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Australian Government to Reinstate Speed Limits on Local "Autobahn" Section

The combination of extreme conditions and very long distances make driving through the Australian outback a very... different experience. Just like North American desert, you can go for hours without seeing any other car, or any other living soul for that matter.
Australian Outback 4 photos
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With such open roads, you'd imagine speed limits to be something very relative. It's not there is going to be a police car 1,000 miles away from the nearest settlement waiting to catch a speeding driver, right? That's probably why a highway running North of Alice Springs and into the Northern Territory has absolutely no speed limit, just like some of the German Autobahns.

We say "has" when maybe we should have used the past tense instead. If the local government has its way, an 180-mile long stretch of the Stuart Highway (running from Alice Springs to Tenant Creek) is going to have its speed limits restored. Naturally, this prospect doesn't go well with the locals who are now faced with greatly increased travel times or the risk of receiving a ticket.

North Territory Chief Minister, Michael Gunner, defends his decision to end the no-speed-limit tests period by invoking safety measures. "Our policy is to remove open limits based on advice from doctors, nurses, surgeons, and police who agree open limits should not exist," he said, quoted by BBC. Indeed, about 15 in 100,000 people die in car-related accidents in the Northern Territory, which is about three times as much as the country's average.

The official claims that people have voted "overwhelmingly in favor" of lifting the unrestricted speed status, but some locals don't agree. "You might drive for two hours and not see another car driving the other way. There's just no traffic out there. It's not like city roads," thinks Peter Hondow, a hot rod enthusiast from Alice Springs. "It's 1,600 km (1,000 miles) to Darwin, it's 1,600 km to Adelaide. They don't understand the remoteness of where we are."

But the locals aren't the only ones upset with the decision. European automakers will also be affected as the central Australian desert and its speed limit-free highway offered the perfect place to test the endurance of sports cars. Porsche, for instance, was pretty vocal about it through its spokesman, Paul Ellis. "All I'm saying is let's have a logical discussion about what causes fatalities. To say that speed is the biggest issue, I don't think that is correct." Unlike locals, though, car companies will still be allowed to drive at any speed, they'll just have to apply for a special permit first.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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