jason b

Sorry for not knowing all the facts but can anyone tell me when the National Speed Limits were introduced?????
I think it is time it is revised due to a range of reasons such as technologhy, safety features, traffic growth.
For instance i would like to compare a braking test with say a Morris 1000 and a Mondeo or a Astra, now of course you say the modern car will win by a mile ( excuse the pun )so in that case when these laws were introduced they were not relevent to public safety.
The year is 2001 people and everything has increased, Population, Inflation, cost of living,everything but the speed limit!!!!!
I am not talking big increases for instance:
30mph = 30mph
40mph = 45mph
60mph = 70mph
70mph = 90mph

How many people get done for driving to slow causing drivers behind to overtake due to frustration, i wonder how many accidents this has caused??????
What about a retest at 50yrs old i wonder how many would fail???????
Why not take our license at 60yrs old so we have to use public transport which in turn means less cars on the road and more people using public transport which in turn is cheaper for them of course this means cheaper car insurance for us etc.
Tracktors should be banned from using roads and be made to use their fields i mean all they have to do is cut a hole in each hedge, this means less dangerous road conditions ie. **** all over the roads near farm & field exits mix that with a tracktor thats just pulled out and a nice british wet day and you have a MAJOR problem.Cheap **** farmers!!!!!!!
Of course this will never happen, could the government take such a loss of earnings from speeding fines,court costs etc.
Just a little point of veiw.

SCOSaltire

reading ur post... I agree at the start...
and would also like to know when the speed limits were introduced... something to do with cars reaching nearer 150-200 mph if I am not mistaken... read something about it in evo...

the braking distances must have come down.. or have they?

as for over 60s not driving... put urself at 59... u luv driving... ur just about to start ur retirement.. and have ordered that ferrari at last... then some law comes in that stops u driving...
how would u react? depressed / suicide / go as fast as can coz what they gonna do to u?

tractors on the roads...
i live in the country... and i cannot see how farmers could cope... not all fields join each other... if tractors were to be moved from farm to farm.. how would it be done? slow, long lorry?

perhaps it needs to be looked at stopped them, and street cleaners, from operating during rushhour?

i think that more tests/ staged testing as per insurance rating would be very effective.

I think that concentrating cameras on accident hotspots, and not using them on straight, accident free main roads would be effective at reducing injuries.... but... the treasury has its hands sooo deep into our pockets, its gonna need a revolution to get that to happen...

the petrol rises i could stand... IF public money was used to directly improve public transport... integrated services... but its not happening

until transport is forced to be looked at seriously (costing more money) i cannot see ANYTHING changing... just more of the same.. more cameras, less police, more accidents, more costs, worse public transport...

awww b%&&£r it... im off for a drive

rsquire

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Why not take our license at 60yrs old so we have to use public transport which in turn means less cars on the road and more people using public transport <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nah... I think it'd be better to take away the licenses of those that are under 35 and make them use public transport..



Richard

smallfin

no ,what they should do is
limit all BMW's to 56mph
and let the rest of us drive as fast as we like!

sasman

get to bed

steve McCulloch

They should have unlimited speed zones on some motorways and toll them

I mean we cant make congestion much than it already is on minor roads!!!

Stevie

Speed limits were introduced when certain British car manufacturers were caught testing their Le Mans cars on the M1 in the 60's.

As for driving test, re test every 5 years and if the Police see you being a pillock or you are involved in a crash that was down to stupidity on your part, automatic re test. Bi annual tests from 60 onwards?

Driving should be a privellege, not a right!

DazW

iTrader: (1)

Sorry to hijack the thread, but i'd like to see (no pun intended)eye tests introduced - take the cert. with you when you get your road tax and also retesting possibly every 3 years, but if you fail you get a period of grace to retake. This would then get rid of all the blind, bad and dangerous drivers out there thus dramatically lowering accidents - and maybe then we can have a sensible debate about increasing limits where necessary.

DazW.

kryten

Personally, I think the speed limits ought to be based on three factors:

the road & conditions
the car
the driver

What this would mean is to have a maximum speed limit for the road (in good conditions - reduced in bad weather), have each car classed for its maximum speed and the same for each driver, with compulsory retesting every few years.

So for example a Class 1 Police driver in a 1.0L metro would be limited to say, 70mph on the motorway.

Same driver in a Ferrari 360 may be allowed 100mph on the same stretch of road.

Though your average numpty who barely scraped a pass would be limited to 70mph whether they were in a 360 OR the 1.0L metro....

Probably too expensive to implement and all sorts of fraud issues possible: not to mention that fact that NO politician has the ***** to do anything that would be seen (in Sir Humphry's terms to be both 'Controversial' AND 'courageous' ), but given the advances in vehicle tracking technology, biometrics etc should be possible in a few years....

HunterB

IIRC, Barbara Castle, Labour Transport Minister between 1965 and 1968, set the National Speed Limit at 70mph because she "couldn't believe that anyone would want to drive faster than that". Is it any surprise that we have arbitrarily set speed limits? Politicians? Don't get me started!

P.S. She also introduced the Breathalyser.

P.P.S. The National Speed Limit was reduced to 50mph in, IIRC, 1974 because of the fuel crisis. Although motorways were restored to 70mph afterwards, single-carriageway roads only made it back to 60mph limits.

[This message has been edited by HunterB (edited 02 June 2001).]

boomer

There is lots of info about this in a proposal by the Association of British Drivers to raise the motorway speed limit.

See

ScoobySnack

The question is "do the government want to raise the speed limit?"

Think of all the fines they wouldn't get.....

I'm sure the revenue earning potential of speed on the roads is a major driver behind the scenes for the government, while safety is what they project to the public.

J

astraboy

I remember reading somewhere that the 70mph limit was imposed when someone went northbound on the M1 in an AC Cobra....
Topped out at 189mph or summat.
Everyone shat themselves and said enough is enough and a limit was brought in
Seriously, I think a tiered licence system should be brought in. class C licence for the plebs and elderly metro driving laydees. Going through to B class, A class and A* Class. Possibly restricting high performance cars to A* class drivers, Hot hatches for B class drivers, anything over a two litre for C class ETC.... Each licence would be harder and more expensive to get but the result would be better educated drivers driving cars that they are certified to handle.
Just a thought.
astraboy.

lcha

Yea all great ideas but what happens when I go roaring up somones @rse at 100mph cos I have just spent time and money gaining the 100mph licence. They only have the 60mph licence as they have just passed their test and they pull out into the 3rd lane. What about Germany mostly no limit on the autobhan. Do they have a better or worse saftey record than us.

nigelm

The problem in UK is lane discipline. Cross the channel and in France, Spain or Germany people overtake and then move over as a matter of course. Here they move out to overtake and stay there for the next 15 -20 miles (A12 Chelmsford-Colchester). If I wasn't in the IAM a might let out a grrr.

Gridlock Mikey

Barbara Castle also introduced the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (S.E.R.P's) now we all know how well off pensioners are nowadays don't we

Politicians and their ability to sell a crap idea to the millions drive me mad.

I don't wanna drive at 100mph everywhere, but i also don't wanna drive round Nottingham Ringroad at 40 mph late on a wednesday evening, 60-70mph would be perfectly adequate

I would love to do 90mph down the M1 without scanning every bridge, sliproad, layby or service station for a copper with the latest sneaky ******* beaky speed detector.

Mind you that said, the laws were there when I decided to buy the scoob, did i expect that keeping to the speed limits would be easier

I've got 9 points on me licence so i've gotta be MEGA careful, but it's being in this situation that really hammers it home to me, how hopelessly inappropriate our speed limits are, I cannot exceed them so have to get me buzz out of accelerating up to them. Once i'm there though.... .

0-30 don't take long ya know

Anyway's Barbara Castle..........Shove it.

MIKEY

p.s 3 points come of at the end of this month

polarbearit

OK, well I am right with 90mph+ speed limits on the motorway, the MOT test should be stricter on vehicles high speed capabilities and cars which are not suitable should be banned from motorways (perhaps a motorway disk like a tax disk but free if you pass, to inforce this). Also new drivers should not be allowed to drive on motorways without tution.

Provided that people drive correctly (ie lane discipline) and the level of accidents doesn't increase then roads would have a greater capacity as the cars on them would be going faster!

So what can we do to make a difference, the police always wave the safety card, but I believe only 4% of accidents are caused by excessive speed (evo about 6 months ago), with poor observation and concentration being much bigger causes of accidents, lets tackle these issues with driver improvement classes and requent compulsary eye tests, ie if your eye sight isn't up to it get off the road (I know of someone who only has one eye and admits he can't judge distances/perspective, but still drives, much to passengers/other road users dismay).

Jon

Big Lee

The Isle of Man has the right idea
30mph in a 30 zone
40 in a 40 etc
National speed limit sign= as fast as you want wayhaaayyy you only get pulled by the cops if you drive like an idiot, which is fair enough. Not enough speed detection devices take into consideration road conditions 70mph on a motorway in thick fog is ok but 110mph on a dry deserted motorway in a car that is capable will get you banned. Which is more dangerous??

carl

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by nigelm:
<B>Here they move out to overtake and stay there for the next 15 -20 miles (A12 Chelmsford-Colchester).[/quote]

There's no chance of this changing -- I followed a police car from Colchester to Ipswich on the A12 and he was hogging the right lane. If we weren't travelling at an indicated 75, I would have flashed to get past then flagged him over and 'had a word' (actually, I was late for work as well...). If the police do it, what chance is there of educating the public?

fast bloke

Ms Castles set the speed limit based on the 'average' car of the day. I think Austin Allegro was the biggest seller between 65 and 68. It would do 70 MPH flat out. A number of 150MPH+ incidents on the M1 prompted public including the Le Mans cars and Saturday night 'Cruises' where three guys in two ferraris and a Ford GT40 would always be seen speed testing. Can you imagine pulling out in your Allegro at 70% of your cars potential (49MPH), to have someone scream up behind you 100 MPH faster?
The speed limits haven't been raised as they need to make allowances for the slowest/ weakest drivers on the road.
My favourite solution is for the tax man to fund a race track about a mile from my house. This would be entirely free and open 24 hours a days.

p.s. I've been to Australia. There are no speed limits in the outback. You would be amazed how boring constant 130 MPH cruising can be if the road if 600 miles long and you are the only person there.