ReallyReallyGoodMeat

A thought struck me on my walk to work.

I saw the back of a van that said "This vehicle is restricted to maximum of 70mph" and I thought;
- The police think anyone who breaks the speed limit are children of Satan
- The maximum limit is 70
- Pretty much all motor vehicles can do > 70mph
- The technology is there

None of this is joined up. Why not just enforce speed restrictors on all motors? Surely if the police/government truly wanted to enforce the limit to save lives, and truly thought that 70mph was the absolute limit we can all sensibly drive at, then why not?

Wouldn't the daily commute be much more enjoyable if we were all speed-limited? And dare I say it, quicker!

David_Dickson

No way. every ****er doing 70 mph on the motorway, foot on the floor, inches apart, trying desperately to get a slipstream past each other on the downhill sections..... Carnage.

Besides, the problem isnt maximum speed, its the speed round town that matters more.

The technology is there though - I think Clarkson trialed drove a car that had GPS-based speed limiting.....it knew the limit for each road it was on and the ECU would not allow the car to breach that limit.
The problem is that without the speedo to worry about, you concentrate a little less.

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

But people clearly aren't concentrating as it is, by breaking the limit practically on every road

Graz

Mine is.......


....to 155mph

Problem is to safely overtake a vehicle doing 55 on a NSL single carriageway you'll probably be doing more than 70 when you pull back in, don't think I'd feel massively confident about making the move if I knew the power would be cut at 70 even if I could see several miles ahead.

Also limiting a vehicle at one speed i.e. 70 mph still means it's possible to do over double the limit in a 30 zone.

Linking it all to the vehicles position with GPS would be an obvious answer but commercial GPS systems just aren't guaranteed to be accurate enough.

BULLITT

Speeders create revenue. Simples.

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

But going over 70mph is ILLEGAL on a public road, regardless of the situation! And we have the technology to avoid an illegal act, so why wouldn't we?

As for the 30mph thing, yes it wouldn't stop that, but it would stop the fastest / most dangerous cases of speeding, and stopping some is better than not stopping any!

RA Dunk

Would hardly be encouraging paying £££££ for a Lambo or a Porsche or what ever knowing that it's not going to go any faster than anything else around it, car manufacturers would be up in arms TBH.

urban

iTrader: (1)

Loss of revenue

Most dangerous - really?
I'd have though those speeding in 20 & 30 zones were most dangerous.

As a side note.
Lets just say you have a hospital emergency with a close family member

You are restricted to 70mph for lets say 20 minutes on that trip, and you make it to the hospital 5 minutes late because of the restriction.
Said family member is now dead.

You still up for restricting to 70mph max

Never mind the fact that performance car manufacturers would be up in arms

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

This is semantics, the point I was making is that the high speed incidents tend to have the highest potential for a massive accident.

In the eyes of the law that is exactly the case now. If that is wrong, it's a fault with the law, not with any limiter technology.

PeteBrant

You're missing the point. You have the choice to break the law, whee you deem is necessary. If I had to get someone to the hospital, or some other emergency, then I can make a judgement as to the severity of the issue. I can decide that I am willing to risk breaking the law in the interests of that persons welfare.
With speed limitation, I can't. That choice is taken away. It is perfectly sensible to have speed limits and enforce them. It is not perfectly sensible to make it so that they cannot be broken under any circumstances.

scubbay

iTrader: (61)

There are exceptional circumstances, such as an emergency where you can "get away" with speeding. I know this because it happened to me when I got pulled in rushing a mate to hospital and the police after seeing the condition he was in actually escorted me the rest of the way using blues. My cousin also had to drive my uncle to hospital when he was 16 as an ambulance was going to take too long, again the police said this was ok as it was exceptional.

billythekid

Japan have 180km/hr dont they?
Seems like a reasonable limit to me.

No doubt there are people who get around it - but for most average drivers which make up 99.999% of drivers - 180k's is quite fast enough IMHO - even for life and death rush to hospital.

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Ok, I am with you there. So let's say whilst driving at over-the-limit down the motorway to hospital you get flashed by a camera. If your defense was that you were rushing someone to a hospital (no escort by the way) would it get you off? i.e. is that kind of emergency 'really accepted' or just dependant on the police officer you encounter.

scubbay

iTrader: (61)

Im not sure, somebody else may know the answer but I assume the circumstances would be taken into account if you brought it to court.

As somebody else says I would much rather have the choice as I know I would rather lose my driving license than somebody I was rushing to hospital. Now that said I didnt drive erratically when I was rushing him to hospital as it is possible to drive above the limit safely.

billythekid

If it was really life and death, then yes you would present the evidence in court. There are exemptions in British law to allow you to do pretty much anything in a life and death situation. You have to be able to prove it after the event though.

urban

iTrader: (1)

The point is you are able to speed to get there, if you get points then so be it - but you might just have saved a loved one.

If you have some restrictive device, you cannot make that choice

Ash170990

iTrader: (1)

it wouldnt work... people would find ways to get around it....

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Yes I see, I can see why that really destroys the whole argument. Except they could still stick in a limiter, at say 100mph.

VitruvianJ

Most people on here would be straight to a friendly garage having the limiter removed!

Trackdays wouldn't be much fun anymore either.

Bean1984

iTrader: (3)

So you put this speed limit enforcement in place, you realise that your loved one needs urgent medical attention from the ambulance service. All they can do is the speed limit n not really make any progress in getting there quickly. Thats the 8 minute response time in london out the window straight away

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

I was talking about public roads only, track days would still be possible if the track had engineers that had per-hour codes or something to temporarily remove the restriction.

And I'm reasonably sure if instructed to that car manufacturers would make it part of the start-up sequence to check the presence of the limiter, or something to that effect.

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Obviously emergency services would not have limiters.

tubbytommy

iTrader: (20)

mines limited to about 160, when it hits the redline in 6th....

Torquemada

Just a guess but I would have thought that the OP is talking about members of the public being limited, not emergency response as well

Ash170990

iTrader: (1)

mines limites to 150 in 5th =/ but the speedo is out lol it says im doing about 40 when im actually doing 30... so think this needs to be calibrated lol

urban

iTrader: (1)

Indeed

Why bother with a limiter at all though?
Maybe 100mpg isn't enough.
Here's an idea - a car has a natural limiter, lets just stick with that one

Who pays for this limiter by the way?

kevo10

Theres always a risk with technology. Wouldnt want to be in any vehicle equipped like this in case it went wrong. Modern technology isnt infallible

^Qwerty^

[QUOTE=ReallyReallyGoodMeat;11051975]
- The police think anyone who breaks the speed limit are children of Satan
QUOTE]

Certain elements, possibly, but you don't have to get far in to a Bikesafe course to realise that there are some good eggs in the police who quite happily encourage you to make safe progress even if it does mean busting a speed limit or two.

^Qwerty^

Or if the bus you're in happens to double up as an ambulance for the armed forces

Jamz3k

Speed limiters are a load of *****. All I get in work is gurny *******s complaining that they aren't getting 56mph because their mates aunties bother-in-law in a Volvo flew past them like they were standing still or coming in and getting recalibrated when their tyres are completely bald to get a few extra mph out of it.