Commonsense polices.

Speed limits are necessary but for them to be complied with they need to be set correctly and policed reasonably to allow for the behaviour of the responsible majority while penalising the few who dangerously break the law.

The single greatest issue is not so much the speed at which vehicles travel but that they all travel at the same speed in the same lane.

But what happens when speed limits are raised?

Effects of Raising and Lowering Speed Limits.

A national 1992 American study by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Research, Development, and Technology, Federal Highway Administration, (no radicals here.) found that the majority of motorists did not decrease or increase their speed as a result of the authorities either lowering or raising the sign posted speed limit when the road conditions did not dictate the need for a change.

This American nationwide study confirms the results of numerous other observational studies which found that the majority of motorist do not alter their speed to conform to speed limits they perceive as unreasonable for prevailing conditions.

Effects of Raising and Lowering Speed Limits . Scroll down to Conclusion.

SafeSpeed - International data.

The SafeSpeed initiative headed by Paul Smith has conducted more research into "speed kills" policies and their detrimental effects on the motoring public than any government or university study that we know of.

Check out the SafeSpeed data here.

Countries practicing "speed kills" policies are experiencing worse road fatality trends than those with commonsense policies.

Note the steady decline in the road toll until speed cameras were introduced. Germany, Italy and even France are still heading downwards although France now has increasing fatalities through bending to the UN doctrine by introducing speed kills policies.

Italy are not bending to the pressure and raised their speed limits to 150 km/h in 2004. Their Transport Minister stated that faster drivers are more alert, safer drivers.

International Motorway Speeds and Fatality Rates.

The British ABD presents visual evidence in a series of bar charts that speed limits have no effect on fatality rates. (The maximum effect they can have is 2% - RS.)

Check it out here. Scroll down the page and check the bar chart, especially on Germany (WGR). (In fact Germany have shown a recent 12% reduction in their road toll.)

The chart shows speed limits of various countries compared to road deaths. The blue line is the speed limit and red the road crash fatalities.

These charts present compelling evidence that the lowering of speed limits does not reduce the road toll.

Are our state governments and the universities that create the speed camera studies not aware of these facts? You be the judge.

Speed Variance and the Risk of a Crash. Canadian Data.

Incredible as it may seem, the data from the Canadian SENSE initiative illustrates that vehicles traveling 10 to 15 km above the speed limit are at the lowest risk yet are targeted the most by speed cameras.

Statistically, if fewer crashes occur above the speed limit than below it then above the limit is the safest zone in which to travel. (We do not advocate this.)

British Columbia Canada sensibly pulled the plug on speed cameras.

The majority of speeding fines in Australia are from motorist traveling 5 to 10km/h above the limit - not reckless or dangerous drivers.

This is an eye opener - SENSE.

No limits - fewer fatalities?

Due to legislative problems during the late 1990's the state of Montana was unable to enforce speed limits for around 4 years. Incredibly, road fatalities dropped to an all time low while safety belt usage increased.

Impossible? Check out the facts here. Even more unbelievable is that the authorities eventually reintroduced speed limits resulting in the doubling of fatalities.

Information provided by the Safety Bureau, Montana, Department of Transportation USA and compiled by the US National Motorists Association.

Hard to believe. It will be a lot harder to convince our money motivated authorities that their fine enforced speed limits are killing Australian road users, not saving them.

Cato Institute - Speed does not kill.

Just in case the Montana experience is an isolated incident, here is overwhelming evidence that lower speed limits make things worse.

In 1995 the United States Congress removed the national 55 mile per hour Federal speed limit introduced to save fuel during the 1970's. In 95 Congress passed the setting of speed limits back to the individual states.

33 States elected to raise speed limits. Unbelievably the accident rate in these states went down. There was an unexpected additional benefit - a boost to the economy.

Download full PDF report here.
Read summary here.

Supporting evidence.

An article in the Detroit News January 2000 stated, "National USA crash fatality rate falls 11% following raised speed limits".

When the US Congress abolished the national 55 mph highway speed limit, opponents called it a "killer bill".

These opponents, including insurance companies, predicted that it "will be the death knell for thousands of American men, women and children". 

In reality "the national crash fatality rate, determined by the number of fatalities for every 100 million vehicle miles driven, fell by 11 percent". Full report here. View latest 2005 report here.

Effects of enforcing speed limits in overtaking lanes.

Queensland, highly dependent on tourism for providing jobs, was encouraging motoring holidays following growing concerns over air travel during early 2003.

The Queensland authorities raised speed fines to coincide with their Easter tourism advertising - in the name of safety. They also unbelievably targeted "speeding" in the overtaking lane causing motorists to remain in the danger zone for longer than previously.

According to the ATSB, fatalities on the road for April, the month that they increased the penalties, increased by over 40%.

Real world experience.

Even though most people's perception is that lower speed limits with tougher law enforcement should reduce the road toll, it is clearly wrong.

Overwhelming real world evidence shows that sensible policies that allow responsible drivers to make their own decisions while penalising the few dangerous drivers, actually saves lives.

Still not convinced? Victoria has one of the most stringent speed camera policies in the world. In 2004 they had to switch off a number of faulty cameras on the Western Ring Road. The authorities claimed that switching off the cameras would create misbehaviour and speeding.

According to the March 05 edition of Wheels Magazine, "Victorian Police statistics show a reduction in harm on the Ring Road last year".

The single greatest issue is not so much the speed at which vehicles travel but that they all travel at the same speed in the same lane.

The irony is that the benefits of sensible policies are clearly evident while lies have to be used to justify the speed kills policy.

It is also evident that the single greatest way to save lives on our roads is for the authorities to redirect their focus from the most financially lucrative 2% to preventing the other 98% of road deaths.