Hi all,
Just wondering who actually adjusts to the road works speed limits when the signs are shown.
Also, I could go dig up the official rules, but does it matter if there are active road works happening? In some places at night, nothing is happening and there is no work in progress at all.
Ps. This isn't the local police.
In Canada I saw a sign, with some road works, that says “My mummy works here”. It was a good way to humanise that people need to be careful around roadworks.
Doesn't make a difference, like those old "Baby onboard" signs people used to put in the rear window - people should drive appropriately irrespective of the circumstances
It helps to remind people. The baby onboard came out of an urban myth. Although it is more of a warning there is a distracted parent onboard.
Although it is more of a warning there is a distracted parent onboard.
Lol! I thought the sticker was an excuse for slow/extra careful driving and for people not to honk/tailgate.
@try2bhelpful: it’s also used by emergency services - if there’s an accident they’ll usually prioritise a small baby before others
@b0rnwithabeard: May be in other countries, but not universally known or even taught to emergency services here in Australia.
We train to assist and priorotize medical needs before age or anything else.
Those signs are to alert paramedics to get the baby first
@sareth: May be in other countries, but not universally known or even taught to emergency services here in Australia.
We train to assist and priorotize medical needs before age or anything else.
@sareth: Those stickers are menus for serial killers. Especially the ones that show stick figures for the whole family.
The "baby on board" is to explain why you are driving so slow, not asking not to be crashed into.
Something something, Burt Ward
In a lot of cases, I found the parents of those babies are the actual danger to their children which I always find ironic when I see terrible driving by people with "baby on board" sign on their cars.
Actual humans work in dangerous situations at road work sites.
They are entitled to return home safe after work.
You are not entitled to be a d!CK w@d and speed through these areas.
It is the law to obey roadwork speed signs and they are enforced.
This is a new low for ozbargain polls. Surely you are not serious OP?
This is a new low for ozbargain polls
Come on….this is no way the lowest of lows for polls even this year ;)
SlavOz polls don't count
I agree with all but the last statement. I follow the road works signs myself yet I witness tonnes of others blatantly ignoring them. I'm genuinely curious about what people do in these situations.
I'm genuinely curious about what people do in these situations.
If you follow it, then it doesn't matter what other people do. You wrote "Ps. This isn't the local police."
Speeding should be discouraged and being genuinely curious does not rationalise it.
You're right that it doesn't matter what they do. But I do want to know what they do. The police part is (should) be an obvious joke.
I don't see how I'm encouraging or rationalising anything. I feel my post didn't encourage anything, I checked "Yes. I adjust my speed when I see road works signs" as my poll option and have agreed with statements made to promote following the limits.
@mafmouf: I think it is implied by a few of your statements…
who actually adjusts to the road works speed limits
I could go dig up the official rules, but does it matter
Also, we don't know which poll option you selected. It's anonymous.
@Muzeeb: It does matter if some abide by the signage (I do) and others don’t. If I slow to 40 and the trucks around me stay at 80 or 100, THAT is dangerous, regardless of whether the works are active or not.
Yes, there are often 40 signs for roadwork when there appears to be nothing happening, but there is no option in the relevant laws for us to have a choice what we do. Everyone has to adjust to the posted speed even it doesn’t appear to be needed. Not our choice.
I recently saw a good 10km stretch of a freeway from central coast to Sydney marked as roadworks 40km/hour.
There was no one setting up, finishing up, or work in progress.
This type of scenario is why people often ignore it.
Yes, if there is any evidence of work(regardless of if workers are there) then I’ll slow down.
Absolutely agree - and if anyone does get a ticket for not observing such limits, the severity of the fine…itself having been increased due to far too many numbnuts endangering lives….should bring home how seriously its all being taken. It belongs in a very similar basket to mobile phone use, not quite as risky, but careless & ignorant of the potentially very serious outcomes regardless
Based on what I see on the roads, poll should be at least 90% "No. I do whatever." + "What are road works?"
Exactly, I was like there's no way 90% of people I see slow down to 40 and under 😂
Yeah but but Ozbargain folks never EVER break road rules… apparently.
Exactly lmao
smh
people are hypocrites
nothing is happening and there is no work in progress at all.
Doesn't matter, speed sign posted applies.
Though less people would question it, be annoyed or likely to speed through road work speed zones, if the use of road work speed signs was more tightly controlled.
Plenty of times I've driven down country roads with road work speed limits, only to see no sign of any road work, let alone road workers….
Yep - those businesses are so flush they can afford to just wander off and leave the signs willy-nilly.
The operative word is "work". I'd be interested in seeing the correlation between people who speed through roadworks because " I couldn't see anyone working (especially in rain), and those who complain about pot-holes, loose surfacing and " they don't build things like they used to do!"
It'd be funny to watch them explain to those working on the roads why their previous days work has been undercut by people whose time is more important than consideration of whether those who are building or repairing the road have a bit more clue about relevant conditions that someone in a tin box speeding over it.
The one's that annoy me are the electronic speeds signs. So many times I see them adjusted and after driving through the reduced speed segment I'm left wondering what I had to slow down for; or it was for a hazard that's no longer there; or the hazard was in the previous segment and the signs after the hazard still have reduced speed; or because they're trying to reduce congestion on this or another road further ahead by reducing the flow rate…
My favourite is "HAZARD AHEAD"
How far ahead? What sort? Was it that little 50cm patch of sand covering the edge line just after the sign, or is there an oil spill, flooding, or wheel-breaking pothole further up? No one could know, and I've never seen a "END HAZARD" sign either…
I always slow down, even if I can’t see road works. Not only because I’m not rich enough to pay fines but because I’ve worked on roads doing vegetation works and drivers who don’t slow down are profanities
What annoys me though is traffic controllers who either don’t know the laws or just suck at their job and don’t set up the tapers correctly or fail to display the correct speed signs.
People who floor it through unsealed roads kicking up gravel everywhere. Do you not care about scratching your car? Obviously not.
They do care. They just have their music too loud to notice. That is until they get out of the car and ask "wHo ScRatCheD mA CaR?!?!"
I got done 62km/h over the limit as there was no “end roadworks” sign and was going back up to 110 after the cones. Yeah, you should slow down to 40
Loss of licence?
Nah the prosecutor put the charge down as he saw my perspective. I think it was 8 demerits and $1000 fine but they gave my impound fee back
Lucky. Looks like common sense prevailed as well. I'm guessing you had no priors?
@Muzeeb: I wouldn't call loosing 2/3rds of your ability to drive over a situation like that "common sense prevailing" + 1k fine.
Yikes! Was there a mobile speed camera?
@dust: Cop coming the other way. He said he wouldn’t have booked me if his sergeant wasn’t in the car -_-
@coxjon: Sounds like a trap. How would they know there was no ‘end of work sign’ if they were coming the other way?
@coxjon: Sorry I phrased it wrong. I meant how did they know you were speeding if you left the road work zone. Shouldn’t they assume there was a sign?
@Ridiculous Panda: It was great northern highway with a long straight of visibility so after the cones i went back up to 110. The cops had passed the 40 roadworks sign on their way towards me but there was no “end roadworks” on the reverse side
it depends if there is actually anyone on site. they tend to leave the signs up overnight, when no one is there. they should take down the signs, or at least cover them, when the work day ends and no one is there, because if people get accustomed to no one being there and going at the normal speed limit, then they might start doing it when the roadworkers are there and not even realise it.
i recently went on a long trip and there was a ridiculous stretch of road that had to have been 10 - 20 KM long where the speed limit is normally 100 - 110 but it was down to 40 - 60 despite the fact that no one was there and there was no evidence of any road works actually being conducted (no construction vehicles, broken ground etc) and this was during the day
of course some people are overly cautious and mistake the 40 signs for 20, and then you inevitably get stuck behind them.
i recently went on a long trip and there was a ridiculous stretch of road that had to have been 10 - 20 KM long where the speed limit is normally 100 - 110 but it was down to 40 - 60 despite the fact that no one was there and there was no evidence of any road works actually being conducted (no construction vehicles, broken ground etc) and this was during the day
Exactly. I'm all for slowing down around council workers one dude digging a hole and the rest of the hi-vis vests standing around chatting about it, but it's annoying when the signs are still up and there's very obviously nobody around and no reason for the signs to still be up. I think it's stuff like that which got us into the situation we're in now where most people take the roadworks speed signs as more of a feeble suggestion than an expiatable rule.
I think it's stuff like that which got us into the situation we're in now where most people take the roadworks speed signs as more of a feeble suggestion than an expiatable rule.
surprised me too. the first few times i drove through roadworks and there was no one there, i did the limit, but others were tailgating me, now barely anyone does the limit unless there are actually people there, occasionally one guy will follow it to a T, but those people tend to be elderly / not very confident drivers, i had one who stuck to 60 all the way to the next town despite the fact that the limit was 80, and he/she always seemed to do under the limit (20 in a 40 zone, 40 in a 60 zone, 60 in 80 zone etc)
i will slow down if there are people there, but if no ones there, i'll drive to the conditions and the conditions are often that you can go at least 80 in the area under construction.
i found this thread on whingepool about the same topic, and this guy put it better than i did
Road workers are doing themselves a disservice by overusing the roadworks speed zones. I understand why they are needed – to help protect road workers who are in close proximity to moving traffic. But when they are absolutely everywhere, drivers become frustrated, and if it's not obvious why they are needed, drivers will become more inclined to ignore them, which increases the risk level to road workers when they are actually working on the road.
one of them also claimed that the roadworkers just leave the signs out because they're lazy and can't be bothered putting them back up in the morning when they return to work.
Totally agree, near my place there was some road work speed signs and they left them there all weekend, did not see any roadworks at all, my understanding was that they were doing stuff during the day Mon-Friday.
I remember in the US, Road Work signs were accompanied by maximum jail penalty for hitting a roadworker/speeding.
Here, If i try to do a 40 in a 40 roadwork sign, I will be tailgated by absolute morons.
Unfortunately no one abides by them. When I worked at VicRoads as a licence assessor for about 6 months, I failed at least 10 people because they decided not to abide by the road works signs. That within itself was shocking.
If i try to do a 40 in a 40 roadwork sign, I will be tailgated by absolute morons
This happened to me today in a school zone along with maniacal gesticulations by the driver when I looked in my rear view mirror
I would have given my own maniacal gesticulations of my own after they have passed me/or at the next set of lights.
(profanity)!!
lol - I try to be mindful of my actions in front of the kiddos however a swear word escaped as I couldn't believe the kray kray antics in the rear view
Tell me about it, even had a cig butt flicked at my car when I was in the far left lane so all the morons could overtake me on the right. (this was on the syd harbour bridge as well).
Do You Adjust to Road Works Speed Limits?
You make it sound like it's a choice or something!
I will admit that it annoys the sh.t out of me when they leave the signs out in the middle of the night and there's obviously no-one around! But, I still slow down.
Anyone getting busted travelling at the speed limit on a Vic road that is normally 70km/h or more, who doesn't slow down to the roadworks limit, will automatically lose their licence for at least three months.
You make it sound like it's a choice or something!
Well it is. Just like some people choose to commit murder, rape and other atrocities; some choose to break speed limits, consume drugs or not wear a mask.
Don't agree - killing someone is a direct moral wrong. Speed limits are imposed as an "approximation" of moral wrong because you can't have someone continuously judging if the way you drive is going to cause harm or not. So the rigid adherence some people suggest to speed signs when they have clearly been left there inappropriately isn't a moral "good" as they so seem to think it is.
In some places at night, nothing is happening and there is no work in progress at all.
There are road work speed limits because the road conditions can change. It's there for your safety, not for your inconvenience.
After that incident recently where some (profanity) plowed into a bunch of roadworkers and killed them, I am extra sensitive to the speed limit posted.
Most of the time.
On a side note, at what point do the reduced limits 'officially' finish? I've driven through a couple of shoddy works zones in SEQ where the traffic management crew must have run out of covers for the speed limit signs or forgot them, or decided to go home early in the middle of putting them out.
So for example you're on a 70kph road, and slow down to 40kph due to the first road works sign. Then half way through the works zone, a 'normal' 70km/h sign is still showing (not covered up), but you are still in the works zone and the "end road works" sign is another couple of hundred metres down the road. Are you technically allowed to speed back up to 70km/h at the speed limit sign, or are the rules that you have to wait for the 'end road works' sign?
Technically you strictly follow the speed limit sign as-is, though I'd only speed up until I see a speed limit plate and I feel like I am out of the road work zone as well.
End of road work plate is a speed limit sign of "the speed limit is now what the road's speed limit is supposed to be"
Not till the end road works, they're meant to cover up all the normal speed signs but they often forget some.
Cops would be within their right to ping you if you speed up too early
Ask the family of the bloke wiped out while back in Carrum Downs by a parasite who took off from the scene - had a mate pick him up and fawkt off.
Bayswater man Timmy Rakei, 44, was working as a traffic controller at a roadworks site in Carrum Downs when a car ploughed into him on Tuesday morning. He died at the scene. Timmy Rakei was killed as he set up safety cones in Carrum Downs
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/police-hunt-cont…
That's really sad. I now wonder how many of those workers rock up to work with some degree of fear of some low-life doing the wrong thing. It could explain why a lot of traffic-related workers apparently get paid reasonably well: it's effective danger pay.
They don't get paid well. Most don't anyway.
I think there are too many zones where there are those roadwork signs, but no work. On the M1 in Melb going towards Warragul there are so many 60-80 zones with no actual works. In suburban roads all around Melb.
Once saw this going towards the city on M1. Speed was 100 then suddenly slowed to 40 on those variable limit overhead signs with no warning or logical reasoning behind it, then about 50m down the road, there was this cop. I'm like what the (profanity)
Do these scenarios (prior to the cop incident) make you more likely to ignore the speed signs?
I still personally slow down, but suddenly braking from 100 to 40 without being a 'hazard' to the guy 30-50m behind you who might not be able to slow down if they aren't paying attention, is a little dangerous. Plus the cop that's 50m infront
You'd think there'd be an intermediate speed change of about 70 km/h somewhere.
I prefer to go slow in the right lane and hold that speed regardless of when the speed drops for schools and or roadworks.
But i will speed up for an overtaking lane.
Gonna need an MS Paint diagram for this one.
Why settle for a diagram, come for a drive in Perth and experience what is known as standard driving here 😂
I'm scared now. Just post your experience on DCOA and I'll feel it from home.
From experience, Melbourne drivers speed alot more than Sydney drivers.
It's very hard to speed in traffic jams and narrow one way streets.
That's surprising considering in Melbourne you can get pinged for 1 or 2kmh over the limit whereas in Sydney there's quite a bit of leeway!
In Sydney I see more low level speeding. Generally the traffic moves 4-8km above the posted limit and everyone is speeding.
In Melbourne you see less of that general speeding, but I see more excessive speeding. The odd driver hammering it in a crapped out old commodore 20km+ over the limit. Don’t seem to see as much of that in Sydney.
Hands up who adheres to the 60km road works limit on the M1 exiting north connex?…
The cops could book you if they want.
I'd be one of the very few anywhere near 60km, massive revenue raiser if they did put cameras in there though…
The black number in the red circle is the speed limit. Doesn’t mean anything other than that how fast you are supposed to drive. You don’t get to decide that it doesn’t apply because it’s after hours.
Having said that, I do agree that traffic control and roadworks application of traffic control are very risk averse and can have a limit that appears low to drivers. Having worked on roads, it is really dangerous with traffic wizzing pat at close quarters with no regard for a 40km/h limit.
There are fairly strict procedures in place to get a reduced speed limit legally applied. It’s a shame it’s easier to apply for a blanket limit for a long project rather than separate limits for when workers are there vs not.
Various factors are taken into account when prescribing speed limits - sight distance, horizontal/vertical curvature, road width, the presence of objects next to the road, road surface, road signs/markings (or lack of) etc. When road works take place, one or more of the above things changes and therefore it may not be appropriate for road users to travel at the original design speed. Just because "there are no workers around" does not mean that you should do whatever speed you want.
Various factors are taken into account when prescribing speed limits
Yep, and those setting up road works always seem to ignore every piece of guidance and just throw up 40 km/h signs every time regardless, remaining in place for the entire program at that site
No. But I may when I see 10 workers standing around jibber jabbering and 1 poor young person working on the site.
FTFY
Teamster voice
Hey! We're working … we're holding a business meeting.
You do know you're in an Australian forum Dear?
I got caught doing under 60kmh in a 40kmh work zone. It was Easter hols and nobody was working except for the police and his hidden car. I was stubborn going up hills I expected the car to slowdown with the help of gravity but it was too late.
😂
If you were too late to avoid the hidden cop car, you would've probably also been too late to avoid the unexpected worker.
I only reduce my speed if there’s actually works going on and most the time there’s no one in sight.
It's frustrating when there is obviously no active works or traffic, on the other hand the only downside is your drive is a few minutes longer, so there is really no excuse.
In WA they seem to reduce the limit on huge sections of road well before and after the works in both distance and time.
I had the opposite experience in Tasmania where they had a guy standing in the middle of the road with a shovel patching potholes, with no signage except on his vehicle a few metres past him. Seemed quite dangerous for the worker.
Yes because that's the speed limit and you risk not only your own safety, but also the safety of road workers by not abiding by it.
I would say that even if there are no active work being done visually from your perspective (you don't actually know that), you should still abide by the speed limit as, for example, the road condition may not be in a state where it is safe to go the old limit, or placement of equipment & machinery that increases risk of injury.