Top 10 tips to help you stop speeding

How much do you know about speed and speeding? These top 10 tips will help you stop speeding and keep you on the right side of the law. This will also make your green slip cheaper.

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

It’s illegal to drive over the speed limit. There’s no published tolerance for travelling even a few kilometres per hour over the limit.

Analysis of speeding crashes by the Australian Centre for Automotive Safety Research found that 51.3% involved a vehicle travelling 1‑10 kph over the speed limit. Some people believe they ‘speed safely’ but see others as speeding dangerously. This attitude of ‘safe speeding’ is a problem for the driver and everyone else on the road with them.

Tip: Use cruise control when on the highway and watch your speedometer on city streets to stop speeding.

Speeding is not just going over the limit

 Transport for NSW defines speeding as ‘motorists travelling above the posted limit or not driving to conditions’. Driving to conditions depends on the driver being aware. For example, the default limit of 100 kph may apply on a rural road, but if it’s a wet day, you could:

• 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.

Tip: Drive to conditions, not just below the speed limit. If conditions are wet, even the posted speed limit may be too high.

Speed cameras won’t save your life

It’s widely accepted that speed cameras can help reduce deaths and injuries. Speeding fines rocketed when the NSW government stopped showing speed camera warning signs, which suggests people do slow down for them. Just because drivers stop speeding at the speed camera doesn’t mean they drive safely away from it.

Speeding is not the only cause of death and injury on the road. Even though it is difficult to measure, distraction is also a big contributor to road trauma and it can happen at any time. Sometimes speeding occurs at the same time as drink driving, fatigue, or being unlicensed or unregistered.

Tip: Don’t rely on speed cameras to slow you down. They work at only one moment and it’s up to you after that.

You’re more likely to crash if you speed

Speed is a big contributor to crashes. In the year to September 2025, excessive speed was definitely involved in over a third (36%) of fatal crashes. This compares to fatigue at over a fifth (21%) and alcohol at 11%. As only these 3 factors are measured, a third (32%) of causes are uncertain. Excessive speeding often happens in combination with other factors, such as drink or drug driving, or unregistered driving.

Some motorists don’t understand the danger of speeding. 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.

Tip: Understand how most fatal crashes happen and your chances of crashing if you don’t stop speeding.

Understand why you need to speed

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.

Many people say they speed because they’re running late or the traffic is heavy. It may also be having a sense of anonymity in their vehicle or temporary disregard for others. The need to speed may have more to do with personality and willingness to take risks than actual driving conditions.

Tip: Identify anything that triggers you to speed, such as being late, or feeling tired or angry. Once you know the triggers, you can address them.

Remember you can’t speed while overtaking

You can’t speed while overtaking. If you need to overtake, you have to judge 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, there are no exceptions and it’s illegal to speed while overtaking any vehicle.

Tip: Make sure you have enough time and space on the road to overtake, especially when passing a heavy vehicle.

Use technology to help you stop speeding

If you have trouble trusting your speed, you can use technology to stop you from speeding. While you have to stay aware and not rely on it, it can jog your mind.

Tip: Use in-car features and external apps to make an alert sound if you go over the speed limit. Use cruise control.

Allow for lower speed limits in pedestrian areas

A low limit of 30 kph is appearing in many busy pedestrian areas in Sydney. In fact, speed limits are generally falling in cities all over the world. This is because 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 impact speed:

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

Tip: Leave extra time for journeys that include busy pedestrian areas.

You won’t save time by speeding

A lot of people think speeding saves them time. This is because they have a ‘time-saving bias’. They overestimate time saved while risking a speeding offence. For example, if you travel 30 kms at 60 kph, it takes 30 minutes. Speeding at 65 kph takes only 2 minutes off the trip, which could have happened without speeding.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) says speeding saves only 77 seconds on an average commute distance of 16.6km travelling at 65kph compared to 60kph.

Tip: Give yourself more time to start your journey. If speeding shaves 2 minutes off your trip, leave 2 minutes earlier.

Save money and the inconvenience of demerit points

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

These are fines for Class A vehicles as at November 2025, and are higher in school zones:

Tip: Make sure you know the real cost of speeding. If you receive a speeding ticket and, say, 3 demerit points, your green slip will be more expensive too for 3 years. Is it worth it?

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