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Petition for higher mountain speed limits

Riders on Mt Glorious road works designer straight
The old road was quite challenging

A petition to review the speed limits on the famed motorcycle road over Mt Glorious behind Brisbane has met a wall of resistance at Parliament House.

The petition was started by a group of motorcyclists last September over coffee at the Mount Glorious Cafe (formerly Maialla cafe) and has since amassed more than 600 signatures, even though it has only been available at the cafe.

Group spokesman and principal petitioner David White says the speed limits have been coming down on the twisting mountain road over the past couple of years and are now inappropriate for motorcycles.

“The catalyst for me was being booked along with another rider coming up the mountain through the forest on a pleasant ride and losing four points as I was doing 76km/h in a 60km/h zone. I had even nodded to the motorcycle cop as he went past,” he says.

“The petition is about getting the speed limits raised generally, not just for bikes.”

However, the petition may never get to Parliament as it needs a politician or the Clerk of the Parliament to sponsor it and so far three politicians have knocked it back.

In the latest correspondence, Member for Ferny Grove Mark Furner says he sought Transport and Main Roads advice which said that motorcycle riders are “considerably over represented in crashes on this road”.

He said the TMR attributed the primary cause of crashes to a rider’s approach speed, or misjudgement on corners.

Riders on Mt Glorious

“TMR has advised me it would be reasonable to correlate an increase in the speed limit with an increase in these types of crashes,” Mark writes in reply to David.

The speed limits on the Northbrook Parkway road are 60, 70 and 80km/h up and down the mountain with a couple of short 80km/h stretches now reduced to 70, some 50km/h areas in Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious villages, and 80km/h limits on the flat sections on the western side.

“We requested a review of the speed limits in order to get more suitable speeds for all road users, probably looking for 80km/h instead of 60km/h going up and down the mountain and maybe 90 – 100km/h on the flats instead of 80km/h,” he says.

“Having to comply with the posted limits means focussing more on the speedo than the road ahead which can be a bit dodgy with various hazards that are common on this road.

Riders on Mt Glorious

“I need to stress that the mountain has many hazards for the unwary and overconfident. We want everyone to travel safely and arrive home in one piece.

“Only for non-populated areas, the township of Mt Glorious is not included in the petition speed limit review.”

David still hopes to be able to submit the petition to Parliament without a politician as a sponsor.Riders on Mt Glorious

While speed limits should constantly be reviewed, one of the biggest problems we have found with riding this road is the proliferation of solid single and double white lanes which makes it difficult to pass dawdling Sunday drivers.

This causes riders to become frustrated and make rash overtaking decisions.

  1. Here we go again, with some pointless bureaucrat in an office somewhere taking a decision to lower speed limits even as the cars and motorcycles become safer and more sophisticated. I’m not familiar with this area, but these kind of decisions stifle and often extinguish small local businesses as riders move elsewhere… because fun, in the mind of these morons, has to be stamped out. It would be asking too much wouldn’t it, to expect the average dreary and petty-minded Australian state politician to have a bit of foresight and open roads like this up a bit for people to enjoy without having to constantly peer at their speedo.

  2. Increasing the speed limit on this road is a terrific idea. I know most of the riders using this road have above average skills and are riding above average machines, and because they have above average visibility around blind corners can quite safely have their head or their whole bike on the wrong side of those boring double white lines in the pursuit of an unfrustrated ride. Imagine having to watch the speedo!
    Expand the petition to remove the double lines as well!
    Low speed limits, double lines and other road users getting in the way, (they probably trot out that old chestnut of driving to the conditions or their skills) just serves to lessen the thrill of the ride.
    So do other road users like residents who selfishly want to use the same road for their own purposes like getting to and from work, school and the shops.
    Those riders having the many major and minor crashes leaving bits of themselves and their bikes strewn along the road are the minority, should be ignored and put their crashes down to doing what they love.
    I do understand that the local resident’s associations are a bit down on obnoxious, antisocial, noisy and unsafe visitors to their neighbourhood at present and, should this petition find a sponsor, have an alternative proposal set to go.

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