Article: Cut speed limit: Minister

Wow so much assumptions in this thread it's horrific...

1. Accidents are caused by wreckless driving.
2. Wreckless includes but are not limited to Busses, taxis. Allot of stupid car drivers on the roads as well.
3. Speed is hardly ever a factor in accidents. Majority of the time it the following:
. Not adhering to general road rules.
. Un-roadworthy vehicles
. Un-licensed drivers
. Weather conditions which drivers aren't capable of driving in.
. General conditions of the roads.

The list goes on and on.

Fact is, reducing speeding by a mere 20km/h will hardly save any lives which would have been lost driving at 120 km/h anyway.

A person not wearing a seat belt and having a head-on with another vehicle will surely end up with more than one person killed. Have you guys seen head-ons at 60km/h?

The whole road safety policy is being approached wrong. If you want to save lives start by enforcing the things you can manage and do so with visible policing. Putting up speed traps and sending people fines in the post will never stop anyone from speeding anyway. It's nothing but a money making scheme and not about saving lives.

In the UK you have warnings all over the place when approaching a speed camera. You have visible police and they are enforcing the laws very strictly. The mentality of SA drivers needs to change and so to the mentality of the way Government is handling the problem. They should be pro active and not re-active in their approach. Way to many traffic cops sitting under trees manning cameras when they should be doing random pull-overs, road blocks, inspections and so on...
 
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Arthur said:
Shame on the minister for gambling with the lives of South Africans! It is a cold-hearted and cynical calculation that aims only to reduce the carnage on our roads - the government should be doing all it can to eliminate deaths entirely. After all, what value can one place on even a single human life?!

Of course one can't introduce a safety-first policy overnight, so I propose a phased approach:

Step One: Immediately reduce the national speed limit to 10km/h on freeways and 5km/h in urban areas.
Step Two: After 12 months, reduce road usage by 50% by permanently closing half of South Africa's roads - the current policy of not performing road maintenance is inefficient, takes too long to be effective, and needlessly gambles with motorist and pedestrian safety.
Step Three: After 24 months, ban all motorised vehicles with an engine capacity over 25cc.
Step Four: After 36 months, permanently close all paved roads wider than 1m.

This will ensure South Africa is a World Class African Country.

Anything less just compromises safety too much. It's high time this government took to heart the real interests of all South Africans!
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Lets hope the minister don't watch Austin Powers kill an Security Guard driving an Compactor at 2Km/h. :D
 
Pitbull said:
Wow so much assumptions in this thread it's horrific...

1. Accidents are caused by wreckless driving.
2. Wreckless includes but are not limited to Busses, taxis. Allot of stupid car drivers on the roads as well.
3. Speed is hardly ever a factor in accidents. Majority of the time it the following:
. Not adhering to general road rules.
. Un-roadworthy vehicles
. Un-licensed drivers
. Weather conditions which drivers aren't capable of driving in.
. General conditions of the roads.

The list goes on and on.

Fact is, reducing speeding by a mere 20km/h will hardly save any lives which would have been lost driving at 120 km/h anyway.

A person not wearing a seat belt and having a head-on with another vehicle will surely end up with more than one person killed. Have you guys seen head-ons at 60km/h?

The whole road safety policy is being approached wrong. If you want to save lives start by enforcing the things you can manage and do so with visible policing. Putting up speed traps and sending people fines in the post will never stop anyone from speeding anyway. It's nothing but a money making scheme and not about saving lives.

In the UK you have warnings all over the place when approaching a speed camera. You have visible police and they are enforcing the laws very strictly. The mentality of SA drivers needs to change and so to the mentality of the way Government is handling the problem. They should be pro active and not re-active in their approach. Way to many traffic cops sitting under trees manning cameras when they should be doing random pull-overs, road blocks, inspections and so on...
Click to expand...

^^ This
 
Research - In Germany the introduction of Autobahn decreased accidents rate.
But, they enfore their laws, they tell you when and where you can drive fast and if you disobey the law, your license will be suspended (and yes, even if its only 1 offence).
Will it work in SA?
Never, cos fines are an income.
 
Truly amazing how many driving saints there are on MyBB.

...realising, of course, that as they're saints, we never actually see them on the roads.

I've perused multiple 'driving' threads on here over the my MyBB tenure and the threads are populated by groups picking a few (borderline Trolls, in some cases) who dare to stand their ground about more spirited driving.

To those of you haranguing the 'faster' (faster, not 'reckless') drivers, can you honestly tell me you >never< willingly transgress the rules of the road - speed or otherwise?

Are you driving a small runabout or something with a 'fast' engine? If the latter, why?

Have you ever lusted after a 'fast' car on the road with you?

Consider me a Troll in this thread if you will, but it remains a valid question.

To be a saint requires saintly thoughts, at all times. I'm sure you will agree.
 
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Nobody here is saying that they're saints..
and yes i've broken the speed limit before... but I don't stand on my high horse and say "Its ok because I'm a good driver" or anything like that..

I'm aware that I'm breaking the law, and will therefore take the punishment that comes my way.
 
The fact that some try to justify their one illegal actions, just allows other to want to justify their illegal actions on the road like u-turn on the highway or whatever... just saying
 
IMO this is similar to the guns don't kill, people kill people debate. Most accidents are caused by reckless drives not people doing 120km/h instead on 100km/h. And what about the economic implications? How much longer will long distance trucking / courier services take to deliver goods ect. What about business people traveling long trips i.e. if it takes you 5 hours to travel 600km at 120km/h, it will now take you 6 hours at 100km/h. I'd rather spend an hour less on the roads avoiding other idiots :p What a load of BS.
 
Roads are designed so that road users are ideally spending as little time on the road as possible. The thinking is that the longer they are on the road the more likely they are to make a mistake/cause an accident etc.

Reducing the speed limit will increase the time people spend on the roads will just increase the time drivers spend on the roads and therefore -> more chance to cause an accident.

As has been stated before accidents aren't caused by speed alone, rather by faulty vehicles, mistakes/recklessness etc.
 
hawker said:
Roads are designed so that road users are ideally spending as little time on the road as possible. The thinking is that the longer they are on the road the more likely they are to make a mistake/cause an accident etc.

Reducing the speed limit will increase the time people spend on the roads will just increase the time drivers spend on the roads and therefore -> more chance to cause an accident.

As has been stated before accidents aren't caused by speed alone, rather by faulty vehicles, mistakes/recklessness etc.
Click to expand...

swerving to avoid potholes probably causes a fair amount of accidents

the M1 south is littered with them

sbu you fail at your job!
 
Mila said:
The laws are enforced in aus. The people don't drive faster because they get caught every time and are fined everytime then loses their license.

We met ausies that has never driven faster than 120 ever and has only once been a bit tipsy when driving.

The important part of the law is enforcing it.
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None of which proves that fatalities or accidents really went down due to a reduced speed limit.
 
I can't but help think that had the pedestrian near the Rivonia offramp been doing more than 120kph this morning that the outcome may have been a little different.
 
noxibox said:
None of which proves that fatalities or accidents really went down due to a reduced speed limit.
Click to expand...

Correct - what it does mean is that drivers tend to be more aware.

Setting a speed limit at 100kph is arbitrary. Have we determined that 100kph is safe if you have an accident? Because two cars in a suburb having a head on have are colliding at 120kph
 
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I'm really not seeing the point of all this. Cops cannot even enforce the 120km/h limit, what difference is it going to make if the limit is 100km/h? We all see the chaos on the roads in the morning where everyone seems to do as they please. If the law cannot be enforced, there's no point in changing it.

Take the millions you're going to spend on changing signs on the roads and put it towards a better police force. That is the only way I see to make a difference.
 
noxibox said:
None of which proves that fatalities or accidents really went down due to a reduced speed limit.
Click to expand...
what I mean is you can make the speed limit 20. If you don't enforce it you are fighting a losing battle. Enforce the current set of laws and you will see an improvement.
 
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