50 km/h speed limit sign
What the 50 km/h speed limit sign means: You must not drive faster than 50 km/h, which is also the default limit in built up areas without signs.
- Group
- Speed limit signs
- Does this group carry the law
- Enforceable. The number is a maximum for good conditions.
- In the sign deck
- 3 questions ask about this sign
What to do when you see it
- Keep to 50 km/h or less, and slower where parked cars, driveways or bends cut your view.
- Treat 50 as the number to assume in a built up street with no sign, in most of the country.
- Watch for the change to a higher limit only at a sign, not at the point where the houses stop.
Where you see it
On residential streets and in suburban centres. It is often signed at the entry to a town or a suburb, and repeated after major intersections.
Across the states and territories
Fifty is the default built up area limit in most states and territories, which means it applies on a suburban street even where nothing is posted. The Northern Territory is the one to check before you drive there, because its default and open road limits sit above the pattern used in the south eastern states.
Tell it apart from these
- 50 km/h speed limitthis page60 km/h speed limit
Sixty usually marks a through road or an arterial. Fifty usually marks the residential streets running off it, and the change is not always signed at every entry.
60 km/h speed limit: You must not drive faster than 60 km/h from this sign until the limit changes.
- 50 km/h speed limitthis pageEnd of speed limit
Where a lower limit ends, the road often returns to 50 rather than to anything higher, so read the next posted number rather than accelerating on the strength of the end sign.
End of speed limit: The lower limit finishes here and the normal limit for that road applies from this point.
How the knowledge tests use it
The default limit in a built up area is one of the most reliably asked facts in every jurisdiction's knowledge test.
What does this sign mean?
A number inside a red ring sets the legal maximum for that length of road. It applies until another speed limit sign changes it.
Australian Road Rules rule 20, obeying the speed limit
Common questions
- What does the 50 km/h speed limit sign mean?
- You must not drive faster than 50 km/h, which is also the default limit in built up areas without signs.
- What should you do when you see a 50 km/h speed limit sign?
- Keep to 50 km/h or less, and slower where parked cars, driveways or bends cut your view. Treat 50 as the number to assume in a built up street with no sign, in most of the country. Watch for the change to a higher limit only at a sign, not at the point where the houses stop.
- Where is the 50 km/h speed limit sign used?
- On residential streets and in suburban centres. It is often signed at the entry to a town or a suburb, and repeated after major intersections.
- What is the 50 km/h speed limit sign confused with?
- 60 km/h speed limit: Sixty usually marks a through road or an arterial. Fifty usually marks the residential streets running off it, and the change is not always signed at every entry. End of speed limit: Where a lower limit ends, the road often returns to 50 rather than to anything higher, so read the next posted number rather than accelerating on the strength of the end sign.
- How do the knowledge tests ask about the 50 km/h speed limit sign?
- The default limit in a built up area is one of the most reliably asked facts in every jurisdiction's knowledge test.
Try it in a question
Original practice questions, not the official bank. How we write and check them.
More speed limit signs
A number in a red circle on a white plate.