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What Do You Think The Motorway Speed Limit SHOULD be?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I think on a perfect day (i.e. no rain, fog, etc) on a dry road the motorway speed limit should be 90 MPH and even then for sections that are deemed suitable for those kind of speeds (like with chevrons drawn on the road to help encourage cars to keep their distance)
- I find my car seems to naturally want to drive at 80 MPH on the motorway .. the other week I was on the M4 and there was load of 50 MPH zones and it was really tiring trying to constantly keep to that limit, always looking up and down from the road to the speedo as well as looking out for all the speed cameras, etc.
It felt more dangerous to drive at 50 MPH then the normal 70 MPH.
It got me thinking that if people could drive faster they'd spend less time on the road so less likely to have a crash due to being tired.
- I find my car seems to naturally want to drive at 80 MPH on the motorway .. the other week I was on the M4 and there was load of 50 MPH zones and it was really tiring trying to constantly keep to that limit, always looking up and down from the road to the speedo as well as looking out for all the speed cameras, etc.
It felt more dangerous to drive at 50 MPH then the normal 70 MPH.
It got me thinking that if people could drive faster they'd spend less time on the road so less likely to have a crash due to being tired.
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90 is a bit fast (Boy racers wouild probably kill themselves pushing their economy hatchbacks this fast - would it be a bad thing actually?) and 200 way to fast for the UK.
People think "If Germany can do the autobahn so fast, why can't we?" You must remember the rule is on the few miles of destricted road - only go as fast as you are in control - and the Germans stick to this. There are very few idiots out there compared. Also the policing is better - PLENTY of patrols, not shit cameras. If someone looks dangerously fast and not fully in control, they get pulled.
In effect most police forces are turning a blind eye to motorists doing up to 77-78mph because they recognise the fallacy of the actual limits.
The limits should not be fixed but based on conditions: weather, visibility, congestion. I'd have electronic signs like those on the M25 and adjust the limit according to conditions. When everything is favourable I would have no problem putting it at 90mph in some stretches of the road, and 80mph on the rest.
I was with my cousin in his BMW 5-series driving down the motorway, and it's so easy to go 20mph over the speed limit. It's different when you're driving a 1.0 litre car where you have to really push it just to get to the limit, but bigger cars just do it without you even realising. It would've been more dangerous for him to be constantly checking his speed.
I'd be in favour of variable speed limits, with electronic signs altering depending on how busy the motorway is, and the conditions, anywhere between 50 and 100 mph.
I quite like this idea.
As it stands with the speed limit being 70, many people go 80 or 90, and no one really thinks anything of it. So if the limit were changed to 90 people would go 100 or 110.
I think variable limits may encourage people to stick closer to the limit, it's certainly a much better solution than simply upping the limit.
Seriously if Aladdin is right about it being based on crap cars 30 year ago someone needs to do some testing and come up with a new figure (bearing in mind whilst cars may have got better human reactions haven't)
variable is the way to go.
the fifty bits are usualy in a place where there are busy slip roads that little old ladies use to come on to the dual carriageway and off again at the next exit.
It doesn't work like that.
"The first British motorways did not have speed limits. However, after a series of multiple crashes on motorways mainly in fog, an experimental speed limit of 70 miles per hour (112 km/h) was introduced in December 1965[3], and made permanent in 1967. It was reduced to 50 mph (80 km/h) in response to the 1973 oil crisis and restored to 70 mph (112 km/h) in 1974. The Association of British Drivers has called for the limit to be increased. The opposition Conservative Party is proposing to raise the limit to 80 mph (130 km/h) where appropriate."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limit#Europe
A car handles differently at 50 than it does at 70 or 90mph....
I wouldn't trust everyone on the road to be able to handle a car at a 100mph for instance...
Look into the future - the hybrid cars - they won't be doing a 100mph that easily.
And people spend more time in their cars because of congestion not because of the speed limit.
I used to drive a 100mph every day until I realized that 1) I was putting pressure on the engine for no reason 2) my journey was shortened by 10 minutes at most and 3)my fuel consumption increased 30%.
Variable speed limits are a good idea, but how do you enforce them?
i knew the oil crises of the seventies came into it somewhere but i got it the wrong way round.
cheers ...:thumb:
I think the only problem with variable speed limits is that people will always claim they thought the speed limit was something else. But then I guess a few points on the license will make people pay more attention, which can only be a good thing.
Like you said, you chose to drive slower, because it was ruining your car and costing you money. I don't think that everyone would drive 90-100mph because that was the speed limit. It would be limited to people who have cars that can get to that speed without breaking sweat.
If I had an M3 I still wouldn't go over 75-80... daily, there is no point...
What's the point of having a limit of 90 if people are still driving at 70 and slowing the traffic down?
And what about trucks and shit? You are driving 90mph and suddenly you come up behind a truck doing 60 in the fast lane and overtaking another truck...
Pain in the backside...
There is. You get places quicker.
I used to over a 1000 miles a week in my job, and most of them were on motorways. It makes one hell of a difference.
I've done 60,000 miles last year alone, on motorways, I know what I am talking about...
It would be nice to have the motorway to myself unfortunately from about 6 onwards that's not possible and I used to leave at 7. And I actually timed it, whether I went 90 or 70, it made no difference...
Of course I wouldn't stick to 70 in an M3 on an empty motorway at 5am, I would be going at least 130!!
(I didn't say that) :chin:
Anyone caught doing over 110mph would lose their licence for a year. No excuses... but obviously, if someones parents were dying and they were doing 125mph on an empty motorway in the middle of the night, then a blind eye could be turned. Each case on it's own merits, but with the basic premise of 110mph and over = no licence.
I'd also like to see a lot of random roadside stops to verify the basic maintenance of a vehicle, but not on a motorway
The motorway speed limit should be increased, and by quite a margin, but other things have to be done at the same time. The standard of UK drivers in general isn't good enough to warrant another 30mph on top of the current limit.
I agree with variable speed limits
Near where I live you can get the A40 right into central London.
It's 3 lanes just like a motorway and you could happily do 70 MPH on most sections but to speed up traffic Monday to Friday in the rush hour all the signs say just 40 MPH for most of it.. but at night and on the weekend there's no physical reason the speed limit shouldn't be faster.
They could replace the the metal signs with electronic ones that tell you what the speed limit is depending onthe time of day, traffic flow, road conditions, etc to get the best balance between safety due to excessive speed for the conditions and safety caused by tiredness due to the journey taking longer then it might otherwise if you could drive faster.
And at that time, it would be the highest. See, I reckon it'd work well.
Apparently there would be hardly any traffic jams on the M25 if the limit was set to 40 incidentally.
How'd you figure that one out?
For those times where the m-ways are actually empty enough for people to reach higher speeds, then, yes, it should probably be variable, but that wouldn't stop many of the people speeding that speed today with a fixed limit.
The problem with increasing the limits though are
1) Some of the smaller cars can't reach the higher speeds, and yet those drivers will still hog middle and outside lanes.
2) Inexperienced or shit drivers can't handle cars properly at higher speeds and / or are incapable of planning sufficiently far ahead. Yes braking improvements have been made to cars, but not to their drivers' reactions.
3) The difference in speed between the slower and faster drivers on the road in general increases, meaning that any accidents that do happen would be worse.
So who knows. I'd be interested in trials of various types of limit though, to see which, if any, is effective.