Educating drivers to adapt to rural conditions is better than imposing reduced speed limits, a community advocate says.
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Victorian based Road Safe North East executive officer John Weinert said country roads could change quickly, as seen during recent storms, and people should be prepared to slow down as needed.
"Putting up speed limit signs doesn't necessarily enforce speed limits," he said.
"A back road in the middle of nowhere, even if you had an 80 kilometres an hour or 60km/h speed limit on it, who's going to enforce it?
"The police are spread out so thinly as it is, they wouldn't get a chance to get down those roads, so it's only there for political reasons, 'Oh look what we're doing'.
"To me it's an education thing; we need to promote and highlight and make people aware you drive to the conditions."
State opposition politicians this week slammed the Victorian government for considering reducing some country roads to 80km/h.
The government accepted this recommendation in its response to the parliamentary inquiry that examined Victoria's rising road toll.
"Where investment in barrier systems and other infrastructure is not a feasible solution, due to lower traffic volumes and other geometric constraints, the Victorian government will look at 80km/h speed limits to manage roads with high crash risks," the response said.
Nationals deputy leader Steph Ryan called this policy "lazy", saying instead rural roads should be fixed.
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"Reducing speed limits on regional roads doesn't fill potholes, doesn't fill cracks and certainly doesn't stop roads completely falling apart," she said.
"It just means the government has to do less."
Mr Weinert said he once felt proud of Victorian roads but now they're "nowhere near as good".
"We need a lot more money spent on our country roads, the maintenance and the upgrading of those roads, whether they're a main road or whether they're a back road," he said.
"It's general and it's widespread."
But the advocate praised the use of variable speed limits at rural intersections.
"If you're on the main road and you don't even know that intersection is there, this way at least highlights it for you," he said.
"The more signage as in warnings of that sort of thing has got to be a good idea as long as the road users are aware of what it means and educated to ensure they abide by those conditions."
