"History will be kind to us, because we will write it"
The NSW Government have released the findings of a massive safety report into the Kings Highway today, reports ABC News.
The report recommends upgrades worth millions of dollars, which could be funded through the NSW black spots program.
Member for Monaro John Barilaro says road surfaces will be upgraded as well as improvements to signage and safety barriers.
He says they will also look at current speed limits and initiatives to address driver fatigue.
“The report recommends that 100km per hour speed limits on either side of Braidwood, where recent fatalities took place, be reduced to 80km per hour,” he said.
“It’s hoped this will occur by the middle of the year.”
38 people have died on Kings Highway since 2000, so it’s nice to see the road being looked at. Nobody likes going slower, particularly on a highway, but if it works it’ll be worth it right?
What do you think Rioters?
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I tend to think the slowing down the speed limit might help a little – if there are sufficient visible police to make the majority actually do the limit – but I also tend to think that enough morons will then go extra fast down the mountain that they will cancel out the stats with their impact into some immovable (or going the other way) object further on in the trip.
I don’t really know what to do though. Perhaps make the Kings Highway one way, with returning traffic coming back via Brown Mountain?
Most drivers I saw on the weekend were travelling below the posted speed limit.
It’s always the minority that f*** it up for everyone else.
I am getting so sick of the draconian traffic rules – namely speed limits – and heavy-handed policing of them in this country.
Fuck the police.
Not often I’m tempted to use the word f**kwits in a post but this time I feel compelled to. I mean seriously, where do these morons spring from?
However if they are just talking about a short stretch up to the showgound on the north side and a similar distance out to the east, then I imagine it might do some good. Anything more draconian would surely be counter-productive, as the impatient and angry ones take more risks as a result.
I can read between the lines – NSW Government wants to decrease speed limits to make more revenue from speed cameras. It isn’t the speed that causes crashes on the highway, but lack of speed which in turn frustrates other drivers who aren’t in control of their emotional facilities, to the point they erupt into a road demon who goes over double whites in order to resume doing the speed limit. How many road fatalities occur where there are ample overtaking opportunities on roads with 100km/h speed zones, compared to roads where double whites run for tens of kilometres? Can anyone find this out?
You know, and beat me down with a large stick if I’m wrong, the highway could be duplicated?
Crazy talk, I know….
It’s 2013 already, where’s my Jetpack?!
Thumper said :
of course it can be duplicated – at least either side of clyde mountain. that’s just a more expensive option vs changing a few speed signs.
but we often hear about how much road accidents cost, so if the govt wants to save money, they might have to spend money to make the road safer (i.e. duplicating it)
the reduced speed limits are going to make things worse, not better.
The road apart from Macs Reef isn’t too bad. What the NSW Gov should do is abolish the ridiculous 70km/hr for L platers. Besides the frustration and danger for other motorists these kids have to learn!!!
“on either side of Braidwood, where recent fatalities took place” clearly means the short stretches where the poplars line the road just before the 60 zones start on either side of town.
I don’t see a problem reducing the limit there to 80.
It’s either drop the speed of cut down the poplars if I know NSW roads people.
Thumper said :
They’ve only just finished duplicating the Hume Highway – it’s a pricey exercise. So if you have a few billion lying around that you’d like to kick in then I’m sure that can happen.
caf said :
Of course much of the problem is that there aren’t all that many votes in it for the NSW government since so many of the people that use the road are Canberrans. We would be so much better off if we were simply a part of NSW, with a normal local council and representation in the NSW parliament.
great news, should have been done years ago.
all we need is more police in the area to enforce the road rules to ensure that the wankers out there get caught or change there driving habits for the good of everyone
Everyone just needs to relax really. Sick of morons who can’t drive, most of them in “softroaders”
Reducing the speed along the stretch either side of Braidwood will only cause more frustration.Speed isn’t the major problem and never has been. The simple reality is that there are those who are incompetent ie.have poor driving skills who have been given a licence and are a danger to themselves and other road users because they’re clueless.If we could get rid of them,problem solved,however that will never happen because there are way too many fcukwits in power who are apathetic.
caf said :
I already pay for roadworks through petrol tax. The various Govts choose not to use it for that purpose!
caf said :
If I coul tax the f*ck out of people as much as the feds and state governments do, then yes, I’d have plenty of money to kick in.
But it’s not NSW, Newcastle, Sydney, Woolongong, so there’s no hope.
And I spelt Wollongong incorrectly
johnboy said :
From what I heard on the radio this morning, they’re planning on doing both – at least some of the poplars anyway.
caf said :
No they haven’t – it’s still down to single lane each way near and through Holbrook.
The problem is not speeding, it’s idiots who don’t know how to drive. Crazy overtaking (blind bends and crests), wandering out of lanes, driving too quickly when it’s wet, tailgating, motorbikes hammering past at 160km/h plus, etc.
Yes this will work. Head on collisions from failed impatient overtaking at 160 kmh are obviously more survivable than head on collisions from failed impatient overtaking at 200 kmh.
There is an engineering solution here – upgrade the entire road.
If necessary abandon the current road and build a safer one that can handle the current and anticipated traffic volumes.
More money wasted on an utterly pointless exercise. Lower speed linits are not the answer as the retards who speed now will still speed when lower limits are introduced. The common sense solution is simply more overtaking lanes so the retards dont cause the accidents they currently do in thier impatience to squeeze past the traffic in front.
caf said :
according to the Crimes:
“The speed limit for 1.5km on the Canberra side of Braidwood and 2.8km on the coastal side will be lowered from 100km/hour to 80km/hour by mid-year.”
thebrownstreak69 said :
Yep. Nothing more to say really.
Dickwards that have to get to the coast in under 60 minutes. There’s your problem and really, there’s nothing anyone can do about it. These idiots are not going to slow down because there’s an 80KM sign, and if they do, they’ll just go faster once they get out of that zone.
Maybe if these idiots were jailed for a year for multiple speeding charges then they’ll slow down and stop driving like maniacs.
Also wouldn’t hurt to get the farmers to fix their fences. I have been involved, through work, with a few cars/bikes versus cow accidents. The bike riders, in particulary, don’t come out of that well.
From memory most of the crashes that have happened in the poplars are due to people falling asleep at the wheel or people going way faster than the speed limit. Lowering the speed limit won’t help either of those situations.
Still, a reduction would warn those that it is a bit dangerous. Perhaps 90km/h would be a better cruising speed along that stretch.
Thumper said :
What would you cut to pay for it? If there was that kind of spare dough available for the roads budget, you can bet that the Pacific Highway would be first in line – for the entirely sensible reason that the number of lives saved there would be significantly greater.
Face it, duplicating the entire Kings Highway is an unaffordable pipe dream, advocated by those who believe in a Magic Pudding approach to government spending.
Thumper said :
There were two fatals and a couple of other accidents between Braidwood and the Clyde last year when we were down there on the Canberra day LWE last year. One of the fatals was in a reduced zone (90km/h that used to be 100 incidentally) so no, I don’t think the lower speed zones work in certain areas.
Better driver education is the key. People who learn to drive in the city do not know how to handle vehicles at speed on the highway.
We read about the poplars in the CT lest week end when we were at Nellegen and my wife and I were talking about it on the way into Braidwood. We only saw one memorial which indicated that the poplars are not really that dangerous.
Does anyone have any stats on how many people those poplars have killed over the years?
I cant really see how they are any more dangerous than any other tree in the 160km stretch to the Bay.
Deckard said :
How do we know that people fell asleep at the wheel.I wonder whether any consideration has been given to the possibility that some may have been suicides given that there has been conclusive research that a small percentage of car accidents are disguised as traffic accidents.The real percentage of suicides among car accidents is not reliably known; studies by suicide researchers tell that “vehicular fatalities that are suicides vary from 1.6% to 5%”.
High speed rail to the Bay will fix everything.