To improve road safety, the Australian Government is seeking public feedback on the reduction of speed limits on unmarked roads outside built-up areas.
The Government’s Infrastructure Department has opened consultations on reducing the default speed limit where there are no sign-posted speed limits to help improve safety.
Government figures show that in 2024, 1294 people were killed on Australia’s roads, with more than 30,000 people seriously injured because of road crashes.
It is well-known that speed is a major factor in serious and fatal traffic crashes, hence all Australian governments are prioritising the reduction of deaths, accidents and injuries on Australian roads.
With the risk of being killed on regional or remote roads is 11 times higher compared to major city roads, the Australian Government is seeking public feedback on the default speed limit, so as to ultimately lead to updates to the Australian Road Rules for sealed and unsealed roads outside of built-up areas.
Some roads in Australia do not have sign-posted speed limits, resulting in the default speed limit, as directed by the Australian Road Rules, of 100km/h applying.
Additionally, the Australian Road Rules do not specify a default speed limit for unsealed roads.
In most cases, the default speed limit does not apply to busy roads, such as freeways and main roads, but it will apply to less busy roads outside the built-up areas.
In many cases, it may not be safe to travel at 100km/h on roads outside built-up areas, especially in regional and remote areas.
These roads may not be sealed or can be in poor condition, thereby making it unsafe to travel at the default speed.
The Government sees that reducing speed on these roads, and setting safe speed limits, can help prevent the tragedy of road crashes, injuries and deaths.
The Infrastructure Department is consulting on options for reducing the default speed limit on sealed roads to 90, 80 or 70 km/h, or not changing it.
For unsealed roads, it is looking at default speed limits of 80 or 70 km/h, or leaving it unchanged.
The Government is seeking feedback from industry, interested stakeholders and members of the public on:
- The options for lowering the current default speed limit outside of built-up areas.
- Introducing a default speed limit for unsealed roads outside of built-up areas.
- The potential road safety benefits of reducing default speed limits outside of built-up areas.
The state and territory governments agreed, by way of the National Road Safety Action Plan 2023–25, that the Australian Government would develop a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) on reducing the default speed limit outside of built-up areas.
The RIA could lead to changes to the Australian Road Rules, which is a model law that states and territories base their own road rules on.
The implementation of this change would give states and territories the opportunity to reduce default speed limits as appropriate.
The RIA considers the options, costs and benefits for lowering the current default speed limit in the Australian Road Rules and introducing a new default speed limit specifically for unsealed roads.
The potential updates to the speed limits will be considered and ultimately implemented by state and territory governments.
Consultations close on 27 October. Visit here.
