Motorists The Major Obstacle To Reducing Road Toll: Federal Government Survey

ANNOUNCING THE RESULTS of the Community Attitudes To Road Safety survey for 2009, Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said motorist attitudes are a major obstacle to reducing the national road toll.

Of 1615 respondents, the survey results showed that 27 percent of males and 18 percent of females had been caught speeding in the past two years.

The report shows that 18 percent of motorists believe they can travel at 65km/h or more in a 60km/h zone without being fined, while seven percent believed travelling over 70km/h in a 60km/h zone would be tolerated.

Just over a quarter (26 percent) of respondents said they felt it was safe to exceed the speed limit "if you are driving safely" - down from 33 percent in 2004.

A further 50 percent believed there was an enforcement tolerance of 1 to 5km/h over the posted speed limit.

At higher speeds, 32 percent of respondents said that 110km/h is an acceptable speed in 100km/h zones.

Surveying general driver attitudes toward speed limits, 59 percent of motorists agreed with the view that speeding fines are largely a revenue-raising tool.