The first week of a trial of open speeds on a 200-kilometre section of the Stuart Highway has seen the arrival of plenty of drivers ready to push the boundaries.
For the next 12 months, there will be no set speed limit between the Northern Territory towns of Alice Springs and Barrow Creek … and the road dynamics are already changing.
When grey nomads in caravans and motorhomes start to head north again, they can expect to have more than road trains and big rigs to keep them company.
Motoring enthusiasts have wasted no time in putting their high-performance vehicles, including an Aston Martin and Ferrari, through their paces along the speed-limit free stretch of road.
Northern Territory Transport Minister Peter Styles told the Sydney Morning Herald he was disappointed when told people had driven at more than 250km/h on public roads.
“This is a long section of road with very low traffic volumes,”’ he said. “This road is not an autobahn. If people want to do those speeds, then I suggest they go to Germany.”’
The Northern Territory police say increased patrols will operate in the trial zone.
“We will be encouraging people to drive safely, to drive to the conditions,” said Assistant Commissioner Jamie Chalker. “Don’t try to push the boundaries … we will not accept stupidity on our road. Please do not come here to treat this as a racetrack. Don’t treat this as a place to drive recklessly.”’
But critics fear there will always be a minority who won’t listen, and they say the trial will lead to more speed-related road fatalities.
However, the Territory’s Roads Minister, Peter Style, is unrepentant and defended the trial.
“This section of road has not had speed-related deaths on it for a 10 year period and we’ve looked at all the evidence that has come out of the assessments so far and the audits and this section of road has been selected for a trial,” he said. “This is a trial period for 12 months.”
The road was not subject to speed limits until 2007, when 130km/h speed limits were introduced.
Will you be more nervous the next time you drive this stretch of road? Have you seen people driving crazy speeds on Outback highways? Comment below.
whats the rush? without doing the maths you will only save 10 minutes over the distance(I stand to be corrected). you will get some keen caravanner giving it a go too, only to come to grief. police will then say he was ‘careless driving’. the old tortise and the hare driver myself. Be nice to hear from young Grey Nomads and truckies.
Although I lived and worked inthe Territory, I had the initial buzz of speeding couple times but found I stayed around the 110-130kph anyway, but theses demons who think they can drive at sustained high speed will use the same old excuse, if they survive a high speed crash/ hit someone and that is” I didn’t mean to do it”
Don’t do it in the first instance , be safe and drive careful.
” I stayed around the 110-130kph” – Agree. I working in the NT for 15 years, the unrestricted speed limit was a god send for traveling the distances needed for work, however I did find that 130 – 140 in a good car is comfortable and efficient, resource wise.
It appears that as our society grows and our laws catch up, as a people we enact laws to prevent the stupid doing themselves harm. Not every stupid act can or should be legislated against. Why do we spend so much time and energy preventing fools and idiots hurting themselves. To answer my question, in Australia when a fool hurts themselves, we pay. In the US and other countries where health care is not free, when a fool hurts themselves, they pay.
Some tourist operators may see some benefit. Mr leadfoot of East Coast City,decides to give his high powered and expensive toy a blast.Would need a motel or two, meals etc. plus a bit of fuel.
Beyond that I am at a loss.
I travel up the Stuart Highway most years and the changes won’t alter my speed pulling the van at 90-95km/hr.
I’m amazed how many times cars pass one or two caravans with a jump up crest coming up and no idea what’s coming the other way.
The faster the speed the less margin for error.
do you ever think to just move left, slow down(IF they pull out to over take), and just let them go. Obviously if you are travelling at that speed it wont hurt you to help other motorists get past.
I will be driving my motorhome along that stretch in June. Terrifying to think I could be hit by a 200+km an hour out of control vehicle.
Anyone got any suggests on how we can stay safe from the crazys?
Sure – Stay at home. You could be involved in such an accident in a Suburban street these days.
Seriously thou, that stretch of road is not noted for heavy traffic.
I despair some times in the way our society is being hijacked by the latest batch of morons. People refer to the Autobahn in Germany, but if you ever visited Germany or seen the videos of the Autobahn you will know that the open speed limit they apply has restrictions. Firstly before travelling on the Autobahn you have to undergo an advanced driver training scheme to ensure you are capable of travelling at High Speed. Without that permit you cannot travel on that marvelous piece of road. There is also a upper limit attached to motorists on the Autobahn of 200kmh. The areas where you can attain that speed limit is limited. There are only certain places that it can be done. The majority of the Autobahn has normal speed limits imposed like the rest of the world.
The Autobahn is constructed as SIX lanes not TWO as the Stuart Hwy is. There are strict rules for staying in lanes on the Autobahn. Heavy vehicles like trucks must stay in the kerbside lanes at all times and the centre lane is for other slower moving vehicles, The outside lanes are reserved for the fast cars. You can move into other lanes to overtake a slower moving vehicle but you return to own lane immediately after completing the manouvre. If you impede other traffic when you change lanes then you be fined as the cameras will catch you. The Autobahn is covered by CCTV to spot idiots and their crashes, and is patrolled by Police in High powered vehicles and motorcycles and has helicopters patrolling over head. If you act like a moronic idiot and disrespect other motorists you generally end up doing a period of time in prison without the access to you vehicle. From what I’ve seen of the majority of Australian drivers is that they are totally incapable of travelling at those speeds unless of course you are trained Formula One driver or V8 Super Car drivers.
I believe that we now wait and see how many of the morons kill themselves or take out other people on this stretch of Hwy. My advise is tha at if you wish to travel at the high speed then first take an advanced driving course and request a trial run in a V8 Super Car or Formula One race car as they all vehicles act differently at high speed.
Thank you for that explanation Michael. Clear and precise. Most people just say that you can do whatever speed you want on the Autobahn but you have clarifies it succinctly and with great understanding. Most appreciated.
“Firstly before travelling on the Autobahn you have to undergo an advanced driver training scheme to ensure you are capable of travelling at High Speed.”
This is not true. There are no tiers or special licensing. Also, anyone from any country can go to Germany and rent a car (an M3 from Sixt if you wish) and drive on the Autobahn without any special training or speed limitations. Anyone who has been to Germany and driven knows this. Also, Germany is in the middle of Europe and anyone with a license can drive into Germany from another country, no special training required. Even getting a German license has very little to do with high-speed Autobahn driving. You will do some practice driving on the highway just like any other country and it is not going to be at exceptionally high speeds. It’s just another license.
“There is also a upper limit attached to motorists on the Autobahn of 200kmh.”
200km/h, really? Where did you get that number? I know you didn’t get it from the German traffic rules (Strassenverkehrsordnung – StVO) which clearly states there is no speed limit. THERE IS NO SPEED LIMIT ON OPEN SECTIONS, PERIOD! It is not open to debate at all. IT IS A LEGAL FACT! You CANNOT be pulled over for speeding in open speed sections. Tailgating? Yes. Passing on the right? Yes. Speeding? NO!
“The areas where you can attain that speed limit is limited. There are only certain places that it can be done.”
There are plenty of places you can drive fast on intercity stretches, which makes up most of the network anyways, especially if you aren’t out at rush hour. But if you are away from big cities it doesn’t matter much. Go out at night and you pretty much have the whole road to yourself. In any case, it’s very easy to drive 200km/h+ if you have a decent car. You will most often be limiting yourself. Even when there is traffic people generally observe the drive right rule which clears the way if you want to go fast.
“The majority of the Autobahn has normal speed limits imposed like the rest of the world.”
Once again wrong. It is just the opposite of what you say. The majority of the Autobahn does not have speed limits. As of the ADAC 2013 report (http://www.adac.de/_mmm/pdf/rv_tempolimit_flyer_0813_30472.pdf) 62% has no speed limit and another 7% has temporary limits when certain conditions exist.
“The Autobahn is constructed as SIX lanes not TWO”
The Autobahn can be from two to four lanes in each direction depending on its expected usage as per the design manual (RAA)
Then you start talking about CCTV cameras issuing tickets everywhere and prison. Really? I think you are confused and talking about your own country. Of course there is a drive right/pass left law, like most countries, it is just enforced (not by CCTV cameras) and practical because you can actually legally drive fast enough to pass people. Never heard of anyone going to jail from not observing this rule, although there are plenty of people who wouldn’t mind seeing this happen. While observance is definitely better in Germany, there are always those jack-asses who don’t seem to get it and they are not going to jail.
Police in high-powered vehicles… please! Usually you blow by them in their rinky-dink green/white vehicles and there is nothing they can do even if you are going 300km/h because you are not breaking any law. Sure they have a few gifted Porsches stocked away but nothing you’ll ever be likely to see.
Y2K didn’t end the world, nor did 2012, and I can assure you based on previous factual data that these open speed limits won’t result in a wave of mass death.
” you have to undergo an advanced driver training scheme” – Since when? – I have driven the autobarn numerous times and this was never the case. In fact the reverse is the case – slow speed drivers are removed.
There are two main causes that account for 95% of our (NT) road trauma. The first is – Tourists hiring 4wd’s, that feel and perform like limousines’, then travel on our many dirt roads at speed with no respect to the road conditions. The second is – Alcohol in built up areas and communities. Before they lowered the speed limit to 130kh in 2007, I was comfortable travelling at around 150kh, although now that I have rather large, fuel thirsty, 4wd I tend to cruise at around 120kh. The majority of Territorians are not out there to break speed records but to cover the vast distances in daylight hours. In the 100 or so years with no speed limit only a very small percentage of road deaths in the N.T. can be attributed to speed.
Hear, hear!
Whats’s the rush
What speed are the trucks allowed to travel? Some of these monsters are capable of travelling well over 120 .
Absolute rubbish. You obviously have no idea the drama that is caused when a truck is caught exceeding the limit. In NSW, 3 strikes the truck is deregistered. The fines for heavy vehicle drivers are over 3 times what the public pay and believe me, truckies do not get paid that much that we can afford to donate their hard earned.
Police then target all other trucks in that fleet. The vehicle is given a defect notice and needs to go over the pits for it to be removed.
Check your speedo before making rash, unqualified comments. I am both a FULL TIME Grey Nomad, i.e. I live full time in my van, but I also drive trucks, Road Trains at the moment and do know what I am talking about. Speeding 15 years ago was probably right but in the last few years it has virtually ceased.
Get a GPS, ignore the cheap speedometer that is in your car, they are by law, allowed to read less than the actual speed but not more. Fit different tyres, they also are effected. My own tug, Nissan Patrol, reads 106 on the clock when GPS (x2) reads 100.
if the speedo or speed in a truck is 100, it could be passing you at 5 -8 km/h faster than you are. It would not be travelling, on a level road, at 120 kmh. Doesn’t happen.
Well said Bob, its just a shame car drivers aren’t give understanding regarding trucks when sitting for their licence. I too am a grey nomad that has spent the last 38 years driving trucks to put food on my family’s table and to this day I still can’t get my head around the brainless actions of car drivers around trucks. Many a time have I had to take quick action to stop me from running straight over the car because they try something dumb & risky. Keep it safe and enjoy your travels.
Before you think of putting your foot down remember that all states and territories in Australia have maximum speed limits for vehicles towing a trailer or caravan. Also remember that if your van starts to wobble or you drop the left wheels of the road the only fast trip you will make will be to hospital or the morgue. What’s the rush anyway! Your on holidays. Our motto is “Hook in & see nothing, Drive steady & see the beauty”
Not true, a number of states have no special speed restrictions on caravans. Drivers are allowed to do the posted speed limit. Which I don’t necessarily agree with, depending on the size of the van.