Motorways Speed limits to be Lowered.

[xmg5]

I heard on the radio to work this morning, the governement is considering lowering the speed limit on motorways to reduce gas emmissions from cars and reduce polution.

Imagine the potential for revenue raised from reducing the NSL with the number of scameras in operation. They make millions as it is from drivers exceeding 70mph. How many more will be caught if the NSL was to become 50mph? I can see the anti-speed lobby now... "WE WANT THE LIMIT DOWN TO 30MPH!"

[Crippo]

No The gov are not considering move, it was suggested from the a select comittee and the Lady Boy pretty much dismissed it straight away. One of the members of the select comittee was Tim Yeo (Con) so you can take it as Red that the Political movement in this country is towardsmore speed control and the distance between th emain political parties on transport issues is ZIP....

[xmg5]

Crippo said:

No The gov are not considering move, it was suggested from the a select comittee and the Lady Boy pretty much dismissed it straight away. One of the members of the select comittee was Tim Yeo (Con) so you can take it as Red that the Political movement in this country is towardsmore speed control and the distance between th emain political parties on transport issues is ZIP....

I guess my local news hound managed to sniff out a long lost press release from down the back of the staff room sofa then. Phew it really got me going for a minute. I remember something similar being leaked once about Fixed Penalty tickets being issued for drunken or abusive behaviour. That was dismis....oh hang on! That one came into force after someone thought it was a great idea!!!!! Surely they can't do it again?? Can they?

"REDUCE THE NSL TO 30, IT'LL..ehm..(cough)..REDUCE CARBON EMMISSIONS and MAKE US MORE SCAMERA MONEY!!!"

Edited by xmg5 on Monday 7th August 14:16

[seefive]

Guess that Yahoo have had their hand down your sofa too.

[url]http://uk.news.yahoo.com/07082006/140[/url]

[tigger1]

Aye, heard this this morning, but it was more from the angle that "this was another idea touted that *could* lower carbon emmissions.

Can't see it working though...and it'd be hugely unpopular. I think the best indicator of how unpopular an idea this is is that Brake are yet to come out of the woodwork touting this as the greatest safety idea since the ID card.

Making people drive for *days* to get from one end of the country to t'other would not be a good thing for safety.

[supersingle]

I can't believe a Tory MP is arguing for reduced motorway limits. The only thing I was clinging onto was the hope that labour would be booted out and a Tory government would bring back some form of common sense.

Edited by supersingle on Monday 7th August 14:18

[xmg5]

supersingle said:

I can't believe a Tory MP is arguing for reduced motorway limits. The only thing I was clinging onto was the hope that labour would be booted out and a Tory government would bring back some form of common sense.

Edited by supersingle on Monday 7th August 14:18

The NoLabour government will undoubtedly embrace this new "outside-the-box" idea, as it has copied policies of all the opposition parties over recent elections, to stay one step ahead and rob the others of new ideas and vote winning policies.

I'll give it a few months and then someone in Gordon Brown's.... ooops sorry, Tony Bliar's government will White Paper the idea whilst our attention is diverted (News of Middle East war perhaps?).

[bond-007]

It was done before. Was NSL not 50mph at one stage in the 70's? Could be brought back quickly to conserve oil.

[madbadger]

Lower speed limits so cars take longer to get to places, so more cars on the road at any one time, so congestion increases, so more stopping and starting, so more pollution.

A brilliant policy

[crayven]

How about a nationwide transport strike?
Think about it, how much £££ would the government lose each day we stopped filling up?

I know people would probably not do it, but its an idea............good or bad?

[Flat in Fifth]

bond-007 said:

It was done before. Was NSL not 50mph at one stage in the 70's? Could be brought back quickly to conserve oil.

Yes it was and the car I had at the time fouled plugs at 50 in top so I had to drop a gear and keep the engine running clear.

Similar situation today, if they dropped the limit only to 56 mph to match lorry limiters I'd have to drop a gear.

Muppets....

[jasandjules]

crayven said:

How about a nationwide transport strike?
Think about it, how much £££ would the government lose each day we stopped filling up?

I know people would probably not do it, but its an idea............good or bad?

I wish someone like the AA would organise this. Stop filling up, don't use the car one day a week or similar.. Watch the revenue stream drop.

Oh, and I had the oddest idea, EVERYONE drive at the speed limit for a day/week and see what happens. Does congestion increase? Would more accidents occur?

[tigger1]

Flat in Fifth said:

bond-007 said:

It was done before. Was NSL not 50mph at one stage in the 70's? Could be brought back quickly to conserve oil.

Yes it was and the car I had at the time fouled plugs at 50 in top so I had to drop a gear and keep the engine running clear.

Similar situation today, if they dropped the limit only to 56 mph to match lorry limiters I'd have to drop a gear.

Muppets....

Aye, certainly couldn't manage to use 6th at 55mph on a motorway, so it would be 5th, probably 4th (as 5th would barely chug along). Don't think that would be too great.

Could always use 2nd though!

[beachbum]

This makes scarey reading too

www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=399506&in_page_id=1770

[Nic Jones]

Can you imagine doing 50mph on a clear mototrway and how tedious it would be?

Christ 70 is painful enough, I think it would make the motorways much more dangerous as the speed kills brigade would be doing 50mph and every normal person would still be oding 70, 80, 90 so I think there would be some serious accidents.

More clever planning by our shite MP's

[Flat in Fifth]

Nic Jones said:

Can you imagine doing 50mph on a clear mototrway and how tedious it would be?

Christ 70 is painful enough, I think it would make the motorways much more dangerous as the speed kills brigade would be doing 50mph and every normal person would still be oding 70, 80, 90 so I think there would be some serious accidents.

More clever planning by our shite MP's

Well look at Norway.

Motorway, Open Road, Town
90 km/h, 80 km/h, 50 km/h
(56mph), (50mph), (31mph) to avoid having to the conversions.

Norwegians get onto the heady heights :laughs cynically: of the Swedish and Danish limits which aren't that fast to be honest and a staggering % get into trouble because they are not used to the speed plus you know 'Speed kills' allegedly.

No it doesn't, Bad Driving Kills, Maintaining the skill set, keeping in Control and not hitting other objects tends to be a lot safer.

Edited by Flat in Fifth on Tuesday 8th August 11:49

[james_j]

This will result in more congestion, more frustrated (and therefore less safe) drivers and thus won't save fuel.

...and all the time the government does nothing about: our use of coal-fired power stations, forests are being cut down as much as ever in other parts of the world (government campaign? of course not), India and China emerging to be the biggest pollluters.

...and all the government can do is manipulate the media into suggesting the raking-in of more money from a minority (7% ish) of higher CO2-producing vehicles amongst transport overall which is a relatively small CO2-generator in the first place.

Utter bollox and fodder for the shallow thinker.

[The Wiz]

beachbum said:

This makes scarey reading too

www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=399506&in_page_id=1770

Very worrying sespcially this bit ...

A recent survey found that nearly three quarters of all motorists agree that the speed limit on Britain's rural roads should be cut from the default limit of 60mph to 40mph.

Turkeys and Christmas springs to mind.

Who the did they ask?

[chim666]

beachbum said:

This makes scarey reading too

www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=399506&in_page_id=1770

I'm confused.

According to the Daily Mail report, there are 67,000 miles of A and B roads in Britain which are run by local authorities, and 12,625 miles which are run by the Highway's Agency (i.e. other main roads and Motorways?).

Therefore, according to those figures, one could assume that the total length of roads in the UK is 79,625 miles.

According to the Office of National Statistics' figures www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1096 , there are 388,000 kilometres of roads in the UK. Which equates to 241,092 miles.
Who is looking after the missing 161,467 miles of roads - and where are they...and do they have scameras?

[WildCat]

Ist part of the other thread involving our Paulie - the "Vine/NAderson prog"

About the £900 VED for a Mini. up tpo £2000 for a SUV und some daft tax on holiday flights..

Ist part of the fashion to be seen as the "greenier than thee" person. (Cameron admits in paper today that he only rides to House once per week as "he ist busy und it take more time to ride than arrive in limo" ) OK - was Sexpress/Waily but there are laws which say element of truth must be in allegation made in press

So we go for the Smart car - seat two people und little luggage. What happens?

Well - quote my own family for starts .. my own little nucleus (which you multiply by all my siblings, cousins und in-laws who all have three or more kittens apiece)

Assuming twins pass test - we would have five qualified drivers in this family. We have 13 year old girl, boys aged 8 und 6 years und a toddler three month or so short of second birthday.

To ferry this lot around on low VED car - like a SMART mean more than one of these cars und thus more pollution than the larger car which hold the family in one car

Thus a false economy und if you look at impact on industry - und let face fact .. all those who drive a car contribute upwards of £50 BILLION per annum in various taxes from new showroom car to repairs ... to VED.. to petrol und so on. Of this only £6 BILLION spent on roads.. und this per all BBC financial progs on radio for R4 to even the Chris Evans's Show und Rebecca - his business speak guru on there. ...

No wonder there ist now talk of registering cyclists und fleecing them in preparation. After all - no sign of public transport to accommodate all the car owners who have been priced off the road by virtue of car tax, toll roads, pay as you drive, congestion charges.. which forced them to give up on owning a car.

No such thing as "cyclotopia or cycle-li-lah" und "World ist certainly not a Bi-Cycle without a beginning und no-one knowing where Bicycle End. " or whatever the song was in that film Shangrilah und upon which cult of the 60s Chumpions series was most probably based. (was repeated on Beeb two.. was daft but somehow watchable because it was so daft.. if you know what I mean. )


But a bit of fun und reminisce over 60s fancies for lieber Triple-sss-t one who ist old enough for this apart .. we have never experienced mass cyclists as such - und whereas few die as a result of collsion with cyclist in sparse cycling community .. how can we say for sure if millions take to the road on bikes? We do not know China's stats. They are secretive on everything anyway. We could perhaps guestimate from the bunching spills on bike races


So .. lowering speed limits on motorways und all other daft proposals... if only UK do this - you may as well fart in Hurricane Katrina weather force front for all the impact it would have. Globally - perhaps we may impact. But.. world - planet - it does adapt und for all we know - planet has history of climate changes - it could even be going throuhg a natural change. We humans do not know it all. We think we understand science - but do we really? Some things do stay "constant" - but this "constant" ist within the realms which we think we understand. We learn new each day und stretch boundaries each day. Each day we find something which supesede what we believed the week before as well. So who ist to say we got it right?"

Not internet trolls.... not politicians either who believe only what can rake in revenue in taxes.. keep them in luxury cars, SUVs und caravans und an index-linked pension plan L

Not even the scientists who cannot agree amongst one another.

Que sera sera...but common sense on all fronts und more research will help us all adapt as the world und ourselves continue to evolve