease the road toll? Speed is a critical factor; increase speed and you need a comparable increase in your ability to react to changes in your driving environment. Decrease speed and you build in a greater margin than would be available at a higher speed. That may be enough to avert a tragedy in some instances, and in others it might just delay hitting the tree by an additional two seconds….

Having said that, speed is only one factor that challenges drivers – the key for any driver is that you need to know your own limitations and respond accordingly. After all the person behind the wheel has the most control over their own destiny…

As an aside, I think one of the significant contributing factors to a reduction in the road toll over a long period has been the decrease in the price of air travel…


Good luck out there….

This is not what I suggest people do these days. I am only giving an example of how speed can help you stay alert.

In the 60's I was stationed at Balcombe the "other" side of Melbourne and my girlfriend (now my wife of 39 years) was in Sydney. A mate had the same situation. Every second Friday we would hop in either of our cars and head off to Sydney for the weekend. We would drive into Liverpool and meet the girls outside Thompson Ford almost on the dot of eight hours later. Not at all tired but a little cramped. You do the figures and remember every town was 35MPH, no freeways and no speed limits. Also take note that people actually gave you a fair go. We used to wave and say thank you without getting the one finger reply. 100MPH+ most of the time in the country without one single close call. Three stops for driver change and one stop for fuel, drink resupply (not alcohol stupid) and pick up a sandwich in Holbrook. Neither slept. It was the passengers job to keep the radio on a station (no CD or tapes then) and the driver alert.

The lesson here is that we were not tired or sleepy. Never booked but followed a few times. Stopped once for a highway patrol cop to check out my car. The twit just wanted to have a look under the bonnet. He actually had the hide to ask me to switch it off. Switch off a red hot engine back then was disastrous.

Several years later when 100K limits were introduced and me still in the Army but a bit older (hey the same car though), I had to do it and couldn't do it without several stops. Tired and not much fun when I got to Sydney. Yes the slower you go the more chance of boredom setting in and you falling to sleep.

As a testament to our driving we always found it easy to get three passengers for the back seat to pay for the petrol and a service. Just had to walk into the mess and say "Anyone want to go to Sydney for the weekend?. 5 mins later we are gone.

But don't try this now.

Hi All

"Don't talk to me about statistics"

Interesting thread, at the end of the day I think FredG has it nailed, "You gotta drive the road", in that I take it to mean not only manage your own abilities and fatigue but watch other vehicles as well.

With all due respect, there is a huge difference, lets say awareness level, between country drivers and drivers on the road all the time (no matter the speed) and city drivers who just can't wait to get out to the 100k +, in a lot of cases driving their overloaded car or 4bee and caravan combinations, these drivers have never had to do a course to drive these articulated combinations, have no idea how to load them or even which tyres to put on them, then at a break they will stand around with like minded individuals and sprout off.

Don't believe me, just go and ask some of the caravan park owners about the abilities of some of these people and how park staff have to put guests vehicles/vans in their spots, makes you cringe.

These same people are the ones who will come up and talk to you about how they held someone up, how quick heavy vehicles go, played an I'll teach you joke on another vehicle, how their vehicle uses to much fuel and the list goes on and on.

At the end of the day I drove heavy vehicles (mostly overnighters) and tour coaches for 38 years and had some time driving green machines, my map of Australia has varicose vein lines as to where I have travelled, so I don't really take much notice of what people who have no idea of the real world say.

But in the end there is something in what everyone thinks and we must listen to them, we all know that you can make statics say whatever you want.

I have never seen the statistics of professional drivers x kilometres travelled x accidents x fault rate, don't think you will either.

To Steve at Top End, good to see you back, hope you had a good season, and the Cherkin Oka went well for you, the new website looks great.

That's my two bobs worth, now putting hard hat on . . )))

Cheers

Statistics of professional drivers would sure as hell blow them all out of the water.

In the sixties I had an FJ ute and I drove from Cairns to Necastle in 39Hours non stop.Carried a 44 in the back stopped to put the syphon in and drove till the gauge was near full stoped and took the syphen out. Bloody idiotic.

Thinking I was great and telling of what I had achieved and then I was told of a truckie from Tomago in the Newcastle area that regularly drove his semi from Newcastle to Cairns and has done the return in 35 Hours did it for years.

I consider todays statistics are just another way of poeple trying to justify their existance and their fat income.
Ian

Hi Honky,

I believe the number of accidents on this hway will increase once its 100km/h. I live in Parkes approx 1/2 way from Brissy and Melb.

The number of people who are fatigued by the time they head thru Parkes is suprising. lowering the speed wont mean they wont try to cover the same distance everyday, It just means they will be driving longer to do the same distance.

The RTA must have a good look at themselves if they think this will do anything else but increase the road toll.

Cheers Wilko

Hello,
I've driven millions of kms in 14 or so countries and I think the speed limits they generally give us in Australia are either revenue raisers, an insult to our driving ability, or a true reflection of our general ability as 'road citizens'. I have found that many Australian drivers tend to drive competitively rather than cooperatively with our fellow road users. (Before you start, I am proudly born and bred here...) For instance, in Germany on the autobahns they have higher traffic density, no speed limit and no obvious police presence yet the road toll per capita is lower than ours? The autobahns are essentially no different to the Hume Hwy Sydney to Melbourne (but no single lane sections). A 100kph limit on Sydney's M7 is an absolute testament to our generally poor abilities as road users.
So whats the difference? The general German driver seems to drive as if they were one of our truckies. They know whats going on around them. They get out of the way if they have to. They drive to the conditions. Its pretty simple really, most truckies aren't rocket scientists. Driving in Europe/UK, you rarely make the 'look at that idiot' comment. Its quite common here.
My father drove trucks and he taught me to drive. A big part of it was paying real attention to what was happening around you, courteous behaviour to others and altering your driving to suit the conditions. Many drivers these days seem oblivious to their surroundings and don't recognize potential threats until its too late.

Oh and yes....I get more fatigued and my mind is less focussed the slower I have to go.

Mike

Instead of all the bluff, hyperbole, misconceptions, myth and outright bull, why don't you blokes do a little research on the subject that most of you seem to know SFA about.

Here's somewhere to start

Regards

If there is no obvious reason for an accident the speed box will always get ticked, which will obviously skew statistics.