Learner driver speed limits in NSW

Default limits and signed limits

Plenty of NSW streets have no speed sign at all, and the road rules fill that gap with two default numbers.

• In a built-up area, with houses, shops or street lights lining the road, the limit is 50 km/h.
• Outside built-up areas, on an unsigned road, the limit is 100 km/h.
• A number inside a red circle is your maximum until another sign changes it.
• An AREA sign, such as 40 AREA, sets one limit for every street inside the area until you pass the end sign.
• A blue LOCAL TRAFFIC AREA sign with 40 (ZONE on older signs) works like an area limit. Bike riders, walkers and children use those streets too, so look out closely.
• Roadwork and electronic speed signs are real limits, even when no workers are in sight. Break a roadwork limit and you get a fine plus demerit points, as for any speeding.

Buildings beside the road and no sign in view is a classic DKT trap. The answer is 50 km/h, not 60.

School zones and shared zones

Two kinds of zone carry their own lower limits, and the test checks exactly when they apply.

• Inside a school zone, keep to 40 km/h while the times printed on the sign are running.
• The usual windows are a morning one, 8 am to 9:30 am, and an afternoon one, 2:30 pm to 4 pm. A few zones differ, so read each sign.
• The limit only runs on school days. Weekends, public holidays and school holidays are excluded.
• Flashing lights on the sign are only a reminder: the 40 holds during the signed times whether they flash or not. Past the END SCHOOL ZONE sign, the road's usual limit is back.
• A shared zone uses the number on its sign, usually 10 km/h, and anyone walking there has priority over you.

A weekday public holiday is not a school day, so the 40 km/h limit is off even during the usual hours.

Speed limits on L plates and P plates

Your licence stage sets a personal ceiling that sits on top of every speed sign you pass.

• Learner, on L plates: 90 km/h maximum.
• P1, the red P: 90 km/h maximum.
• P2, the green P: 100 km/h maximum, even on a 110 km/h motorway.
• When the posted limit is lower than your cap, the lower number wins. A learner on an 80 km/h road drives at 80 or less.
• Get caught speeding once as a learner or P1 driver and the demerit points alone are enough to suspend you.

Slowing down for stopped emergency vehicles

NSW has a slow down and move over rule for vehicles stopped at the roadside with their lights flashing.

• It covers police, ambulance and fire vehicles with blue or red lights, plus tow trucks and breakdown vans flashing yellow.
• On roads signed 80 km/h or less, drop to 40 km/h or under while you go past.
• Where the limit is above 80 km/h, slow to a safe speed, give the vehicle a wide berth and leave the nearest lane when you safely can.
• Watch for people on foot around the vehicle and give way to them.

Speed, conditions and following distance

A speed limit is the most you may do on a good day, and many DKT questions ask when less is right.

• Heavy rain, poor light, or parked cars with children playing nearby all call for driving well under the sign. Even a light shower leaves the surface slippery enough to ease off.
• Overtaking gives you no extra allowance. If you cannot pass without speeding, stay behind.
• Your speed is your call, made from the sign and the conditions. Matching faster traffic or giving in to a passenger who wants you to hurry is never a reason to go quicker.
• Stopping distance climbs faster than speed does, so a few extra km/h cost you many metres.
• The law asks for enough room to stop safely behind the car ahead, without naming a number.
• Aim for three seconds or more in good conditions and four seconds or more in the wet or after dark.
• A bend warning with a number beneath it gives the advised speed for taking that curve.