60 km/h speed limit sign
You must not drive faster than 60 km/h from this sign until the limit changes.
- Group
- Speed limit signs
- The group at a distance
- A number inside a red circle. On a zone sign the circle sits inside a larger plate carrying the times it applies. White ground, red ring, black numerals.
- 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
In the order you do it, from the moment the sign comes into view.
- Keep to 60 km/h or less until the next speed sign.
- Leave a following gap of at least two seconds, and more in rain or at night.
- Expect side streets, driveways and bus stops, because 60 zones usually run through built up areas rather than around them.
Where you see it
On suburban arterials and main roads through towns, on the approaches to city fringes, and on some undivided rural roads near settlements.
Across the states and territories
Used the same way nationally. In the Northern Territory 60 km/h is more likely to be the general urban limit than a step up from it, so a 60 sign there does not carry the same meaning about the kind of road you are on.
Tell it apart from these
Both signs at the same size, next to each other, with the one line that separates them. These are the pairs people mix up under time pressure.
- 60 km/h speed limitthis page50 km/h speed limit
The two most common urban numbers, and the change between them is often signed once and not repeated, so a missed sign is easy.
50 km/h speed limit: You must not drive faster than 50 km/h, which is also the default limit in built up areas without signs.
- 60 km/h speed limitthis page80 km/h speed limit
Eighty marks the point where the multi lane keep left rule starts to apply above it, which 60 does not.
80 km/h speed limit: You must not drive faster than 80 km/h from this sign until the limit changes.
How the knowledge tests use it
Stopping distance questions are usually set at 60 km/h, because it is the speed most people drive at in traffic.
A real question from the sign deckWhat does this sign mean?
The red ring makes this a legal limit that applies to every vehicle on that length of road unless a separate sign sets a lower limit for a class of vehicle.
Australian Road Rules rule 20, obeying the speed limit
Try it in a question
The sign tests draw the artwork above the question and ask what it means, which is closer to the way you meet a sign on the road than reading a page about it. They are original questions written for this site rather than an agency's published bank.
More speed limit signs
A number in a red circle on a white plate.