Stuart Hwy De-Restricted

[the spruce moose]

Hey guys, I hope this hasnt been posted already. If so please remove.

The Northern territory government is set to de-restrict a 200km section of the Stuart Hwy between Alice Springs and Barrow Creek.

http://www.carsales.com.au/news/2013/nt-removes-speed-limits-39454

What are your thoughts?

[GTR-N1]

Can anyone remember what a "Derestriction" sign looks like? I'm old enough.

I wonder if the signs will get souvenired???

I think the experiment is worth a try on the conditions that...

* road surface is kept in good order

* shoulders are firm

* road markings are clear

* alternative restrictive speed signs be erected should the roads be wet

* an appropriate distance be kept between vehicles especially with presence of road trains

* P-platers be permitted to drive at 110 so as to not impact too much on traffic flow

Hmmm, I'm sure I've left out a couple of things; because we're not talking about autobahn conditions here...

[noone]

Last time all the open limit signs between where i was working at the time at Pine Creek and Darwin disappeared overnight and i missed out :-(

In all reality there were few sections of road that were really that flash, mostly a potholed goat track single lane

Though did get to overtake coppers at hays creek at a little over 200 :-) good memory's

[Iron Mike]

Though did get to overtake coppers at hays creek at a little over 200 :-) good memory's

LOLL wouldn't that be nice

[niZmO_Man]

No point, Australia isn't rich enough to maintain the roads and teach people how to drive. Far too many Aussie drivers are struggling with 100 km/h. Irrelevant on this forum as most give a shit how they drive.

I reckon this thing will get demolished in a few months.

[BoyWhoCriedWolf]

It was great when it was open limit. Not surprisingly most people sat on 140-160 with spurts up to 200+ when overtaking a road train.

Since restriction was employed the road toll has gone up.

Most road deaths in the NT are from tourists, the indig, and pedestrians being hit or run over while sleeping on the road.

Passing the coppers was good fun, my weapon of choice was the mighty wagon!

[GTR-N1]

I haven't been along that stretch since '76 & nearly fell asleep and run off the Hwy at Kingoonya.

What's wildlife road kill like these days, what with emus, camels, wombats and roos?

Worse at sunrise and dusk?

[BoyWhoCriedWolf]

Both sunrise/sunset and night time are pretty bad Tez, plenty of road kill. Darwin to Larrimah is bad for wallabies, south of that is Emu and big roo country.

Aboriginals, they be everywhere.

[GTR-N1]

Understand. Ta

[Humbla]

Terry are you and your's safe frome the fire's.

[GTR-N1]

Many thanks for asking Genelle.

Springwood fire started 1Km away - but fortunately for us, to the E - in a N-W wind.

Biggest threat is from Lithgow or Mt Victoria fires.

RFS sent out SMSs which is very good.

RFS announced that they have to abandon hazard burnoffs now - pretty evident.

Many thanks too for concerned calls and PMs so far, from GoldZilla, TREGTR, God_speed, iwanta34gtr, Wongy, Owens, xntrq, Sinista32, fatz, PN-Mad, Aggroman, Pezhead, 34GeeTeeTee, Carmen, IronChef, Humbla

[Super Drager]

What i would like to know is, how would they enforce street racing on this highway? Say two cars lined up and gave it a squirt to 200+

[the spruce moose]

Though did get to overtake coppers at hays creek at a little over 200 :-) good memory's

That's awesome

I feel that a strong police presence targeting unroadworthy vehicles (particularly bald tyres and things of that nature) is of utmost importance if this is to be successful.

[BakemonoRicer]

Sounds like I need to plan a roadtrip to the Stuart Highway.

[colourclassic]

SAU annual Northern Territory 'Wildlife and scenery appreciation' cruise anyone?

[iseekool]

No point, Australia isn't rich enough to maintain the roads and teach people how to drive. Far too many Aussie drivers are struggling with 100 km/h. Irrelevant on this forum as most give a shit how they drive.

I reckon this thing will get demolished in a few months.

This. I'll all for unrestricted autobahn speeds, but many people struggle to drive properly at 100km/h on a nice 4x lane freeway with late model cars... One can only imagine once they are in the outback without all the lanes and nice surfaces...

- Stricter road worthy (say every 5 years)

- Stricter licensing

- Visitors from countries without strict driving rules shouldn't be allowed to rent a vehicle - without passing a simple but comprehensive written test.

- New migrants (even if they have had driving experience) need to pass the same exams as any L plater graduating to their P plates.

[niZmO_Man]

To be honest, when I started driving in Amsterdam I was terrible, but picked it up pretty quickly. Didn't know any Dutch (still don't apart from a couple of words, which I forgot now) so I would have failed a written test at "Name and Date" lol. The good thing about over there is, the public transport infrastructure is well established and so many people ride bikes that there are far fewer cars for the population. So I had the room to get accustomed to LHD and their signage (all logical signs to was quick to pick it up). One time I stuffed up was in a big driveway, going on the left side to exit when I should have been on the right. The lady that I blocked had a good laugh.

The main problem with driving is that the driving test is way too easy, teaches you basic things but doesn't assess how well you can drive. New import drivers should get a full license test (that has been vastly redone), fail > L's, pass > full.

Will be interesting to see if there is any impact or if it's business as usual over in WA (hopefully the latter).

[Alkatraz]

Having lived in Germany for 5 years I can confidently say that Dutch drivers are the worst in Europe. Dutch people are my favourite Europeans but they cant drive well at all. Especially when they come through Germany with their campervans, doing 100kph in the right hand lane and then decide to randomly pull over to the left in front of someone doing 200kph+

I agree with some of the above comments. Its all about driver education and keeping crappy cars off of the road. This is how it is done in Germany. It takes ages to get your licence over there. Many, many practise hours in all conditions are required before you can even sit the test and you cant have good ol' mum and dad teach you how to drive. Its expensive but it creates better drivers. Plus your car needs to be checked every couple of years. I believe that Germany also has a lower road toll per 100,000 cars than Australia does even with having some open Autobahn limits and 80 million people in an area the size of NSW.

Unfortunately we will never see anything similar in Aus. Focusing on speeding creates massive income for the government whilst all other (much more effective) methods of reducing accidents would actually cost a lot of money to introduce and enforce. This is the single reason that things will not change.

[niZmO_Man]

Yeah I've sat in two shut-downs of motorways because said campers can't drive for shit. The city-bound people are fine though. Agree that Government won't spend. "Ohh it's too expensive, lets just put more speed cameras up".

[RBrennan25]

Having lived in Germany for 5 years I can confidently say that Dutch drivers are the worst in Europe. Dutch people are my favourite Europeans but they cant drive well at all. Especially when they come through Germany with their campervans, doing 100kph in the right hand lane and then decide to randomly pull over to the left in front of someone doing 200kph+

I agree with some of the above comments. Its all about driver education and keeping crappy cars off of the road. This is how it is done in Germany. It takes ages to get your licence over there. Many, many practise hours in all conditions are required before you can even sit the test and you cant have good ol' mum and dad teach you how to drive. Its expensive but it creates better drivers. Plus your car needs to be checked every couple of years. I believe that Germany also has a lower road toll per 100,000 cars than Australia does even with having some open Autobahn limits and 80 million people in an area the size of NSW.

Unfortunately we will never see anything similar in Aus. Focusing on speeding creates massive income for the government whilst all other (much more effective) methods of reducing accidents would actually cost a lot of money to introduce and enforce. This is the single reason that things will not change.

I lived in Amsterdam for a while and could not agree more, Dutch drivers are horrible and German roads are amazing. The most interesting fact I read before driving in Germany (yes I did research so I wasn't just another lost twat doing 100 kph with no idea about the road laws) is that the unrestricted autobahns account for a smaller percentage of accidents than the restricted ones, and when compared by by percentage of the road network, the accident rates are almost exactly the same.

So is speed REALLY the biggest killer on the road? Or is incompetence or over confidence?