Council wants 30km/h speed limit

[TheInterceptor]

Cool...not. But itll probobly happen since nobody protests against stupid regulations.

I'll be more than happy to take my fixie to work...
But everything else that i need a car for will become incredibly sketchy.
Dont know about anybody else with a manual vehicle, but i use alot of engine braking, at that speed, my engine braking will literally slow me to 5kmph. Point is my brake lights wouldnt show and the inattentive person thats following too closley behind me will meet fate with my towbar.

And ill jump at any opportunity to leave this darn city....

[Whitey-AMG]

Oh dear !

Its hard enough to stick to 40 in school zones.....
Idling along at 30 will be difficult.

Speed cameras in these areas will require new bulbs daily as they will be flashing more frequently than visiting tourists' cameras.

[Ben73]

This is stupid.
In some streets 30 is acceptable. But it should not be a blanket speed limit for all city streets. It's too slow in many situations.

[4.0i_SiX]

We already have 30kph speed limits in Cleveland. Its full of pedestrian crossings. The ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS part about it is that at each crossing there is a large shrub on either side. So you cannot see a pedestrian until they have taken their first step on to the road. Who's bright idea was that??

[martinijosh]

Originally Posted by 4.0i_SiX

We already have 30kph speed limits in Cleveland. Its full of pedestrian crossings. The ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS part about it is that at each crossing there is a large shrub on either side. So you cannot see a pedestrian until they have taken their first step on to the road. Who's bright idea was that??

I think I know the area in cleveland you're talking about.

It's like roundabouts, they put trees and bushes around them so you can't see oncoming traffic

[SB076]

Originally Posted by martinijosh

The average running speed for a human is about 15kph (slightly higher for males, slightly lower for females)

So yeah, if you ran to work every day (assuming your fitness was up to scratch) you wouldn't be too far behind.

Until two people run into each other at 15k's, then the council will amend the laws to ensure all runners run at maximum of 8k's. No doubt then some minority group will kick up a fuss and suggest we cant run at 8k's we can only do 3k's per hour. Council wont want to discriminate so they will change again install pedestrian "safety" cameras and the new law will be 3k's per hour..

[martinijosh]

Originally Posted by SB076

Until two people run into each other at 15k's, then the council will amend the laws to ensure all runners run at maximum of 8k's. No doubt then some minority group will kick up a fuss and suggest we cant run at 8k's we can only do 3k's per hour. Council wont want to discriminate so they will change again install pedestrian "safety" cameras and the new law will be 3k's per hour..

Emissions crackdowns for long distance sprinters (the V8 twin turbo supercharged alcohol fueled car of the running world).

Lanes on footpaths would be awesome though, I'm getting sick of dawdlers holding my up while they waddle their fat family 6 people across.

[Pis-ton broke]

so now there is 40,50,60,70,80,90,100,110 and now 30. it seems to many speed limits to me.

[Ezz]

Just remember... Melbourne Councils are currently run by The Greens. There's your problem. If we as Melbournians are foolish enough to allow a minority group dictate to the masses then prepare for the next Dark Age. No cars (except electric powered ones), no lights on if not powered by solar, your kids will learn what we want them to learn in school and not what you all generally want them to learn. The minority voice is louder than the general public voice... this will ruin Australian way of life.

Look at the UK... total anarchy! When minority groups start dictating, there will be no freedom of speech etc. Only their way or the highway.

We can't allow minority groups to dictate our country otherwise, instead of being a country that "stands for something"... we'll end up being "a country that falls for everything."

[SEZ213]

"What you'll find there is you are crossing a major intersection and pedestrians will just completely ignore the lights," he said.

Once again, don't get it...pedestrians ignore lights, car users are responsible...way to go...again...

[Auslandau]

They (peds) stay off the roads and I will stay off the footpaths ..... deal?

[JC]

This quote is from the article:

"Monash University Accident Research Centre senior research fellow Dr Bruce Corben said reducing speeds from 50km/h to 30km/h reduced the risk of death by up to 90 per cent."

So if the limit's already been reduced from 50 to 40, then what is the risk of death reduced by between 40 and 30? I'd say not much of the 90%, so this is just a revenue raising exercise - not booking enough at 40, let's lower the limit! At least at 40 you can set the cruise, but cruise won't work below 40.

[ZDHLANE]

Time to get me some 7.11 gears!

Thats all we are gonna need!

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by martinijosh

I think I know the area in cleveland you're talking about.

It's like roundabouts, they put trees and bushes around them so you can't see oncoming traffic

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Sunbur...04.89,,0,-1.52

Go into street view, it doesn't look bad here but those bushes on that roundabout are about 1.5M tall now, you seriously can't see whats in the roundabout unless you're actually inside it. I have the misfortune of navigating this piece of crap 5 days a week, once on the way to work and once on the way back. You might as well as go through with your eyes closed.

Also on the pedestrians issue, I have the misfortune of going into Melbourne CBD for my TAFE, those big intersections in the inner city, no one obeys the crossing lights, many people, by many I mean 95% just cross when they want to, they run in between cars, stand in the middle of two lanes, try to avoid oncoming trams etc, its bloody crazy. Theres something wrong with our fellow Melbournians, too much to handle for this slow-*** country yokle, everyone has a stick jammed up their asses and is in a hurry to save an extra 30 seconds where ever possible, at all costs.

Imagine a full blown war, then add in hundreds of people trying to cross in between live fire and exposions with no regards for their own lives, thats what Melbourne CBD is like.

I think the issue here is the pedestrian.

[MAD]

How do these douche-bags get voted in?
I need a job like this.

[wrongwaynorris]

Originally Posted by martinijosh

If you don't have a mental disability and you walk out in to traffic, you probably need a good hit with a car.

Darwinism keeps being stopped - guys we have to keep the gene pool healthy!!!


serious reply:

If speed limits were dropped to 30, I'd just go back to riding my bicycle - since its pretty easy to hit 60 down hill on a fixed gear BMX and traffic will be insane, I think I'll be early for work every day

Blitzing past speed cameras, flipping old ladies the bird, grinding over 4wds.

What's NOT serious about the first response ?

[wrongwaynorris]

If I had a dollar for every time some moron stepped off a curb in the CBD with a sodding Ipod / mobile phone / MP3 player jammed in their ears and then abuses the hell out of me for saving their miserable worthless life by sounding my horn and braking I'd be bloody rich . These imbeciles are walk up starts for the Darwin Awards and WOULD most definitely improve the gene pool if they were removed from it . The trick is to take them out before they breed more moronic offspring .

[Neale]

Sad thing is there are so many stupid people out there. I nearly hit a few pedestrians recently. One was a toddler that was sitting in the middle of the street while dad was working on the car, also parked on the street on stands.

When I pulled up & asked him if it was his kid all he did was grabbed it off the road & stormed off, letting fly with every swear word known to man. No sorry, or thanks for not hitting him.

The next one was a family walking home from the shops when as I approach, the kids decided to try & commit suicide by riding a shopping trolly out in front of me. I get on the horn & the kids just laughed at me & the parents didnt even look.

Makes you wonder!!!!!!!!!

[geckoGT]

The whole notion is just plain stupidity, safety gone nuts. Lets not do what is right and educate the public that jay walking is illegal, maintaining a situational awareness is required or that even pedestrians have responsibility etc. Lets just slow everything down that much that the irresponsible will survive.

That whole idea that by reducing the speed limits to 30 km/h will decrease the chance of death by 90%, what a joke. Getting pedestrians to follow the rules and act with some responsibility will have the same effect. I have a better idea, lets ban all movement of the human body faster than walking pace and reduce the risk of being killed by at least 500%.

To put it into perspective, my average ride on my bicycle for distances up to 80 km are conducted with an average speed of 30 km/h (which includes time stopped at traffic lights). So for the vast majority of my time on my bike I will have to slow down as I will be breaking the speed limit This will mean that should these laws come in, I will be better off riding on the foot path as that speed limit will not apply, I can travel faster than I could on the road. Brings an element of truth to that old joke "lower the road toll, drive on the foot path".

What they have not mentioned is the adverse effect that these new speed limits will have on traffic congestion and emission levels, both of which will be negative effects. Simple sums people, slower speeds = longer to get where you are going = more cars in the area longer = more congestion. The same occurs for emission levels, the modern car burns more fuel at low speeds than it does at medium level speeds, if I remember right the owners manual for my ED Falcon stated the most fuel efficient speed was 60-80 km/h. More fuel burnt = more emissions.

My opinion, dumbest idea ever!

[mik]

i heard on the radio a little while ago Vic Roads has said "no to 30 kph speed limits"......hooray for some common sense!

[stevepet]

Just revenue raising we the poor workers of this country are seen as cash cows by all levels of government. But the apathetic bunch we are accept it with no arguments. Remember we voted these ****** in.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by GT-E

This is the problem, they have taken away "Natural Selection" by putting in rules and regulations to prevent stupid mistakes dumb people make. I am sure that a pedestrian will only walk out in front of a car/bus/truck only once. Why do they need to slow down cars to save stupid people ?
Let them learn their lesson, it will be the only way they will learn. If not they will still find a way to kill themselves by doing something else stupid that has not been regulated yet.

Yet bump one of these pedestrians and you wind up in civil court,
try telling the judge in that court how stupid these people are.

Why the law is an ***:
A work colleague's boyfriend (Josh) was trying to avoid a fight in a bar,
unfortunately a drunken Irish sot wouldn't take no for an answer
and proceeded to fight with Josh, when the police came the irishmen
identified himself as the local school teacher and told police he was attacked.
They believed him and laid charges of assault on Josh but you know the part?
It's cost the couple near $30,000 in legal fees to defend the charge so far....

[sudszy]

Most here have a knee jerk response to this issue, and perhaps have not considered the issue at length. Initially this was introduced on ABC 774 this morning as a solution to the congestion problem, I was a little puzzled, simply to discourage drivers?

However, the issue of safety seems to be at the forefront here. As Melbourne's Lord Mayor Robert Doyle points out, the streets in Melbourne's grid havent got wider or have changed since they were first laid out 130+ years ago and there were not visions of them being shared by trams, cars, pedestrians bicycles and trucks.

See: http://blogs.abc.net.au/victoria/201...ourne_mornings ...at about the 16min mark

For those of you who travel across the CBD, 1-2km at 30km/h rather than 40-50km/h.....I dont see that too many of your civil liberties are being removed here.

Whilst many here have carried on about how Darwinism should take care of careless pedestrians, the issue of cyclists and collisions with vehicles in the CBD is not as clearcut.
One advantage I can see with cars being restricted to 30km/h is that they will be less likely to try and squeeze past cyclists restricting the situations where cyclists have to ride in the gutter, close to parked cars etc, all which are dangerous places to have to ride. Ultimately this is where the CBD is heading, encourage more cycles and less cars.

[MAD]

Originally Posted by sudszy

One advantage I can see with cars being restricted to 30km/h is that they will be less likely to try and squeeze past cyclists restricting the situations where cyclists have to ride in the gutter, close to parked cars etc, all which are dangerous places to have to ride.

How did you come up with that?
I'd say reducing the limit just means they will squeeze past at 30km/h instead of 50km/h.

[2011G6E]

I could see this happening after that woman faced charges for running into that drunk outside a nightclub. She was doing a slow speed, and the guy was leaning drunkenly against a light post by the road, and suddenly staggered out in front of her and she hit him.
They said she should have "expected" the possibility of some drunk walking in front of her, obviously disregarding the fact that given human reaction time you cover a fair bit of ground before you will even hit the brake pedal if someone does that...

[geckoGT]

What some seem to miss is the undertone to the concern everyone has here. That concern is that once this comes in at one location (Melbourne CBD), other locations follow. Once the precedence is set, it is easier for the situation to be more widespread.

Next thing you know, every road that has a reasonable density of shops etc with pedestrian crossings becomes a 30 km/h zone. Sounds far fetched I know but look at the widespread reduction is speed limits that we have seen over the last 2 decades, despite the quality of roads has seemed to have improved as well as the capabilities from a safety perspective have definitely improved.

[sudszy]

Originally Posted by geckoGT

What some seem to miss is the undertone to the concern everyone has here. That concern is that once this comes in at one location (Melbourne CBD), other locations follow. Once the precedence is set, it is easier for the situation to be more widespread. .

disagree, most of the repsonses above are just knee jerk responses to the three words..."reduced speed limit"

Originally Posted by geckoGT

Next thing you know, every road that has a reasonable density of shops etc with pedestrian crossings becomes a 30 km/h zone. Sounds far fetched I know but look at the widespread reduction is speed limits that we have seen over the last 2 decades, despite the quality of roads has seemed to have improved as well as the capabilities from a safety perspective have definitely improved.

did you listen to the inteviews with the two councillors? I think the overall issue is being very carefully considered.

[TheInterceptor]

Originally Posted by wrongwaynorris

If I had a dollar for every time some moron stepped off a curb in the CBD with a sodding Ipod / mobile phone / MP3 player jammed in their ears and then abuses the hell out of me for saving their miserable worthless life by sounding my horn and braking I'd be bloody rich . These imbeciles are walk up starts for the Darwin Awards and WOULD most definitely improve the gene pool if they were removed from it . The trick is to take them out before they breed more moronic offspring .

If some peice of crap does that or anything like that to me god help me, or them infact, if im in less than a fantastic mood.

95% of the time i have self control but the **** that winds me up out there on the city roads is just phenomenal. And its pretty hard to wind me up.

Change the laws and let them DIE FFS

[Auslandau]

Originally Posted by sudszy

disagree, most of the repsonses above are just knee jerk responses to the three words..."reduced speed limit"

.... and the idea of reducing the speed limit to 30ks isn't?

Originally Posted by sudszy

did you listen to the inteviews with the two councillors? I think the overall issue is being very carefully considered.

No .... its a knee jerk reaction to 'apparently' keep the pedestrians safer on the roads. Now you see the funny bit in that sentence?

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by sudszy

disagree, most of the repsonses above are just knee jerk responses to the three words..."reduced speed limit"



did you listen to the inteviews with the two councillors? I think the overall issue is being very carefully considered.

Point 1- That is my point, many believe we have had enough reduction in speed limits and that road safety efforts need to be applied in other areas. The thing about motoring enthusiast forums is the members get a bit worried about motoring issues and tend to have opinions. I bet the reaction is different on a pedestrian interest forum.

Point 2- I live in QLD, we don't get Melbourne radio or tv too well up here so no I have not.