Speed limits

Speed limits are the maximum speeds allowed by law. They are not a promise that the speed is safe. On a wet road, in a busy street or where you cannot see far along the road, the safe speed is lower than the posted one.

Zimbabwe expresses every limit in kilometres per hour, and the signs do not repeat the unit. The general limits are:

• 60 km/h in an urban area, for every class of vehicle, light and heavy alike.
• 120 km/h on the open road for a light motor vehicle, one whose net mass is 2,300 kg or less.
• 80 km/h on the open road for a heavy motor vehicle, one above 2,300 kg.

A speed limit sign posts the limit for the road beyond it, and that figure may not be exceeded. A derestriction sign cancels the restriction posted before it and does nothing more. The general limit for your class applies again, so a light vehicle returns to 120 km/h rather than to any speed it likes.

Reduce your speed below the limit at night and at dusk; in rain, mist, smoke, dust or wind; when bright sunlight dazzles you; approaching an intersection, a level crossing or a bridge; on narrow and winding roads, however well you know them; when meeting another vehicle on a narrow or strip road; near school entrances and exits; approaching a pedestrian crossing; and wherever animals are, or may be, on the road.

At high speed you need far more room to stop. In an emergency it adds skids, roll-overs and serious injury, while taking away the room in which you might have got out of the way.