Speed limits to cut pollution
Discussion
Driving in Wales a few weeks ago noticed a lot of speed restrictions aimed at pollution reduction.
Ok, I get it, faster cars, more pollution. Except of course electric cars.
If you could legally ignore the 50mph limit where it was for pollution reduction, and drive at 70mph on those motorway section, provided your car was electric, would it be enough to convince you that ot was time to change?
It must be infuriating to be restricted to 50mph if you are driving a Tesla or similar.
Ok, I get it, faster cars, more pollution. Except of course electric cars.
If you could legally ignore the 50mph limit where it was for pollution reduction, and drive at 70mph on those motorway section, provided your car was electric, would it be enough to convince you that ot was time to change?
It must be infuriating to be restricted to 50mph if you are driving a Tesla or similar.
They do it almost daily in Birmingham on the M6, vastly irritating to do a decent stretch of it but it doesn't really dent the journey time so much if you can actually maintain that speed.
EV drivers would love it to up the range but they won't allow different speeds as they'll cite safety, despite ordinarily travelling at circa 20 mph faster than trucks. Not to mention someone would sit in the outside lane and not move over in his V8!
EV drivers would love it to up the range but they won't allow different speeds as they'll cite safety, despite ordinarily travelling at circa 20 mph faster than trucks. Not to mention someone would sit in the outside lane and not move over in his V8!
My local council has been reducing speed limits for that reason for a few years now.
But at the same time they replaced a load of roundabouts with traffic lights so that you often end up stationary waiting for the lights when there is no other traffic and you could have just gone around an empty roundabout before!
I can't see how that improves air quality!
But at the same time they replaced a load of roundabouts with traffic lights so that you often end up stationary waiting for the lights when there is no other traffic and you could have just gone around an empty roundabout before!
I can't see how that improves air quality!
The hilarious aspect to this is, yes speed limits might cut pollution. But...
Health and safety and mainly insurance means that ANY time any work is done near a road in the UK, traffic lights are installed, meaning cars, trucks, buses are sitting there idling for hundreds of hours every day when they could be moving, spreading their minute amounts of pollution around. Not to mention the vans driving these totally unnecessary lights around, and the pointless tosser sitting in a car for five days before the crew doing the worm turn up.
But surely slowing people from 70 to 50 to make a few quid out of the people that ignore is about pollution, not money right?
Health and safety and mainly insurance means that ANY time any work is done near a road in the UK, traffic lights are installed, meaning cars, trucks, buses are sitting there idling for hundreds of hours every day when they could be moving, spreading their minute amounts of pollution around. Not to mention the vans driving these totally unnecessary lights around, and the pointless tosser sitting in a car for five days before the crew doing the worm turn up.
But surely slowing people from 70 to 50 to make a few quid out of the people that ignore is about pollution, not money right?
TTmonkey said:
Driving in Wales a few weeks ago noticed a lot of speed restrictions aimed at pollution reduction.
Ok, I get it, faster cars, more pollution. Except of course electric cars.
If you could legally ignore the 50mph limit where it was for pollution reduction, and drive at 70mph on those motorway section, provided your car was electric, would it be enough to convince you that ot was time to change?
It must be infuriating to be restricted to 50mph if you are driving a Tesla or similar.
Yeah it's great here, improved air quality if you ignore the huge steelworks next to the M4 at Port Talbot, improved air quality as you drive into Swansea from the east and get the full benefit of the sewage smell at the new uni. Ok, I get it, faster cars, more pollution. Except of course electric cars.
If you could legally ignore the 50mph limit where it was for pollution reduction, and drive at 70mph on those motorway section, provided your car was electric, would it be enough to convince you that ot was time to change?
It must be infuriating to be restricted to 50mph if you are driving a Tesla or similar.
All due to cars, yeah...
The M4 Port Talbot town section overpass is at roof height and has always been 50mph from opening. Nouse was the reason due to being so close to hoyses. Static cameras and vans parked overlooking it. Changed to average speed of 50 a couple of years ago. A traffic bottleneck during evening commute westbound.
They recently extended the 50 average zone westbound to Llandarcy over the Briton Ferry bridge. Pollution is the justification.
Noise is also cited to bolster this justification. The slip roads onto the town stretch are ridiculous, being steep and short. They add to traffic density resulting in stationary traffic. On a motorway designed as a by-pass! It is a choke point for large volumes of traffic as alternative routes are virtually non existent and unsuitable.
I find it odd that transport pollution is being used when the town has endured years of industrial pollution to a very high level from the steelworks and other local industries.
Easy target, cash cow being targeted again whilst making decision makers look eco responsible.
They recently extended the 50 average zone westbound to Llandarcy over the Briton Ferry bridge. Pollution is the justification.
Noise is also cited to bolster this justification. The slip roads onto the town stretch are ridiculous, being steep and short. They add to traffic density resulting in stationary traffic. On a motorway designed as a by-pass! It is a choke point for large volumes of traffic as alternative routes are virtually non existent and unsuitable.
I find it odd that transport pollution is being used when the town has endured years of industrial pollution to a very high level from the steelworks and other local industries.
Easy target, cash cow being targeted again whilst making decision makers look eco responsible.
Lincsls1 said:
meatballs said:
Not if you charged from your solar panels...
But then you could say the extra charge used to allow your EV to go faster could have been put back into the grid instead, reducing the load on power stations, so however you look at it, reducing speed reduces pollution.Also it's about local pollution/air quality not co2 emissions anyway
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