Reform of Motorway Speed laws
Discussion
I wish the speed limit could be raised. However, I would have two concerns:
1. With the appalling standard of driving (undertaking, not indicating etc etc) you see nowadays, would you really want some of these people to legally be allowed to drive at 100mph?
2. A lot of people currently do 40-50 on the motorway. Can you imagine the speed differential if the limit was 100?
As I said, I wish motorways were faster but more importantly I WISH that the standard of lazy, selfish driving could be improved.
1. With the appalling standard of driving (undertaking, not indicating etc etc) you see nowadays, would you really want some of these people to legally be allowed to drive at 100mph?
2. A lot of people currently do 40-50 on the motorway. Can you imagine the speed differential if the limit was 100?
As I said, I wish motorways were faster but more importantly I WISH that the standard of lazy, selfish driving could be improved.
sccbishop said:
I wish the speed limit could be raised. However, I would have two concerns:
1. With the appalling standard of driving (undertaking, not indicating etc etc) you see nowadays, would you really want some of these people to legally be allowed to drive at 100mph?
2. A lot of people currently do 40-50 on the motorway. Can you imagine the speed differential if the limit was 100?
As I said, I wish motorways were faster but more importantly I WISH that the standard of lazy, selfish driving could be improved.
Superb reasons why it's fine as it is...
are british drivers the 2nd worst in europe (after norway) then? why then the 2nd lowest motorway limit? (cyprus doesn't count 
)
or is it the roads? an eight-lane motorway is less safe than a four-lane autobahn?
a simple speed limit is (relatively) easy to enforce and easy to nick, bad driving is harder to define so harder to nick you for
) or is it the roads? an eight-lane motorway is less safe than a four-lane autobahn?
a simple speed limit is (relatively) easy to enforce and easy to nick, bad driving is harder to define so harder to nick you for
parrot of doom said:
I'd like to see the limit raised as well, but then again I'd like to see less tailgaiting
Which can be solved by better lane disclipine in most cases
parrot of doom said:
and less driving at silly speeds in fog,
Which can be solved by the prosecution of SPEED NOT APPROPRIATE TO THE CONDITIONS by an approved TRAFFIC OFFICER not a scamera
parrot of doom said:
and also more attention paid to the massive queue of cars rapidly being approached by the driver on his phone.
Dont bring the phone into this. The phone has nothing to do with it. It could be a stereo, makeup or the driver is just a plain good fashioned f
kwit. Phones do not mean driving without due care. I have personally done many hundreds of miles while speaking on the phone, hands free and more recently not with no problems. In fact I recently managed to avoid an accident while talking on my handsfree phone when some dude in a BMW cut across from lane 3 to the sliproad I was passing on lane one and almost totally took me and the car in front out. I managed to brake and avoid in time same as I would normally not being on a phone. 
PHONES DONT KILL - D1CKHEADS DO! substitute the bold text near the smiley for speeding or anything else and it works!
Roadcop said:
I wish the speed limit could be raised. However, I would have two concerns:
1. With the appalling standard of driving (undertaking, not indicating etc etc) you see nowadays, would you really want some of these people to legally be allowed to drive at 100mph?
2. A lot of people currently do 40-50 on the motorway. Can you imagine the speed differential if the limit was 100?
As I said, I wish motorways were faster but more importantly I WISH that the standard of lazy, selfish driving could be improved.
Superb reasons why it's fine as it is...
No its not. It may be from your point of view which lets face it is going to be a pureist one. The reality is we are starving here. The far east economies are starting to rip us apart. We can no longer tollerate long periods of government with policies of abject silliness. We will have to sack most of the extra policemen employed and the extra civil servants involved in this and that agency and of course the death/theft scumraships. We need to increase the speed on the motorways to allow our industries and commercial operations to be more efficient. We are seriously up against it and econimic disaster is just round the corner. Have no illusions, the issues that Brake et al regard as serious are in fact utterly trivial and we will see a return to competitive economic performance in the next 5 years. This will of course mean those travelling at 40 to 50 on Mways will be dead. RIP. Amen. What a shame how sad. Bottom lip is quiverring as I type.
Roadcop said:
....... With the appalling standard of driving (undertaking, not indicating etc etc) you see nowadays.........
......As I said, I wish motorways were faster but more importantly I WISH that the standard of lazy, selfish driving could be improved.
Superb reasons why it's fine as it is...
Missed the point Road/Street/Speed/NoDiscres.. ?
nonegreen said:
sccbishop said:
I wish the speed limit could be raised. However, I would have two concerns:
1. With the appalling standard of driving (undertaking, not indicating etc etc) you see nowadays, would you really want some of these people to legally be allowed to drive at 100mph?
2. A lot of people currently do 40-50 on the motorway. Can you imagine the speed differential if the limit was 100?
As I said, I wish motorways were faster but more importantly I WISH that the standard of lazy, selfish driving could be improved.
Superb reasons why it's fine as it is...
No its not. It may be from your point of view which lets face it is going to be a pureist one. The reality is we are starving here. The far east economies are starting to rip us apart. We can no longer tollerate long periods of government with policies of abject silliness. We will have to sack most of the extra policemen employed and the extra civil servants involved in this and that agency and of course the death/theft scumraships. We need to increase the speed on the motorways to allow our industries and commercial operations to be more efficient. We are seriously up against it and econimic disaster is just round the corner. Have no illusions, the issues that Brake et al regard as serious are in fact utterly trivial and we will see a return to competitive economic performance in the next 5 years. This will of course mean those travelling at 40 to 50 on Mways will be dead. RIP. Amen. What a shame how sad. Bottom lip is quiverring as I type.
Here! Here!
Wouldn't do our motor industry any harm either. sccbishop said:
I wish the speed limit could be raised. However, I would have two concerns:
1. With the appalling standard of driving (undertaking, not indicating etc etc) you see nowadays, would you really want some of these people to legally be allowed to drive at 100mph?
Aren't they doing that already...?
sccbishop said:
2. A lot of people currently do 40-50 on the motorway. Can you imagine the speed differential if the limit was 100?
Don't have to imagine it....experienced it pre-1970.
Not a problem....such differential prevents bunching...this was an argument against introduction of the limit, but Barbara Castle didn't understand because she didn't drive (Labour Tansport Minister)
Let's face it, most accidents on the then new motorways during the 60's were largely due to the inability of most cars to handle the speed continuosly on crossply tyres, (often remoulds), Drum brakes all round with no servo assist, Wipers operated by a vacuum motor from the intake manifold (which slowed down the faster you went), engine screaming at anything over 60 mph, Many cars came as standard with no heater! 
(great for motorway travel on a wet night).
Drivers had little or no experience of higher speed driving as motorways were new.
So I can understand the Government reaction at the time to slap on a 70 mph speed limit, I think I'll let you think of all the improvements to cars since then (mine won't go into top until 80 mph at the very least).
But isn't it really time now for a re-think? Give marques like TVR, Lotus, Jaguar, Aston-Martin, Etc a chance to survive in this world market? Or do we want them to go the way of British bikes-----built with 70 mph in mind, when the Germans are designing for 200 mph?
Are all our cars doomed to extinction? Most of them are already foriegn owned, for that very reason! 
>> Edited by 8Pack on Tuesday 4th January 03:49
(great for motorway travel on a wet night). Drivers had little or no experience of higher speed driving as motorways were new.
So I can understand the Government reaction at the time to slap on a 70 mph speed limit, I think I'll let you think of all the improvements to cars since then (mine won't go into top until 80 mph at the very least).
But isn't it really time now for a re-think? Give marques like TVR, Lotus, Jaguar, Aston-Martin, Etc a chance to survive in this world market? Or do we want them to go the way of British bikes-----built with 70 mph in mind, when the Germans are designing for 200 mph?
Are all our cars doomed to extinction? Most of them are already foriegn owned, for that very reason! >> Edited by 8Pack on Tuesday 4th January 03:49
When I drive at 70 on the motorway I normally find myself in a clump of traffic. I try to maintain a safe distance off the car in front only to have 1 or 2 cars enter the gap.
Overtaking can be a long drawn out process, the time when my vehicle is alongside the vehicle I am overtaking is dramatically increased compared to travelling at 80 or 90. Hope the driver checks their mirrors etc.
70 feels slow for a motorway, a longer journey becomes monotonous and it becomes harder to maintain appropriate concentration levels compared with 80 or 90 where the conditions allow.
It seems that the law is devised to try and minimise the damage caused by having a crash. Trouble is I think the above reasons increase the chances of actually having the crash in the first place.
I like to stay out of the way of trouble, sometimes that means exceeding the speed limit on the motorway a little. I do a lot of driving with my job - I would like to live to tell the tale!
Overtaking can be a long drawn out process, the time when my vehicle is alongside the vehicle I am overtaking is dramatically increased compared to travelling at 80 or 90. Hope the driver checks their mirrors etc.
70 feels slow for a motorway, a longer journey becomes monotonous and it becomes harder to maintain appropriate concentration levels compared with 80 or 90 where the conditions allow.
It seems that the law is devised to try and minimise the damage caused by having a crash. Trouble is I think the above reasons increase the chances of actually having the crash in the first place.
I like to stay out of the way of trouble, sometimes that means exceeding the speed limit on the motorway a little. I do a lot of driving with my job - I would like to live to tell the tale!
tim.tonal said:
It seems that the law is devised to try and minimise the damage caused by having a crash. Trouble is I think the above reasons increase the chances of actually having the crash in the first place.
The same as with primary vs. secondary safety. Keep awake and you're less likely to crash. Interesting aside earlier in the post about mobile phones. Yesterday, whilst impeccably observing the 30 and 40 mph limits, I was chatting to Mrs Herb - she was in the car, not on the phone! After a couple of minutes I realised I had stopped concentrating on observing the limits, and was doing a mind blowing 50 mph! So it's not holding the phone that's is dangerous, it is the act of talking itself. I propose therefore that all passenger seats should be removed from vehicles so that drivers travel alone, hence no talking. And while we're at it, take out all radios etc. Singing along to Summer of 69 IS distracting, I can never remember if I'm supposed to be 'Standing on your mommas porch' or 'When I look back now'.
How would that idea square with the Govts car sharing scheme?
How would that idea square with the Govts car sharing scheme?
Just out of interest here is the how the silly speed limits on our motorways came about.
Select Committee on Transport, Local Government and the Regions Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence
Annex 8
ORIGINS OF THE 70 MPH MOTORWAY SPEED LIMIT
This note clarifies the origins of the 70 mph and 60 mph speed limits.
An overall maximum speed limit of 70 mph was introduced as an experimental measure on all roads in 1965. This followed a number of multiple crashes on the M1. The 70 mph limit was introduced purely for road safety reasons.
See Hansard 18 May 1966 Col 1271 about the continuation of the experimental speed limit. Monitoring of the experiment by the Road Research Laboratory noted a reduction in killed and seriously injured casualties of 19 per cent on rural and class one roads, including, motorways, in the months of January and February 1966.
The 70 mph limit became permanent in 1967.
A 50 mph speed limit on all roads was introduced during the fuel crisis in 1973 as a temporary measure to reduce fuel consumption. The speed limit was restored to 70 mph on motorways in March 1974 and to all purpose roads in May 1974.
In December 1974 speed limits of 60 mph and 50 mph were introduced on dual carriageway and single carriageway roads, respectively. In June 1977 these were increased to 70 mph and 60 mph respectively, and have remained so since.
Select Committee on Transport, Local Government and the Regions Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence
Annex 8
ORIGINS OF THE 70 MPH MOTORWAY SPEED LIMIT
This note clarifies the origins of the 70 mph and 60 mph speed limits.
An overall maximum speed limit of 70 mph was introduced as an experimental measure on all roads in 1965. This followed a number of multiple crashes on the M1. The 70 mph limit was introduced purely for road safety reasons.
See Hansard 18 May 1966 Col 1271 about the continuation of the experimental speed limit. Monitoring of the experiment by the Road Research Laboratory noted a reduction in killed and seriously injured casualties of 19 per cent on rural and class one roads, including, motorways, in the months of January and February 1966.
The 70 mph limit became permanent in 1967.
A 50 mph speed limit on all roads was introduced during the fuel crisis in 1973 as a temporary measure to reduce fuel consumption. The speed limit was restored to 70 mph on motorways in March 1974 and to all purpose roads in May 1974.
In December 1974 speed limits of 60 mph and 50 mph were introduced on dual carriageway and single carriageway roads, respectively. In June 1977 these were increased to 70 mph and 60 mph respectively, and have remained so since.
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