Why 130km/h makes sense for the Hume Highway

[Paxton]

(Call me csv8 for this, but...)

You don’t have to spend long in holiday traffic to realise more thought needs to go into speed zones around Australia.

Cruising along the Hume Highway (impressively now with more wire rope barriers to stop head-ons and impacts with trees, even if bikers understandably aren't fans) in light traffic on a sunny day, for example, and it’s clear there are sections that could easily handle speeds of 120 or 130km/h. Most of the dual carriageway (which is almost the entire stretch these days) could easily cope with higher speeds in the right conditions.

There’s good vision, smooth bitumen and long on- and off-ramps, all of which are conducive to higher speeds – and getting somewhere in less time.

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The Hume highway ... good vision, smooth bitumen and long on- and off-ramps. Photo: Andrew Quilty
Currently, though, the dual carriageway freeway can pose more dangers with fatigue than crawling over the at times tediously modest limit. There’s also the issue of tailgating, which is a genuine concern as drivers don’t dare risk creeping a few kilometres per hour over the limit, creating a recipe for high speed, multi-vehicle disaster.

Throw in speedo error (speedometers can be legally inaccurate by up to 10 per cent) and frustration and impatience is an increasing problem on one of Australia’s busiest freeways.

At the very least governments should investigate more European-style variable speed limits, which could impose slower speeds at night and in the rain while allowing higher speeds when it makes sense.

We already have variable limits on some inner-city freeways - it's time to expand them to country areas, allowing people to travel places more efficiently. Cars are, after all, a means of traveling places quickly.

Yet I get the impression it would be a bold government to trial higher speed limits than the current 110km/h state limit. We've been programmed to believe that anything over 110km/h is hooning even though other parts of the world - including the Northern Territory - prove otherwise.

Taken from here: http://smh.drive.com.au/roads-and-tr...102-1pho4.html

I'm all for it. I went north these Holidays (Coffs Harbour), but I've got family in Wagga Wagga, and the Hume can definitely take a higher speed limit. It is just a shame that our main artery North is still a dog track in some sections, single laned, pock marked, and slow. The F3 on the other hand is another candidate for higher speeds, especially now that it is three lanes in either direction.