Elvis Presley

...and if so, what should the speed limit be?

Autobahns are apparently pretty safe, but then the standard of driving is a lot higher isn't it?

What would be a realistic speed limit for fast motorways?

Would this help or add to the congestion problems?
(Faster driving means less time on the motorway?)

Caronte

In Italy a new law just came out that states that on 3 lines highways the speed limit in 150 Km/h (94 Mph)

RB170

I've always thought that there should be no speed limits on motorways but stricter limits in residential areas. I also think that over taking on the left (Undertaking) should be made legal aswell, it'll stop people hogging lane 2 and lane 3 of the motorway.

Mike

Dr Hu

As much as I hate to say this I think there should be some set limit on a motorway.

If there was no limit you would get all the muppets under the sun driving their porsche at 200mph in possibly totally inappropriate road/weather conditions just because they can....and dare anyone get in their way!

I do believe however that the limit on the m-way when it is good weather should be nearer 100mph.

Elvis Presley

Could be dangerous though. Better to make people KEEP TO THE LEFT UNLESS OVERTAKING!

I'm thinking these people usually have no idea that there is a car behind them let alone beside them.

nom

And then again we could have as the Swiss system (I think )where it's an offence to block someone who's trying to get past. I personally don't like the idea of the whole motorway being a free-for-all lanes-wise. We'd start getting all the HGVs doing the Oxford-Tube style of driving of hammering it around in any (and preferably all) lanes.
Keeping anything & everything over 3.5 tonnes to the left lane only I think would improve safety hugely, & allow everyone else to drive safely at sensible speeds. Fat chance.

astraboy

Personally I reckon a tiered licence system should be brought in. for the numpties, a C class licence which limits you to 70 mph, for the people with an interest in progressive driving you could have B and A class licences which allows you to go up to 100 & 140 mph respectivly. Porviding you have a car which is capable of doing so safely. Mind you, it would be a nightmare to police so it wont happen. I will just keep on dreaming of the montana situation where you could go as fast as you like providing it was "reasonable and prudent" 160 in the wet is reasonable and prudent innit?
astraboy.

zoog

No, there should not. If it's OK for the Germans it's OK for us. The less nanny state we suffer the better.

nom

Oh, as far as speeds go, variable speed limits (if sensible) are great - for bad weather/congestion - but the rest of the time none would probably do the job, with the 'polite' 155mph thing probably being a good idea to.
IMHO, naturally

Bin Laden

seventy is ludicrously slow. 90 is more like it. but enforce it properly.

They're all on drugs.

the limit should be reduced to 55 mph - what's the rush?

webmaster2

I think everybody should have their own limit and should drive at a speed they are comfortable. I f you are hoever about 50mph faster then the rest of the traffic and you look like you have to break heavily in order to avoid hitting the car in front. It would be a good idea to adjust your limit to the density of the traffic.

But to cut the geekish b*llocks, No

wb

Caronte

I agree on speed limits. But technology is much improved over the last 20 years and cars can guarantee same safeness at higher speeds. Unfortunally speed limits are the same as 20 years ago (city limits I agree shouldn't be modified, anyway). The bigger problem is a vast majority of people don't know how to drive. Driving in high traffic motorways is not that straight forward. It also requires a certain amount of concentration, that most people seems to forget.
I believe this should be teached propely by the time of getting a licence. That is trainigs on wet circuits to understand the limits of the car in precarious situations; and motorways lessons to learn to adapt to different speeds of your car relative to other's people cars.

ANDY330

i think the quicker you go, the more you concentrate and dont fall asleep as easy like in a BMW with cruise control and air conditioning etc

Maybe a system could be implemented where the car is a certain class and max speed limit and only allowed to -permanently- stick to certain lanes and -temporarily- use other lanes to overtake ie

morris minor/allegro/fiesta 950 - 1st lane, briefly use 2nd lane
saxo/peugeout205/honda civic - 1st and 2nd lane, briefly use 3rd lane
mondeo/bmw/performance cars - 1st, 2nd and 3rd lanes

reason:
would MAKE people use the 1st lane even when its empty
would reduce stress and traffic by doing the above and reducing tailgaters/potential accidents
would keep the slow cars in the slow lane and the fast cars in the fast lane
would keep the slow cars to a speed that the car is capable off
in most cases, would mean the age/experience of the driver may be driving a car he can handle ie 17yr old could no longer drive dads cosworth (insurance reasons etc) and would be limited to driving a certain speed depending on his class
it could be policed by using the new SPECS cameras by, as well as checking the number plate of the car and whether its taxed, it could work out what class the car is in from the number plate and which lane its in. If its in the wrong lane (permanently or temporary) a sign could flash up just like if caught speeding

Jolly Green Monster 2

I agree that 70mph is too slow but everyone does 90mph anyway..

if you upped the limit to 90mph everyone would do 110mph...

Therefore at the minute it is a 90mph limit more or less and not many people are nicked for doing 90mph...

IMHO....

SWRTWannabe

Trouble is that you get such a wide variety of speeds unfortunately even if you can do 150 mph, you have to cope with the fact that some people may be in your lane doing half that speed.

Definitely agree with having a higher speed limit though, and having it lowered in bad weather could maintain the safety. The other option is to make the speeds displayed on the matrix signs mandatory so people are forced to slow down when there is a queue etc ahead.

Not sure Numptie would appreciate that

Caronte

Astraboy,

this experiment has been carried forward in Italy. In fact for the first three years of licence you are allowed to do 100 Km/h (60 Mph). But controls are impossible to do. Moreover at that speed ever trucks overtake you which I rather prefer to avoid.

Elvis Presley

Sorry, have to disagree with the statement that not many people are nicked for doing 90.

Loads are. Loads are nicked for doing 80-85mph!

If the unwritten law was to keep under 90mph, I wouldn't mind.

70 Is far too slow, especially on an empty motorway at 3:00am.

ANDY330

anyone seen Getaway In Stockholm 2? LOL

RB5SCOTT

When the speed limit came in around the 60's(or whenever it was) look at the cars that were about then. The 70mph speed limit was set for dinosaurs,new cars can handle speed better, but then again their argument could be that there is 10 times more traffic on road.

An Autocar article last week said that Britain was under pressure to raise the limit and follow suit with the rest of Europe with Denmark and Italy having just raised theirs

I think that Germany has the best idea with varible speed limits on all of the autobahns, so when conditions are good you can go as fast as yer like

Scott

DavidRB

Apparently raising the speed limit to something more sensible, e.g. 80/90 would not cause most people to drive at 110mph. Most people would continue at the speed they were driving at before. This is backed up by evidence following limit increases in other countries.

I quite like the idea of a true "fast lane" which would have a higher limit, but could only be occupied by drivers & cars of a certain ability. The problem would be policing the transition from this lane to the other lanes, it would be too easy for people just to come bombing off this lane and up the slip roads. Like they do now.

Increasing speed limits will allow people to arrive at their destinations in less time, thus reducing the number of tired drivers on the roads (who are responsible for something like a third of all accidents). It would also save the country a lot of money in terms of reduced commuting & business journey times.

The ABD has a good article on raising motorway speed limits.

ANDY330

RB5SCOTT

catch22 though in that, there is only more traffic on the road due to the speed limit (ie there may be more cars on the road but the road may be less congested if we could go quicker )

Goldfinger

I think there should be a speed limit of around 90mph in the UK but restrict the limit when there is bad weather or congestion for example.

I drive to Croatia every summer and find driving on the autobahns through Germany and Austria are great ... there are many 4-lane stretches where I've been dawdling along on the inside lane doing well into three figure speeds with everything else quite happliy, and seemingly safely, cruising by me at will. Having said that the Germans have all been brought up in a society where they can go more or less as fast as they want, if we were to open up our motorways to let people go as fast as they please it would be mayhem, people would go balmy IMHO

Cheers
Phil

Goldfinger

There's a time and a place for squeezing down the right foot, a 3-lane motorway which is relatively safe is it ... not a built-up area where some pillocks still want to do 'motorway' speeds

Common sense should prevail ...

Phil

Robertio

iTrader: (1)

Given the intelligence of the average UK motorist a limit of 70 is too high, I really don't know if they could cope with no limit. Raising it to 90 would be a start, but then most of the population will drive between 90 and 100 no matter what the conditions (rather than 80-90 they do at the moment).

This morning I had the dubious privilege of driving my sisters car along the motorway in really heavy rain, I stayed to the inside lane doing no more than 60 as that was as fast as I felt I could safely go, and spent my time being passed by lorries, cars, etc as if I was standing still.

Caronte

Andy330,

unfortunally speed doesn't help in road saturation.
Infact the capacity of a road is given by the ratio no. of cars per hour. Evry road has its own maximum capacity after which the cue start building up.

Cheers Caronte

stephen30

I reckon 90 in the dry and 80 in the wet would be a better idea than 70. It'll only work if people don't sit in the faster lanes when there is nothing inside them and this should be made an offence. I don't go too fast at the moment but it's more dangerous when people decide they are going to sit in lane 2 for example and do 65 just cos there's a truck half a mile down the road that they want to overtake. I don't thinkk undertaking should be made legal cos at the moment if you want to pull into the left then you know that there's not likely to be a car steaming up your inside.
In Frace the have a higher speed limit of 130 kmh in the dry and 110 in the wet, at least I think so, whic is more like what we should have here.

Steve

Luke

Forget speed. Until we drive better as a whole why go faster??. If we drove as a whole realy well we would still get there quicker.Its poor driving that makes us drive slower.

stephen30

More speed, more concentration IMHO. Keeps you on the ball. There are too many bad drivers out there but they'll be the ones who won't want to go too fast.

Katana

The speed limit at 70 Mph was set I think because the technology in the old days could not handle it. Nowadays, most of the cars on the road has some sort of racing influence on their design and could easily push past 100++ Mph without any fear of mechanical failure.

The best thing for the government to do (like they would listen) is to set the furthest lane as a no speed limit lane. Keep the inside lane at a maximum of 70 mph[/b] crime instead of just trying to buff up their revenue via speeding fines...