A few weeks ago Danita & I drove to Frankston (near Melbourne) to visit my daughter and her family. We returned to Sydney via the Hume Highway. This is a great road, in good condition, which bypasses most townships and has a speed limit of 110kph pretty much all the way between Melbourne and Sydney.

We drove a 1 year old Toyota Yaris – a very comfortable small car. It has a relatively small engine (1.5litre) and is factory standard – nothing to hot-up the engine. Driving along the Hume Highway I was finding it difficult to keep within the speed limit. The ride was comfortable, the road reasonably straight and open. The result was that I seemed to spend more time watching the speedo than I did watching the road. I found that when I concentrated on the road and drove safely and to the conditions, after a short time I’d look down and instead of doing 110 we’d be doing 130. This is obviously a good case for cruise control but we don’t have that.

My question is – is it safer to be driving at 110 while focusing on the speedometer or traveling faster concentrating on the road? I recently read an article pointing out that German drivers are better than Australians because they learn to drive in a different way. They learn to handle speed appropriately. Would we better off adopting their driving skills and convert SOME roads (certainly not all) to an autobahn style?

What do you think?