That no one was involved in a crash proves that it was done safely .
No it does not 'prove' that it was done safely at all.
Really? Everyone came out ok; no accidents, near-misses, surprises or anything like that, but it wasn't safe? No "pucker moments", no evasive braking or steering, nothing. Not safe?
I know of people who have driven in residential areas legally at speeds over 200km/hr without driving police cars. Remember when we used to have the Mobil 1 (IIRC was a long time ago!) in Wellington? The Hamilton V8 street racing? (and no I am not claiming I was involved in any of these)
That was in very controlled conditions and only by drivers that were rated for those conditions. That is a very different thing than driving fast where other drivers of variable skill may appear. For those races the road was aligned and resurfaced with a special mix that was rated for the speeds of those cars and it was levelled to ensure safety. No other roads in NZ are made to those standards.
Seriously? WOW! I didn't know they could do that! Re-align several Wellington streets, re-surface them with a "special mix", re-level them (taking out the camber which on many corners actually helps drivers), then put in some replica road markings and even fire-hydrants (see the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIGREJAw8kU, at around the 10-minute mark (that yellow thing in the middle of the road is a NZ fire hydrant) (video is just the Nissan Mobil 500 so they probably don't reach the 200k mark in that "clip") - they do all that re-aligning and surfacing and changing the road markings etc etc, all in a day or so as not to upset the locals (especially the port, businesses etc etc for cargo handling and commerce), and then they undo it all to take the roads back to exactly as they were before suffice for a few replica skid marks?
(For something more recent, there's a clip of the Hamilton (NZ) V8 races at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP8HikAT_wI in which you can clearly see the replica road markings they must put down (if what you say about resurfacing with "special mix" etc is true).
This is done all over the world; Isle of Man, Monaco, IIRC some of the V8 stuff in Oz (etc etc where they have street racing).
As to "driver ratings" - what of the many "open" races, including the many rallies on some of our wonderful gravel roads? We have races here on a variety of roads, often with drivers who've barely learnt how to use "big boy pants" let alone how to handle a car.
Ah, you must be one of those who have downvoted me
Actually, no, I have never downvoted _anyone_, nor upvoted.
My apologies then.
Are you one of those people who thinks that "nothing bad will happen ...
> One of those people perhaps who believes ...
No. No.
Thank God for that! Those people scare the hell out of me!
Oh. Because I know that our speed limit is arbitrary (that's why the government has just voted to raise it in certain areas!)
The speed limit is set based on the state of the road, its surface, its camber, curves, sight lines and many other issues. NO road is New Zealand is safe to be driven on at 180kph, not even by emergency services.
And yet, again, we have street races that top those speeds. We've had that done by emergency services as well. Admittedly this is for stretches rather than the whole road, but yes. The Auckland motorway with all onramps closed? Not a problem. In fact you could do over 300k on most stretches of that without issue (and no, I've not experienced those speeds in a stock road vehicle). The waikato expressway is able to support those speeds, and even the Kapiti expressway and SH1 through the Wellington motorway would easily be above 200 (for stretches under controlled conditions). SH2 via the Hutt Valley not so much, but there are stretches that'd be OK.
But explain the Ngarunga gorge road - a 6-lane motorway with a legal limit of 80Kph down most of it. However, before the corner at the bottom with a 75Kph advisory speed, it becomes 100Kph. Near the speed camera (the most profitable in NZ, which BTW cannot get photos of people speeding in the fast lane on the uphill side (where the most crashes occur) giving the lie to the "protecting people" vs revenue gathering line!). The only reason for the 80k limit is the camera, and when you're around the curve out of sight of the camera it becomes 100k. However, we have many tight, winding gravel roads that have a posted limit of 100k. Set on the condition of the road? Try driving on NZ roads and see if you can honestly say that!
You would be hard pressed to find tires that are rated to do 180kph, especially on the road surfaces found in NZ.
You are kidding, right? My bike has ultra-cheap ultra-crap ultra-nasty hard-rubber tyres. I don't drive in a way that needs higher grip tyres, I'm not really interested in pushing the bike hard (and I like gravel roads so soft-compound tyres aren't an advantage). Same for my car's tyres (both vehicles are "H" - rated for 210K).
I've checked a couple of friend's cars, both V rated, as in 240Km/hr.
H-rating is very common for bikes. Many bikes I know have V and W ratings, and one has a Z rating (but the tyre itself only lasts a few hundred K, that guy has way more dollars than cents!). These are not special order tyres but over-the-counter stuff. I'd love to show you sites that cover it but as always NZ businesses don't like to have their products readily listed on their websites. You can see the ratings if you visit https://www.franksmc.co.nz/Tyres-Oils#ROADTYRES and hover over the pictures of tyres - no one else locally lists ratings.
Or you can go in/phone any motorbike store and ask any about them if you want. For my car's tyres (170x70R13) I can only find H(210K) or T(190K) rated tyres locally - ie the only options for my car are over 180, so I'm "hard pressed to find" a tyre LOWER rated.
The road surface can be another issue, but safe driving takes that into account anyway. Many roads can handle the speed fine on straights and gentle curves, but the volcanic chip can be interesting if you push things. Fastest I've been on gravel on a bike IIRC is only about 130K, but that was on a private track, with the right tools for the job.
https://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-tire-information/, http://www.weeksmotorcycle.com/tire-speed-rating.html and https://www.blackcircles.com/general/speedrating are some options for checking speed ratings.
Two roads have upped the limit to 110kph because they are new roads specifically engineered for faster speeds than has been the practice in the past.
7 by my count (though after much hunting (not much in the way of reliable sources) only 2 may currently have that limit), them being :
• Waikato Expressway: Longswamp, Rangiriri, Huntly, Hamilton, Cambridge, Ohinewai, Ngaruawahia, Te Rapa, Pokeno to Hampton Downs.
• Tauranga Eastern Link
• Upper Harbour Motorway
• Northern Motorway (Johnstones Hill tunnels to Lonely Track Rd)
• Southern Motorway (Bombay to Takanini)
• Kapiti Expressway (Mackays to Peka Peka)
(NZTA source)
However not all may be at that limit yet (I thought it was to be by the end of the year, which is yesterday, but ICBW). The southern motorway certainly is not new. Not unless you count 1970s as "new" (by which definition I am quite young despite well past the wrong side of 40 :( ) - see this wikipedia article for more info, maybe. (I was only doing a quick check there because I'm pretty sure the southern motorway fails any definition of "new").
What you have failed to notice is that I have not said half of what you imagine.
What you failed to notice is that I haven't imagined anything, I have only responded to exactly what you _said_. It is you that imagines things, such as me down voting, what you think I believe, or you being safe.
I've been an advanced safety instructor in the past. I've had training above most road users and keep my hand in. I have a much better idea of what is safe than most people, and I know my vehicles limits better than most people. You somehow think I have travelled at over 180k in unsafe and uncontrolled conditions. I've not opted to tell you what the conditions were but have given you many possibilities (some or all of which may or may not be what I experienced). You've written 'interesting' stuff about re-surfacing roads with "special mixes" for street races, and the speed rating of tyres, yet claim I don't know my stuff.
I made an assumption about your voting record which I got wrong, you have made assumptions about my driving experience and history which you got wrong. But you also went on to make up stuff (if not out of your own head where did you get the garbage about "special mix" and re-alignments etc being used on the Wellington and Hamilton roads?) to support your arguments.
I'm sure you can do better. If you try. Meanwhile, please tweet if you're ever driving on NZ roads because I'm concerned you may be putting to much of your mental resources into fabricating tales of miraculous road transformations being done in a few hours and not enough resources on the road around you.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
