QUESTION TIME

110 (100) for trucks on freeways is too low. That's why concentration is lost and boredom sets in.

Yep a little strange we have the same upper speed limit as when we drove around in HR's with no power brakes, seatbelts, airbags and crappy roads. Lucky if you had single lane blacktop on country road.

Interesting question this one
I think 40 around a school is way to slow for most school zones I drive past and I also think in the city it's to slow as well and perhaps if the people picking up their kids got off their fat asses and walked the kids to the front gates of schools the kids might learn how to cross the road safely
I was talking over a few drinks with my mate who painted the Mack about this very thing ( he drives trucks full time for a dollar) and I put it to him, if the speed limit is a 100 we all do 105 if its 110 we do 115 and so on
We are our own worst enemy with speed limits
100 to slow and boring on a fwy and you loose concentration?? Then pull over at one of the many road houses and have a cuppa and a walk around
I could go on but we push the limits on things and then piss and moan when we get busted, dont even get me started on log books

Drivers (not just truck drivers but all drivers ) piss and moan but most need to take a long hard look at them selves as no matter what the laws are we all push it to the limit and then cry when we get done

Paul

A reason I raised this is there where 3 fatalities on a small section of road I commute on a 18 month period. Now 2 where with a collision with objects one a tree the other a fence the vehicles left the road. The other was pedestrian that step in front of a bus as they crossed road after exiting the bus. So there is the scene so the council in their wisdom reduced the speed limit from 70 to 60 the reasoning that I was informed was to reduce the risk of future deaths. Now stepping out the front of the bus to cross the road is just stupid. Now the idiots that collide with objects they weren't doing the speed limit anyway
But the bottom line is the council had to be seen to be doing something Just to protect stupid

Slightly off topic to speed limits, the question could well be asked as just why far too many accidents/incidents which lead to fatalities.
Must be reams and reams of papers produced (as well as doco's on TV) that blame everything from the conditions of the surface of the roads, to weather, speed and just about everything including alchemy and voodoo.
One of the things that is glaringly apparent to me after 50 odd years of having a licence (about 40 0f them in the transport game), is the sheer inattention people of all age groups, genders, political persuasions pay to their driving.
And with the common usage these days of mobile phones, only increased tenfold.
Does anyone remember defensive driving being taught as a basic skills set when on your learners? Gone by the board now. Maybe we are all in such a mad rush to get to wherever we are going, we have thrown things out the window, like common courtesy, leaving a safe distance between vehicles, could go on and on.
Take a look around you at some of your fellow vehicle users, be they in whatever mode of transport, you'll see them doing some utterly braindead undertakings. Don't have to have anyone else in the car either, people reading text messages, newspapers, tablets, whatever .
Until we realise just how precious life is when we get behind the wheel, the numbers will keep stacking up. I remember seeing a Disney cartoon when I was a kid, where Goofy, a mild mannered ordinary family man transformed into a belligerent, raving homicidal maniac after a short period in his car. Not so far fetched.
I don't know just what the answer is, lift the age limit? extend the learners period? better education? All very well and good, but just one nights viewing of some of those Oz or Kiwi highway patrol shows will ram home the point that quite a large percentage of people think that they are above the law, it doesn't apply to them. How many times do you see some moron pulled up for the umpteenth time, only for it to be shown that the licence had been cancelled years ago!
Like I said, maybe it's a sad reflection of the type of person we are rearing, educating and instructing across ALL walks of life. Again, would take much longer than this topic and site to iron out all the problems with the world today.
My rant for today,
Dave

I think it comes down to the old adage that most people know their rights but haven't been taught their responsibilities

Hear the bit about inattention.
KARMA.
Couple of weeks ago in the right lane in an 80 zone, some bright woman doing 65-70 and would not move over or speed up.
Got to a set of traffic lights and se was messing with something on the passengers seat.
Lights change and she went up to 80, straight past a 60 sign and right into a hand held radar.
Cop came out into the right lane, she dodged to the inner and was not going to stop, cop really got to pointing for her to pull over.
He was not very happy with her

I learned to drive a truck when i was a young bloke ,taught by my dad old jailbar Fords & Maple Leafs really slow trucks . So when i got my licence 50 odd years ago my first car was a side valve morris minor ,flat out at 50mph think the speedo only went to 60 ,my dad would not let me drive anything faster ,said i had to learn to drive with care &responsibilty ,the roads then were not the best witch restricted your speed anyway. Had to pester him for nearly 6months to let me buy a mini when they came out as he thought they were a bit quick but he eventually relented . i think the restrictions o n driver today are not hard enough i can't see why there cars can't be speed limited like trucks . 80kph for first year 90kph the next year and unrestricted after 5years driving (clean record) But you will get the winging parents saying they have to drive my car so why speed limit my car I cant see a problem if it helps there childs safety
Whats wrong with driving a speed limited car think of the money saved on fuel in this day and age But maybe i don't no what i'm talking about prob called an old fart.BUT i've driven all these years accident free i think only because of the way i was taught to drive in my early years CARE AND RESPONSIBILITY i'll get off my high horse now

I wonder if the capabilities of the cars and other vehicles have outstripped the capabilities of the average driver. The base model of the new commodore to be released next year is capable of 0 to 100kmh in 7 seconds. In the 1980's that was a good street drag car setup.

Add to this people now see a licence as a right not a privilege and generally people need less mechanical aptitude to control or maintain a car now. to most people the bonnet may as well be a sealed box the mechanic has the key to. As to checking tyres - why?

In the early 2000's I worked with people who had never driven a car without ABS and traction control. they treated the accelerator and brake pedals as on/off switches. Likewise there were people who drove around on flat tyres for months as they couldn't tell a tyre was flat by looking at it and it was ok when the mechanic serviced the vehicle 9 months ago!

Also some modern aids such as air bags can cause incidents. Airbags are designed for impacts where impact stops the vehicle. Hitting a kangaroo doesn't stop the vehicle in the same way. The airbag explosive can't be seen through and if you have a knee airbag it will push your foot off the brake pedal. The vehicle then goes off the road and hits a tree or similar and there's no more airbags to deploy!

bparo wrote: Add to this people now see a licence as a right not a privilege and generally people need less mechanical aptitude to control or maintain a car now. to most people the bonnet may as well be a sealed box the mechanic has the key to. As to checking tyres - why?

I think most people see everything as rights these days and by most and I mean most from aged pensioners down to little kids at school dont under stand that everything is a privilege
And with the privilege's we have owning a car and driving on roads etc come responsibilities and most dont want to acknowledge this and pretty soon we have chaos on the roads which is a lot of what we see today

Paul