41 replies to this topic

[duncanm]

 

Driving 90 on a country road and 90 on a highway are entirely different things, everyone should be able to do 110 on highways.

 

P platers and trucks should be able to do 110. Fully licensed more like 140.

 

Our speed limits on divided freeways are ridiculous.

[Robert]

Speed limits are hard cause everybody has different levels of ability ( talking fully licenced drivers here)

I know I certainly wouldn't feel right sitting on 140 for an extended period of time, without taking some time to adjust.

The speed limits set are reasonable (IMO)
And suit the majority of drivers rather than the portion that are capable of traveling faster safely.


Bit off topic but meh



As for the pplater situation, I think they may have been a bit too easy on the turbo cars that we can drive.

But as a current pplater i think it's pretty good, for those that can handle it though.

[alexGT]

 

Driving 90 on a country road and 90 on a highway are entirely different things, everyone should be able to do 110 on highways.

 

in ALL conditions? I beg to differ.

 

If you allow a P Plater to do 110 in pouring rain on an unfamiliar road what speed do you think they will do?

[Barbbachello]

They should have learnt how to handle it on their L plates rather than just learning how to pass the driving test

[Meadyy8]

I had 24 month's on my reds, and have only just started my greens. The difference in drivers between my year suspended of driving, was appalling. Maybe it's because I live in a region which has a high proportion of older citizens, but that coincided with the amount of drivers who don't feel confident doing 80 in an 80 zone in my area is disturbing. Driver training should be compulsory from the age of 16. In schools, in driver day, skid pan events etc. You learn by doing, not reading or listening. Hell if I hadn't of had time in a paddock or doing the occasional stupid thing, the one time where something does go wrong, I would have had no idea how to correct it. It all comes down to experience. And learners and p platers don't experience enough.

[duncanm]

 

in ALL conditions? I beg to differ.

 

If you allow a P Plater to do 110 in pouring rain on an unfamiliar road what speed do you think they will do?

 

Right - which is why it should be back to the old system of discretion (on the part of both the driver and policing).

 

Unfortunately, we're moving to the situation where people are expecting the laws to keep them safe - ie: 110 on a freeway is safe in any condition (rain, hail, fog or snow), rather than using their noggin to understand when the limit is safe, and when its not.

 

Lowest common denominator - hence stupidity like the slow and split limits up Mount White on the M1, where in reality, any competent driver could do well over 110 up the hill.

[Staxta]

in ALL conditions? I beg to differ.
 
If you allow a P Plater to do 110 in pouring rain on an unfamiliar road what speed do you think they will do?

Like Nick said, you learn how to choose a speed on your L's. Just because the option to do 110 is there, you're not automatically going to do it.

[Cracktastic]

Speed limits are hard cause everybody has different levels of ability ( talking fully licenced drivers here)

I know I certainly wouldn't feel right sitting on 140 for an extended period of time, without taking some time to adjust.

The speed limits set are reasonable (IMO)
And suit the majority of drivers rather than the portion that are capable of traveling faster safely.


Bit off topic but meh



As for the pplater situation, I think they may have been a bit too easy on the turbo cars that we can drive.

But as a current pplater i think it's pretty good, for those that can handle it though.

I agree with Rob there, as i'm also a pplater myself, Rob needs to catch up to me sometimes in old pac. haha enough of jokes lol. But yeah i can agree with most peoples comments that say having WRX's and S15's on a earlier state of having your p's shouldn't be acceptable, but if your a person like me having my p's now for roughly 2 and abit years (mind you sadly still on my reds and wanting to go for my greens) i need a hurry along. lol

[alexGT]

Like Nick said, you learn how to choose a speed on your L's. Just because the option to do 110 is there, you're not automatically going to do it.

 

and the idea of the rules are that they are not experienced enough to make these decisions yet.

 

there is no substitute for experience when driving on the road, and keeping p plate rules for 3 years with these strict rules enforces that

[Staxta]

 

and the idea of the rules are that they are not experienced enough to make these decisions yet.

 

there is no substitute for experience when driving on the road, and keeping p plate rules for 3 years with these strict rules enforces that

 

They make these decisions all the time, anyone with half a brain will slow down in the wet. By your logic should we impose a 70km/h speed limit for p platers on country roads- because during bad conditions, most people slow down regardless of how long they've had their license.

[Scuba-Roo]

All these driver training places are already out there, If kids want to do them they will. If they don't then i think its just a waste of time making them compulsory.

I taught my sister to drive. The driving part is easy. Just gotta teach them to respect the road rules no matter what, keep the car in good roadworthy condition, and dont be peer pressured into anything else is okay. As a result of that i'd trust her 100% to take my Maloo out for a drive with friends and know she'd be responsible in it.

As 'responsible adults' i think its up to us to teach them the rights and wrongs, rather then trying to palm that responsibility onto something or someone else.

[mark300]

ive spoken to plenty of people around of late who have been around the car scene along time, and have told of stories of P platers who were driving high powered turbocharged cars and had big accidents, this is all back before the P plate restrictions came into place. any P plater who wants to drive a turbo car, is obviously going to be interested it in modifying it as well and willing to run the risk. personally im of the opinion its only a matter of time until we see another major accident thanks to irresponsibly driven high powered performance cars, and it will force everything back to square one. The government needs to find a happy medium between what we had before and what we have now. if it means going through the list one by one and selecting/deselecting cars then so be it. 

regarding speed limits, again its a bit from either side. personally on roads like the M1 having an L plater/P plater doing 20kph under the speed limit i think is dangerous and can cause accidents, especially when you are driving in peak hour traffic with people going everywhere and with no regard for anyone else on the road. 

[Barbbachello]

I agree with all of that. S15s will be bought by takumi wannabes and will be slid into every power poll possible. Auto Wrx wagon would be 10x safer

[hoff]

I agree with all of that. S15s will be bought by takumi wannabes and will be slid into every power poll possible. Auto Wrx wagon would be 10x safer

O well means more call outs for me

[mark300]

I agree with all of that. S15s will be bought by takumi wannabes and will be slid into every power poll possible. Auto Wrx wagon would be 10x safer

 

personally i think even WRXs should be banned. allow the holden cruzes and all the small ecobox european cars. anything performance like ban it. 

[Barbbachello]

 
personally i think even WRXs should be banned. allow the holden cruzes and all the small ecobox european cars. anything performance like ban it. 

Those are the new rules we have in Victoria

[alexGT]

 

They make these decisions all the time, anyone with half a brain will slow down in the wet. By your logic should we impose a 70km/h speed limit for p platers on country roads- because during bad conditions, most people slow down regardless of how long they've had their license.

 

it puts a clamp on speed until they gain experience, its not that difficult to understand. the idea behind 3 years of P's is to gain experience on the road in all conditions.

 

otherwise they may as well give you a full licence straight up?

[Staxta]

 

it puts a clamp on speed until they gain experience, its not that difficult to understand. the idea behind 3 years of P's is to gain experience on the road in all conditions.

 

otherwise they may as well give you a full licence straight up?

 

Didn't think speed was the only limit on a provisional license? Of course you gain experience over those 3 years, and that's why you're limited to zero BAC and slower cars. But we're talking about highway speeds, on highways, the set limits are good for country roads. Travelling 20km/h less than everyone else isn't super safe.

[mark300]

 

it puts a clamp on speed until they gain experience, its not that difficult to understand. the idea behind 3 years of P's is to gain experience on the road in all conditions.

 

otherwise they may as well give you a full licence straight up?

 

passenger limits, BAC, vehicle restrictions are all very worthy restrictions, however i still stand by my reasoning that having traffic doing 20 under the limit on the M1 on a morning peak hour is dangerous having done the drive lately.

[Jimbo]

All these driver training places are already out there, If kids want to do them they will. If they don't then i think its just a waste of time making them compulsory.

I taught my sister to drive. The driving part is easy. Just gotta teach them to respect the road rules no matter what, keep the car in good roadworthy condition, and dont be peer pressured into anything else is okay. As a result of that i'd trust her 100% to take my Maloo out for a drive with friends and know she'd be responsible in it.

As 'responsible adults' i think its up to us to teach them the rights and wrongs, rather then trying to palm that responsibility onto something or someone else.

Therein lies the problem. Alot of "responsible adults" aren't to the capacity of teaching their children to drive. My Ma is a professional driving instructor and tells me all sorts of horror stories about how kids are taught to drive by their parents. Kids shouldn't be taught to drive by their parents at all. 

It's absolutely not a waste of time making kids take compulsory driver courses, it could very well save their lives.

Let's take you teaching your sister for example. Don't take it personally and it's not factual, just fictional based on some information, as it's just an example. Hear me out..

You taught her to drive, and you're only 23. You have only 7 years experience on the road, 3 of which were on your P's, assuming you started driving at the soonest time you legally could. You taught her everything you know, which at 7 years in total, isn't really a great deal of time on the roads. I'm 28, started driving at 16 and I wouldn't feel like I have had enough experience to teach someone.

One day she's driving her car along on a wet day, comes to a bend maybe just a little too fast and the car loses grip. Unless someone drummed it into her religiously or she took out an advanced drivers course that taught her how to recover from this situation, how the hell would she know what to do? Knowing what happens first hand in a safe learning environment and learning how to recover from it, could well mean the difference between a fatal accident and just having a scare on the road.

Do you see where i'm going? Puts things in perspective...

Until i did these courses myself, i certainly wouldn't have known. I would have had no idea how my car would have reacted in a similar situation and my actions to attempt recovery, would most definitely have exacerbated the situation.

In fact, i got in a hairy situation once in my old GX turbo conversion, i was just dawdling home from work one Thursday night after a light shower had rained down. I came to my usual left turn at Winston Hills ( Off Old Windsor onto the industrial back road through Winston Hills), i took the corner slower than usual due to the rain at about 30-35k's and as i got round the corner, the back end just decided it wanted to party on on it's own. I started fishtailing badly and i just flashed back to what i learnt and i avoided what could have been a nasty accident. Had i not have known what to do, i would have crossed into the oncoming lane and ploughed into the gutter  and probably into someones parked car or front lawn. Lucky enough there weren't any other cars nearby.

You never think that it would happen to you and certainly not expect that when your just commuting along and not even doing anything silly. It can and does happen!