Top 10 tips to help you stop speeding

How much do you know about speed and speeding? Here are our top 10 tips to keep you on the right side of the camera and the law.

1. Speed cameras won’t save your life ›

2. You can get caught speeding only a few kilometres per hour over ›

3. Speeding is more than just going over the limit ›

4. You’re more likely to crash if you speed ›

5. Ask yourself why you don’t stop speeding ›

6. Don’t speed while overtaking ›

7. Speed limits are not arbitrary ›

8. Speed limits are dropping›

9. You won’t save time by speeding ›

10. Save money and the inconvenience of penalties ›

1. Speed cameras won’t save your life

Just because you stay under the limit at the speed camera doesn’t necessarily mean you drive safely. A fixed point speed camera measures speeding only at one point and drivers may speed away from it. However, speeding is not the only cause of death and injury on the road.

Sometimes speeding occurs with other risk factors, such as drink driving, fatigue, or being unlicensed or unregistered. It’s difficult to measure, but distraction is also a big contributor to road trauma and it can happen at any time. So speed cameras are not enough to save your life.

2. You can get caught speeding only a few kilometres per hour over

It’s illegal to drive over the speed limit. There is no published tolerance for travelling even a few kilometres per hour (kph) over the limit. The Australia Standard used to allow speedometers to be 10% over or under the actual speed but this is no longer true.

However, NSW police, unlike speed cameras, can make the final decision whether or not your casual speeding was unsafe at the time.

3. Speeding is more than just going over the limit

According to Transport for NSW, speeding is defined as “motorists travelling above the posted limit or not driving to conditions”. While a speed limit is clear, driving to conditions depends on the driver’s interpretation of those conditions. For example, the default limit of 100 kph may apply on rural roads. If you don’t drive to conditions you may:

• Lose control of your vehicle
• Take longer to stop if there is danger, such as a wild animal
• Crash more severely and increase your chances of death or injury.

Many people don’t stop speeding because they believe they “speed safely” but others speed dangerously. This attitude to speeding is a problem for the driver and everyone else on the road with them.

4. You’re more likely to crash if you speed

In the year to April 2024, excessive speed was definitely involved in two fifths of fatal crashes. This compares to fatigue at one fifth (19%) and alcohol (12%). We measure only these three factors, which leaves over a quarter of causes still uncertain.

Speed is a big contributor to crashes, but it often happens in combination with drink or drug driving, or unregistered driving. Even so, some motorists don’t understand the danger of their need for speed. The impact of speeding is the equivalent of jumping off the roof of a tall building and expecting to survive hitting the ground – in a vehicle rated 5 stars for safety.

5. Ask yourself why you don’t stop speeding

Some people speed because they are in a hurry, bored, or really enjoy driving fast. European research found excessive speeders tended to drive for professional purposes, earn high incomes or be young men aged 17-24. Men tended to speed more than women because of their increased willingness to take risks.

The most common reasons people give for speeding are traffic congestion and running late, along with a sense of anonymity in their vehicle and even temporary disregard for others. In fact, your need to speed may have more to do with personality and willingness to take risks than actual driving conditions.

6. Don’t speed while overtaking

It’s illegal to speed while overtaking any vehicle. If you need to overtake, you have to judge whether there’s enough time and space to overtake while travelling at or below the speed limit. Some argue this is a dangerous approach when overtaking a long, heavy vehicle. However, the law is unequivocal.

7. Speed limits are not arbitrary

Transport for NSW sets speed limits in the state according to strict criteria. https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/roadsafety/topics-tips/speeding/speed-zones#How_speed_zones_are_set_and_reviewed

The idea is that speed limits reflect the road safety risk while helping people get where they want to go. These factors affect the speed limit:

• crash history
• width of lanes
• road function and characteristics
• mix of traffic
• presence of vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians
• driveways and intersections.

8. Speed limits are dropping

A low limit of 30 kph is appearing in busy pedestrian areas in Sydney. Even slight reductions in travel speed can reduce the chance and severity of a road crash. In the Sydney CBD, for example , 90% to 95% of trips are made by pedestrians or cyclists. If a pedestrian and a car collide, their chances of dying depend on these impact speeds:

• 30 kph – 5-10% chance
• 40 kph – 25-40% chance
• 50 kph – 70-80% chance
• 60 kph – most people die.

Not everyone agrees low speeds are practical for motorists. Just because a road has a speed limit of 40 kph doesn’t mean collisions will happen at 40 kph. The speed is still low enough for a driver to slow down for a pedestrian in time. However, speed limits are generally falling in cities all over the world.

9. You won’t save time by speeding

A common reason for speeding is being late for a meeting or appointment. However, drivers have what is called a “time-saving bias”. This means they have a poor grasp of how much time they actually save. For example, drivers:

• underestimate time saved when increasing from a low speed
• overestimate time saved when increasing from a relatively high speed
• overestimate time saved if the distance is greater.

For example, if you travel 30 kms at an average speed of 60 km per hour, it takes 30 minutes. Speeding at 65 km per hour takes only 2 minutes off the trip, which could have happened without speeding. Yet drivers focus on 65 kph, rather than the extra 5 kph, and  overestimate time saved while risking a speeding offence. It’s a good reason to stop speeding.

10. Save money and the inconvenience of penalties

Fines for speeding in NSW are heavy and always come with 1-6 demerit points. Speeding offences apply to each class of vehicle, inside and outside school zones, and vary according to licence status.

These are fines for Class A vehicles as at May 2024, but they are higher in school zones:

Gov source:

Speeding in NSW will certainly cost you and could cost somebody’s life, including yours.

If you receive a speeding ticket and a demerit point or more, your green slip will be more expensive too for 3 years. Is it worth it?