Driving speeds in Australia -- Il-veloċità tas-sewqan fl-Awstralja

I'm referring to driving on the main road arteries in the country, for example those that link the main cities in the different states and territories together.  These have the characteristic of not having traffic lights and are generally of good quality, though probaby not as good as those in Europe.

 

In this Christmas holiday period, I've had plenty of opportunity to think about this subject while on the road between Sydney and Melbourne.  This trip is just under 900km in length, and outside of the two metropolises, one can travel at the maximum, quite frustrating, speed of 110km/h.  This results in a drive of just under 9 hours, apart from stops for personal needs.

 

All the Australian states and territories have this limit for the principal inter-urban routes, except for the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) where the limit is 100km/h and the NT (Northern Territory) where it is 130km/h.

 

I've always been curious as to why this country, which is also a continent similar in size to the whole of Europe, or to the United States, has such a low maximum driving speed for its primary inter-urban routes.

 

I remember many years back, driving at 130km/h on the autoroute in France, and at 140km/h on the Italian autostrada.  These countries are much smaller than Australia; France (650,000km2) is smaller than NSW (800,000km2) and Italy (300,000km2) is just bigger than Victoria (240,000km2).

 

Travel distances in these countries are much shorter than those in Australia.  Therefore why is it that in Australia drivers are expected to just drive at a canter?  Perhaps our roads aren't maintained as well as those in Europe?  Or our cars are falling to pieces, and cannot be trusted to be revved any further, lest they lose a wheel?

 

Is it a good opportunity to fine the hapless driver who loses his patience driving too slowly, frustrated by straight and endless roads?  Or maybe we don't want to ruin the business case of some enterprise eying an investment in a future fast train system?

 

Many times the response received from authorities is that higher speeds mean more incidents and more deaths.

 

In truth this does make sense, however perhaps the situation is not as clear cut as they would have us believe.

 

For example, until last month, there was an experiment in the NT where 200km of road had been marked as without speed limits, a situation that already exists in the autobahn in Germany.  After 3 years, the then government (the Country Liberals) had announced that there had been no death in that stretch of road for which speeding had been the root cause.1  One has to add that today's NT government (the Labor party) turned back the clock to a limit of 130km/h, on the basis of this being an electoral promise and in consultation with doctors and police.  One can see here that these types of decisions are primarily, if not exclusively, political.

 

Perhaps the conditions of that stretch of road in the NT were optimal (e.g. a straight road, good survace, weather usually good etc) and therefore the results of that experiment are not necessarily applicable everywhere.  Nevertheless, this experiment shows that simple statements that an increase in driving speeds leads to more deaths is not necessarily the case universally either.

 

It seems that many governments don't want to touch this subject.  In a recent report, the Victorian government minimised the advantage of more reasonable speed limits.  It said that if this were to increase from 110 to 120km/h, a 200km journey would only take 9 minutes less.2  This is of course true, however when one travels from Sydney to Melbourne on the Hume Highway, the voyage is much longer.  If the limit were 120km/h for 800km of the trip, a driver would save more than 30 minutes, and if the limit were 130km/h as is the case in the NT, one would save more than an hour.  These cannot be deemed to be insignificant.

 

In the federal parliament before the election earlier this year, there had been a Senate inquiry which stopped abruptly due to the election.  The interim report before the inquiry stopped included the information that in regional areas, road deaths are double the national average, and in remote places, the rate increases to four times the national average.3

 

These are serious numbers, however they don't make the distinction between the main thoroughfares between urban centres (such as the Hume Highway I already mentioned between Sydney and Melbourne), which is generally of good quality, and other regional and remote roads, where the road quality is inferior and contributes to these deaths, as acknowledged in the report.4

 

When one remembers that fatigue is one of the factors leading to serious traffic incidents, given that an increase in the speed limit can decrease the excessive time to complete road trips on the long continental roads, paradoxically one can conclude that an increase in the speed limit can even lead to a reduction in accidents.

 

I don't understand why Australia cannot have principal inter-urban roads that are comparable to European ones, which are considered safe enough for driving at the European limit of 130km/h.

 

I know, and appreciate, that even a single death is too much, and every effort should be made to minimise these.  This by no means should be trivialised.

 

Nevertheless I think it's about time we had a dialogue in this country about the balance we want to see between speed and road risks, and it seems that in NSW there is some appetite for this dialogue to occur.5  Vehicle technology is improving all the time, and steps can be taken to make roads safer.

 

I feel that driving speed limits that were decided decades ago, in an age where technology was more basic than today, can legitimately be reviewed.

 

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Qed nirreferi għas-sewqan fuq l-arterji prinċipali tat-toroq fil-pajjiż, per eżempju dawk li jgħaqqdu l-bliet prinċipali fl-istati differenti flimkien.  Għandhom il-karatteristika li m'għandhomx dwal tat-traffiku, u ġeneralment huma ta' kwalità tajba, għalkemm aktarx mhux daqs ta' dawk Ewropej.

 

F'dawn il-ġranet ta' festi tal-Milied, kelli ħafna opportunità biex nikkontempla dan is-suġġett waqt vjaġġ bil-karozza bejn Sydney u Melbourne.  Dan il-vjaġġ huwa ftit inqas minn 900km fit-tul, u barra mill-metropoli taż-żewġt ibliet, tista' tivvjaġġa b'veloċità massima, pjuttost frustranti, ta' 110km fis-siegħa.  Dan jirriżulta f'sewqan ta' ftit inqas minn 9 sigħat, minn barra waqfien għal bżonnijiet personali.

 

L-istati u t-territorji tal-Awstralja kollha għandhom dan il-limitu għat-toroq prinċipali inter-urbani tagħhom, ħlief għall-ACT (Australian Capital Territory) fejn il-limitu huwa ta' 100km fis-siegħa u n-NT (Northern Territory) fejn huwa ta' 130km fis-siegħa.  

 

Dejjem kont kurjuż għaliex f'dan il-pajjiż, li huwa wkoll kontinent kbir bejn wieħed u ieħor daqs l-Ewropa kollha, jew daqs l-Istati Uniti, għandu veloċità massima tant żgħira għat-toroq prinċipali inter-urbani tagħha.

 

Jien niftakarni diversi snin ilu, insuq bil-130km fis-siegħa fl-autoroute ta' Franza, u bil-140km fis-siegħa fl-autostrada tal-Italja.  Dawn il-pajjiżi huma ferm iżgħar mill-Awstralja kollha; Franza (650,000km2) hija iżgħar minn NSW (800,000km2), u l-Italja (300,000km2) hija ftit ikbar minn Victoria (240,000km2).

 

Id-distanzi f'dawn il-pajjiżi huma ħafna iqsar minn dawk fl-Awstralja.  Allura għaliex fl-Awstralja s-sewwieqa iridu bilfors joqogħdu għaddejjin bit-tlikki tlikki?  Forsi t-toroq tagħhna mhumiex miżmuma tajjeb daqs dawk tal-Ewropa?  Jew il-karrozzi t'hawnhekk se jaqgħu biċċiet, u ma nistawx nafdawhom b'veloċità iktar għolja, ma jmorrux jitilfu xi rota?

 

Jew hija opportunità tajba li nimmultaw lis-sewwieq li jixba għaddej bil-mod wisq, frustrat f'toroq dritti u ma jispiċċaw qatt?  Jew forsi ma rridux ingerrxu 'l xi intrapriża li tista' tinvesti f'sistema futura ta' ferroviji veloċi fil-futur?

 

Ħafna drabi r-risposta li nirċievu mill-awtoritajiet hija li veloċitajiet iktar għoljin ifissru iktar inċidenti u iktar imwiet.

 

Dan fil-verità jagħmel sens, imma forsi s-sitwazzjoni mhix daqshekk ċara daqskemm jingħadilna.

 

Per eżempju, sa xahar ilu kien hemm esperiment fin-NT fejn 200km ta' triq kien immarkat li kien mingħajr limitu ta' veloċità, sitwazzjoni li diġà teżisti fl-autobahn tal-Ġermanja.  Wara tliet snin, il-gvern ta' dakinhar (il-Country Liberals) kien ħabbar li ma kien hemm l-ebda mewt f'dik it-triq ikkawżat mill-veloċità.1  Ta' min jgħid li l-gvern tan-NT t'issa (il-Labor) reġġa l-arloġġ lura għal limitu ta' 130km fis-siegħa, abbażi li din kienet fil-programm elettorali tiegħu u f'konsultazzjoni mat-tobba u l-pulizija.  Wieħed jista' jara hawnhekk li deċiżjonijiet bħal dawn huma primarjament, jekk mhux esklussivament, politiċi.

 

Jista' jkun li l-kundizzjonijiet f'dik it-triq ta' NT kienu ottimali (p.e. triq dritta, wiċċ tal-art tajba, temp ġeneralment tajjeb eċċ) u għalhekk mhux neċessarjament li dak l-esperiment huwa applikabbli kullimkien.  Madankollu, dan l-esperiment juri li stqarrija sempliċi li żieda fil-veloċità twassal għal iktar imwiet mhix neċessarjament korretta kullimkien lanqas.

 

Jidher li ħafna gvernijiet ma jridux imissu dan is-suġġett.  F'rapport riċenti, il-gvern ta' Victoria mminimizza l-vantaġġi ta' limitu iktar raġjonevoli tal-veloċità.  Qal li kieku din kellha tiżdied minn 110 għal 120km fis-siegħa, vjaġġ ta' 200km jieħu biss 9 minuti inqas.2  Dan huwa veru, imma meta wieħed jivvjaġġa minn Sydney għal Melbourne fuq il-Hume Highway il-vjaġġ huwa ħafna itwal.  Kieku l-limitu jkun ta' 120km fis-siegħa għal 800km tal-vjaġġ, sewwieq jiffranka iktar minn 30 minuta, u jekk il-limitu jkun ta' 130km fis-siegħa bħal ma hu fin-NT, wieħed jiffranka iktar minn siegħa.  Dawn ma jistawx jitqiesu li mhumiex sinjifikanti.

 

Fil-parlament federali ta' qabel l-elezzjoni ta' din is-sena, kien hemm inkjesta tas-Senat li waqfet ħesrem minħabba l-elezzjoni.  Ir-rapport interim ta' qabel ma waqfet l-inkjesta inkluda l-informazzjoni li f'partijiet reġjonali, imwiet fit-toroq huma d-doppju tal-medja nazzjonali, u f'partijiet imwarrba ir-rata titla' għal erba' darbiet il-medja nazzjonali.3

 

Dawn huma figuri serji, imma jgħattu d-distinzjoni bejn toroq prinċipali tal-pajjiż bejn iċ-ċentri urbani (bħall-Hume Highway li semmejt bejn Sydney u Melbourne), li hija ġeneralment ta' kwalità tajba, u toroq oħra reġjonali u mwarrba, fejn il-kwalità tat-toroq hija inferjuri u tikkontribwixxi għal dawn l-imwiet, li hija rikonoxxuta fir-rapport.4

 

Meta wieħed jiftakar li l-għejja hija waħda mill-fatturi li jwasslu għal inċidenti serji tat-traffiku, peress li żieda fil-limitu tal-veloċita tnaqqas it-tul esaġerat ta' sewqan fuq meded twal ta' toroq fil-kontinent, paradossalment wieħed jista' jikkonkludi li żieda fil-limitu tista' twassal ukoll għal tnaqqis ta' inċidenti.

 

Jien ma nistax nifhem għaliex l-Awstralja ma jistax ikollha toroq prinċipali inter-urbani li jħabbtuha ma dawk li jinsabu fl-Ewropa, u li huma meqjusa żguri biżżejjed għal sewqan madwar il-limitu Europew ta' 130km fis-siegħa.  

 

Jien naf, u napprezza, li anke mewt wieħed hija żejda, u għandu jsir kull sforz biex dawn ikunu minimizzati.  Dan bl-ebda mod ma jrid ikun trivjalizzat.

 

Madankollu jien naħseb li wasal iż-żmien li jkollna djalogu fil-pajjiż dwar dan il-bilanċ bejn il-veloċità u r-riskji fit-toroq, u jidher li f'NSW hemm xi rieda biex dan id-djalogu jseħħ.5  It-teknoloġija tal-vetturi qed tiġi 'l quddiem kull sena, u passi jistgħu jittieħdu biex it-toroq ikunu iktar żguri.  

Inħoss li limiti tal-veloċità tas-sewqan li ġew deċiżi għexieren ta' snin ilu, fi żmien ta' teknoloġija iktar bażika, huwa leġittimu li jerġgħu jiġu riveduti.

 

 

 

1https://www.motormag.com.au/news/1608/northern-territory-returns-to-speed-limits, retrieved 29/12/2016

22011-2012 Victorian Speed Limit Review; VicRoads; p. 25

3Aspects of Road Safety in Australia - Interim Report; Australian Senate; Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport; May 2016; para 3.3

4Ibid; para 3.8-3.12

5http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-04/nsw-government-considers-increased-speed-limits-highways/6749158, retrieved 29/12/2016

1https://www.motormag.com.au/news/1608/northern-territory-returns-to-speed-limits, retrieved 29/12/2016

22011-2012 Victorian Speed Limit Review; VicRoads; p. 25

3Aspects of Road Safety in Australia - Interim Report; Australian Senate; Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport; May 2016; para 3.3

4Ibid; para 3.8-3.12

5http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-04/nsw-government-considers-increased-speed-limits-highways/6749158, retrieved 29/12/2016