Unfortunately my morning commute is now 40km/hr for most of the way due to roadworks.
Now I'm someone that usually does exactly on the speed limit. The whole commute I have cars zooming past, probably at least 5 to 10 cars a minute, going probably about 60.
Prior to roadworks, it was rare someone zoomed past, maybe one every few minutes.
Am I that stupid one for going 40? Seems almost no one else does
40km/hr for most of the way
Thats either really long roadworks, or a really tiny commute.
Yep it's really long roadworks, it works out to be about 15 to 20 minutes in total.
In some parts of the country entire stretches of the highways are like that for years. Not worth the risk speeding.
Yeh the works are not planned to be finished until late 2025. I don't risk it but I get passed by probably a hundred cars on my commute.
@dmcneice: Yes, I know the feeling. I just suck it up and drive to the limit. They can and will be enforced. Not worth it.
just put your car in self drive mode and take a nap.
Are Roadwork Speed Limits Enforced?
yes
The only answer.
If it’s got a speed zone sign it can be enforced.
Lol no
Some states have roadwork cameras. I reckon there’s two cohorts of drivers offending: (1) those who believe the roadwork limit only applies if they can see road workers; (2) those who just don’t ever read road signs.
(3) Those who know there are neither road workers nor speed camera.
Road Workers What a Joke for anyone that lives in Queensland. Springwood freeway congestion for the last 6 years ++++. It would take them 2 years to build a path to the onsite dunny before they even started, bunch of FW's
That's the government you should be blaming, not the people building the roads. Government plans for right now, not the future, so always does a piss poor job with any public works. With the rate SEQ is expanding, all the roadworks have to restart the moment they are finished due to atrocious planning.
Solution: tailgate the offender in front who’s doing 60, and that hides your car plate
Unless its a rear facing camera
.
Go the speed limit, not worth the fine. Just don't be one of those people who go 30 or 20 in a 40 zone. My god they piss me off so much.
Had an old couple do like 25 in a 60 zone, one lane, two directional street. The road was long, maybe 1.5km. Not gonna lie, couldn't take it anymore and just overtook them when the oncoming traffic on the right was clear.
Had an old couple do like 25 in a 60 zone, one lane, two directional street. The road was long, maybe 1.5km. Not gonna lie, couldn't take it anymore and just overtook them when the oncoming traffic on the right was clear.
Had a situation like that. Only worse.
Car pulled out in front of me, forcing me to slow down to avoid hitting them, then they drove at way below the speed limit. When there was a break in the oncoming traffic I tried to overtake them. They sped up to try to force me back in behind them. So I ran them off the road. I went to the police to report them trying to kill me by speeding up. Police said they went to the police to report me running them off the road. In the end the police said no-one actually collided with anyone else, and it was he said verses she said, and did nothing.
The other driver had a spouse as witness, but what helped me is that I had a clean long term traffic record, and the other driver had only just gotten back on Ps after being disqualified for dangerous driving.
They sped up to try to force me back in behind them. So I ran them off the road.
Nothing like admitting to a bit of road rage to kick off your sunday morning.
It is an offence to speed up whilst being overtaken
http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/sa/consol_reg/arr210/…
They ran themselves off the road
@AGoodName: Agreed, but two wrongs don't generally cancel each other out, especially when the mass and momentum of cars are involved.
Acknowledging another driver is an d* head and danelgeous is one thing, trying to one up them is rarely a wise move :)
The other driver had a spouse as witness
Pretty sure they aren't going to take the word of a spouse.
Having been a road worker, stick to the limits. It does make a difference when you’re standing beside the road working.
Having said that, I find a lot of roadwork zones frustrating because they lower the limit but no one is working there or the road condition is not affected by the works. This encourages people to ignore the limits because ‘nothing is happening’ or ‘it’s not dangerous’. This then in turn means driver will ignore the limit when it is critical to safety for the roadworks and workers. They need to make it easier to apply variable limits for roadworks so that when nothing is going on the limit is not too slow for impatient drivers
Exactly foir your comments above.
Plus the number of times they dont post "end of speed limit signs" as well.
Now if they were that concerned about safety, they would realise that everytime they dont do this, they set up the next group of workers.
Fine these workers/organisations when.
Then they will do it and more (of course not all) drivers will start respecting these zones.
Better safety for all.
Having also been in the management and the safety side of road works, they jump to 40km/h for roadworks without really considering implications for people driving past.
The safety side says ‘slow the traffic down for roadworks’. The public says ‘why are we going 40km/h for several kms of freeway work when they guys are only working this 100m’.
Applying for road occupancy (works) permits isn’t flexible enough to adapt to conditions on the fly in my experience. It’s too onerous to apply for multiple iterations of traffic control plan so they make a blanket plan that covers the entire project not just phases of it.
I understand that, but that doesnt excuse, putting up a sign for where the area needing the speed reduction ends.
To enhance compliance, fulfilling the courtesy to let a driver know that the speed reduction is now not needed helps change attitudes by drivers. When the workers dont show that courtesy, how do drivers know when they can resume their speed.
Nothing more agravating and encouraging a FU to the next set of workers who need people to slow down.
Plus the number of times they dont post "end of speed limit signs" as well.
Yep, lost my bike for a month and scored a reckless driving 62km/h over the limit as a cop was coming the other way.
40km/h all the way now
O it's super frustrating. Majority of the whole commute there is no roadworkers as they (I assume) work at night, so it's just permanently 40 the whole way
Yeah. Super frustrating when the limit is there for ‘no reason’. Often it is because of reduce lane width or no shoulders available, but if what you are saying is correct there would likely be no harm in making it 60 (or whatever other limit is suitable) when works aren’t actually happening.
Generally agree with the sentiment, but from someone who does road safety audits. The reduced speed isn't just for worker safety. There is usually other factors like reduced lane width, no shoulders, distracted drivers as they're looking at construction, confused drivers because their exit has been closed or the lane markings are missing, there is reduced visibility because of barricades, barricades themselves have safety factors applied to them which limits speeds they can absorb if run into by cars, rough surfaces throwing up material… There is plenty more but just some of the things I could think of. In short. Plenty of reasons to reduce speed at all times for the broader community safety.
Totally agree with that. Unfortunately It’s a fine line between making everyone safe and going overboard in the name of safety. I’ve seen first hand how easy it is for the safety team to jump straight to max without considering that 70% of max would provide effectively the same level of real safety.
Quite often the people planning the traffic control haven’t had a lot of real world experience Bessie the road.
Popcorn waiting for post next week, I kept up with the other cards in a roadwork zone and got booked for doing 20km over the speed limit and had to pay $$$ and lost 6 points. What can I do about it?
How many more points do you have to "lose" to get back to zero?
Just go with the flow of traffic but keep en eye out for cop cars and cameras.
Its speedo error.
You believe you are doing 60. When in reality you are doing 57. The others are just smarter than you. They have upto date info on their speed.
Why do you think the cops have to test their speed checking devices regularly.
You think people's Speedos are out by 50%? They are probably off by 3% maximum
There’s a formula for what Speedo’s are allowed to be out by from the factory.
Speedos can be out by a margin of up to 10% plus 4kmh
In theory yes but one of ours owned since new for 20 years always under reads by 1 to 2% whereas our MX5 over read by 9%.
The first I do with any new (to us) car is just use a GPS device or phone to check basic accuracy. Only takes a couple of minutes but make sure the road is level.
In theory yes
Not in theory, according to the Australian Standards when your car was made
but one of ours owned since new for 20 years always under reads by 1 to 2%
Standards back then were different.
That Speedo was designed to be accurate to within 10 per cent of actual vehicle speed to meet the standard at the time
whereas our MX5 over read by 9%.
Which is within the current design standard I mentioned above
Unfortunately my morning commute is now 40km/hr for most of the way due to roadworks
After reading that somehow I just knew OP was from Melbourne 🤣
I don't think there are many roads in melb that are not 40km/h!
CBD streets are the best place to find chaos… courtesy of Melb City Council. Fn idiots!
25 km/h over the limit in Victoria is an automatic 3 month loss of license.
Not worth keeping pace with people doing 60+, though I would say that (at least in qld) 5 kay over the limit does not carry a high risk of being done.
but they arent
"I'm on the Gold Coast, it's 40 where they are building the light rail, which is about 20 minutes of traffic."
Kilometers of road works are annoying, but I feel for the workers when they are at it and a 2 tonne vehicle is coming past at 70km/h 90cm from their head.
Or the stupid freeway down to 40 but the workers are behind those concrete barriers that wouldn’t be disturbed at all even if you smacked head on into one.
Similar to how other roads have their speed limits enforced. Slightly more enforced than your local residential. Slightly less enforced than major roads.
It's interesting there no enforced as often. My totally anecdotal observation is I see probably 5-10x the cars going over the limit compared to a non Roadwork road
Ring your local police and say heaps of cars are putting workers danger and management seems to be doing nothing.
The workers arent really in danger, theres massive concrete barriers between the workers and the road.
@dmcneice: That’s not important. The important bit is that someone decided 40km/h is a safe limit for the workers.
South Brisbane M1
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dR3ELYvDF36MrEGv5?g_st=ic
Road work in the exit lane for months (not even the start of it) but they limited the whole 3 lanes of the motorway to 60 for 300meters along it (you could see the end sign from the start and the absence of roadwork). Some cars knew and keep 100 and others slow down to 60 on the right lane (sometimes due to a temp speed camera to be fair). Very dangerous.
I always do what the signs say, though cruise control doesn't like going that slow. Sometimes I go even slower because it's so bumpy. Sometimes for the last few dozen meters I'll start speeding up early.
It will seem like more drivers are speeding as you won't see any drivers doing 40 except those right next to you the whole trip.
I'm basing it on the amount of drivers going past me, which is a huge amount more than prior to the roadworks, which it was 60 the whole way. Don't get me wrong people use to zoom past, but it was fairly uncommon in comparison.
Your OP says it seems like no one else does 40. I'm just saying why it might seem that way.
More people speeding now compared to before, doesn't mean no one else is doing 40.
My bad, poor wording on my part. Obviously I can't really know if people are doing the speed limit, only the amount of people speeding past me, which is a hell of a lot more than when there is no roadworks.
Just do 60. Who cares if you endanger lives? /S
Check out Table 5 on page 55.
Not sure I've ever seen a roadworks zone meeting those speeds, except maybe the occasional freeway at 80?
I'm on the Gold Coast, it's 40 where they are building the light rail, which is about 20 minutes of traffic.
So you'd save about 7 minutes doing 60 km/h.
If a driver thinks those 7 minutes we worth a fine, demerit points, possibly the life of a worker and time in jail then that's on them.
I'm like you OP, i sit on 40 when everyone else is zooming past at 70. Realized it's not worth the risk when a mate copped a ~$1k fine and almost lost his car for getting pinged doing ~40 over the limit in a roadworks zone.
Sadly, the are some roadwork signs up for months without roadwork work activity in Vic.
This results in drivers not taking the signs seriously.
A new offramp/on ramp had the roadwork limits 4 months after completion, very few drivers took them seriously.
Friend of a friend had his license revoked as he was speeding within a roadworks zone. Monash Freeway, 40kms road works, night time driving 100km per hour. Thanks for license and have a nice day. Even tried to go to court saying there was no one on the road just a truck.
Hopefully that helps.
yes should be but mostly not. U only need get cought once. like doing 100 in 40 Zone then you done
Yes and the only reason I know why is that I had to get someone insurance who lost their license due to going 100km on a freeway, at 11pm, when the roadwork signs said they needed to be going 40km.
I'd rather not risk that.
take the backstreet boogie
In VIC there was a proposal to penalize road workers if they left the reduced speed sign up after they have stopped working. Not sure if this was passed to become a law.
shame and guilt societies differ
in a shame society like Japan (strangely I read that England is also one) you may be trained to not do certain things which could bring lasting shame on you or your family or group
in a guilt society, like US or OZ, you may try to get away with what you can, as long as you don't get caught - if you get caught, you pay the penalty and Bob's your uncle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilt%E2%80%93shame%E2%80%93fe…
'Anglo-Saxon England is particularly notable as a shame culture, and this trait survived even after its conversion to Christianity, which is typically a guilt culture.[3] Other examples of shame culture under Christianity are the cultures of Mexico,[4] Andalusia[5] and generally Christian Slavic and Mediterranean societies.' - https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/32983
The funny thing with roadwork speed limits as well is the bureaucracy in blocking out a whole stretch of days for the works is far easier than say only enforcing a 40kmh limit during work times. This is why you'll end up doing 40kmh on a stretch of road where no works are in site, we can thank the dated works permitting system for that.
Yes, they installed a sneaky camera once and I got caught -_- first ever speeding fine after 15+ years.
How long more do we have to suffer on the Warringah Fwy/ Cahill Expy till the bridge?
We've had roadworks near our place for 3.5 years and it's either a 40, if workers are on site, or a 60 if not, whereas the rest of the length of road is 80/90. The highway patrol have a field day in the 40 zone when it's in place. I'd say they are there at least every third day picking people up and a lot of those tickets would be for "Exceed speed over 20 km/h". However, it has had the intended impact. I'd guess that 95% of vehicles follow the speed limit to the exact km/h for the entire length of roadworks now.
QLD Police would take in an absolute motza if they had a random speed camera along the commute.
They're doing a pilot unti April 2024 with a WALL-E camera https://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/safety/road-safety/speed-camera-s…
I fear the courts don't have the capacity to process literally hundreds of motorists getting disqualified every day.
Yep they are. I've been fined for not driving at the reduced speed even though it was midnight and no one was working. No one's fault but mine.
Are they enforced, YES, but like all enforcement someone has to be there to catch them and when they generally catch people in this scenario there is no warning or leniency.
It's meant to be illegal to leave slower speed/roadwork signs up when there's no road works in most states but we know how that goes.
Just gauge the situation and watch for suspicious looking cars. If someone is going faster they can be your bait car.
Whole of VIC is a construction site…
Yes, ive seen both marked and unmarked police cars chase people down because of them going over that speed limit.
Welcome to Sydney man. They designed main roads with 3 to 4 lanes and then a school right next to it. So you'll be travelling at 70km/hr and then pop down to 40 km/hr 2 mins later there's another school zone. Alot of break, accelerate going on over a 10 km road and that takes 20 mins.
The schools were probably built when the road was a horse and cart track. New schools are not built on main roads. It’s not ‘by design’, it’s due to growth in population and our ‘need’ for car transport.
Maybe it’s be easier for you if the whole road was 40km/h.
Yesterday when driving on the M1 from Bundoora VIC back to Sunshine, I saw some roadwork with a road safety car with the sign "40km/h, speed limit enforced". I wondered if it was a scare tactic or a legit speed camera in that place and I'd get a fine as I was driving between 40-47km/h at the time. Will report back in a month
Well if a cop appears or there’s a mobile camera… - just don’t risk it