Speed Zones
This page has been put together using Qld road rules legislation as of 2009.
It is in no way purposed or designed to be used for legal defence or legal advice!
It is designed to help you know and obey the road rules.
Not to justify bad driving behaviours.
Speeding is one of the more dangerous things we can do on the road. Not because speed itself causes collisions, but it makes any small mistake bigger and any collision more severe.
Start & Finish
The image on the left shows the start and finish of a 40k zone.
The Red Zone shows where it is applicable, your speed MUST be at 40kph before you reach the 40k Speed sign and you MUST NOT speed up again until you have passed the 60k sign.
You can be booked by the police if you pass a lower sign at the higher speed or if you increase your speed before the higher speed. This is very relevant in your Driving Test as well, there is an absolute Zero tolerance for speeding in the test, a single event will Fail the test immediately as a Critical Driver Error.
Different Zones
In Queensland we typically have 8 different speed limits, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100 being the most common ones, but occasionally 70 & 90 are used, with 110 falling somewhere in the middle. When a speed is located within a Black circle, rather than the standard Red, it is informing of something else. Usually the END of a specific speed zone, in which case you can return to the "Standard" speed, mentioned below, or the otherwise normal speed of the road.
There are 2 standard speed zones of 50 & 100 that we are expected to default to if no signs designate the current speed. 50kph is used in built up/residential areas, 100 in rural areas. A rural area is designated by less than one house per acre, although I'm not sure how you can measure this effectively.
40kph is used for MOST road works & school zones, although higher speeds can be used under certain circumstances. As above the zone is active until a sign tells you otherwise; it does NOT end when you have passed the school/road works and "feel" it is finished. This can be signalled by a standard speed sign, an "End of Road Works" sign or the lower temporary speed in a Black circle with the word "END".
Our school zones have lowered speed for specified times. As you can see in the image here you can find two different time settings, usually 7am-4pm or 7am-9am & 2pm-4pm. The all morning/afternoon version is the standard, while the morning/afternoon alternative is used when the school has campus on both sides of the road. While these times have been standardised across Qld different times can be applied for and granted in certain circumstances so always check to be safe.