Poll

Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?

Yes
20 (50%)
No
20 (50%)

Total Members Voted: 21

Author Topic: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?  (Read 11271 times)

RichardA

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Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« on: October 03, 2011, 08:47:47 PM »
A consultation over raising the motorway speed limit from 70mph to 80mph will take place soon. The new limit could be introduced as early as 2013.

The current limit was set in 1965.

Do you support the move to 80mph?

Geoffers

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2011, 09:02:33 PM »
Sure am! It's only legalising what's already happening!

Ozzie

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2011, 11:09:04 PM »
Personally I don't think the driving standard is good enough already.

80mph would be OK if it was enforced, but realistically 90 mph will become the norm and the killed and seriously injured numbers will dramatically increase.

The overall stopping distance at 90mph is 180ft further than 70mph, but no-one will allow a bigger gap when following traffic.

Ozzie

malcolmgb

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2011, 02:28:15 PM »
I agree with Ozzie, I believe if you are driving at 80mph sensibly now you would not get stopped.
It is not speed which kills it is poor driving.
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

guest869

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2011, 06:35:41 PM »
I am in favour of being able to make my own decisions and risk assessments (which is why I enjoy rock climbing........) so yes the 80 mph limit is a good idea when conditions allow.

However with all the variable speed limits that are going up will there be any 70mph or 80 mph motorway left?

I am also in favour of getting rid of the 50mph limits on country A and B roads that seem to be the norm now.

I also wish that these rules were strictly adhered too and enforced.. 

169

Do not hold up a long queue of traffic, especially if you are driving a large or slow-moving vehicle. Check your mirrors frequently, and if necessary, pull in where it is safe and let traffic pass.



168

Being overtaken. If a driver is trying to overtake you, maintain a steady course and speed, slowing down if necessary to let the vehicle pass. Never obstruct drivers who wish to pass. Speeding up or driving unpredictably while someone is overtaking you is dangerous. Drop back to maintain a two-second gap if someone overtakes and pulls into the gap in front of you.

culzean

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2011, 09:48:40 PM »
No - there are enough idiots doing 80 to 90 at the moment, if the limit is raised to 80 they will then do 90 to 100 and feel justified.

To save fuel my bet is that the limit will be lowered, like it has been in Switzerland - and it makes sense because drag increases with square of the speed - ie to double your speed you need 4x the power (and fuel).

everybody thinks they are the worlds greatest driver - until the laws of physics and human limitations proves them wrong.

Better Mr Jones late than the late Mr Jones.
« Last Edit: October 05, 2011, 09:51:58 PM by culzean »
Some people will only consider you an expert if they agree with your point of view or advice,  when you give them advice they don't like they consider you an idiot

guest2765

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2011, 12:15:51 AM »
ok lets be honest..in this day and age cars should be doing 90+ down the motorways...lorrys 70+ busses 80+ since the technology is in the cars...

although i do recon that people who havent been passed all that long should be limited to 70mph until they get use to their car..

guest2915

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #7 on: November 23, 2011, 10:58:49 AM »
While I agree with John about making our own decisions and risk assessment, I unfortunately do not have the faith in a huge majority of the general public to make rational decisions. Whenever I leave a 2 second gap on the motorway some idiot pulls into it, often without indicating.

When it comes to driving I can be quite anal. I love a bit of speed driving and fun but there is a place for that. And don't get me started on those who don't even have a licence......

guest2867

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #8 on: November 23, 2011, 09:10:41 PM »
I think yes if the road is dry and then lower it back to say 60 when the roads are wet. they do something like this in France.

guest1844

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #9 on: November 25, 2011, 09:31:35 PM »
Cars may be better these days - but the drivers aren't. Driving faster requires more attention, and no distractions such as the stereo, passengers, let alone phones. Are your tyres up to it? Or a different tyre on every wheel? Then add the fact that in the dark 70mph really is quite fast enough, throw in some rain, 1.6mm legal minimum tread...
People then talk about enforcing it more closely. But safe traffic flow requires a level of speed disparity between vehicles, to reduce bunching and tailgating. You actually want a fairly loose interpretation of the speed limit. We're all aware off the effect of one truck passing another when they're both sat on their speed limiters, or bunching in average-speed-camera zones.
Neither would it help our CO2 emissions. And the government said it would increase productivity! How? The few minutes saved would be at either end of the day, you'd spend longer in bed instead.

RichardA

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #10 on: November 27, 2011, 06:47:06 PM »
And don't get me started on those who don't even have a licence......

...or insurance  >:(

guest2915

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #11 on: November 27, 2011, 07:59:08 PM »
And don't get me started on those who don't even have a licence......

...or insurance  >:(

Indeed!

culzean

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #12 on: November 28, 2016, 12:51:41 PM »
Speed doesn't cause accidents ???  Posted on this USA website
http://www.smartmotorist.com/traffic-and-safety-guideline/what-causes-car-accidents.html

This expert says that when speed limits were set our roads were much less crowded than they are now,  and people who argue that speed limits should be increased because 'cars are better' are wrong because the limiting factor is still the human behind the wheel - he actually says that because of more crowded roads speed limits should actually be reduced (have you noticed how drivers on motorway always feel they can do 10mph more than the speed limit and still not get done for speeding,  well the bad news is that if speed limit was raised to 80,  those people would be going 90mph+ and still feel justified).  Even carparks,  with possibility of cars pulling out, children, dogs etc. Everyday I am seeing people doing stupid speeds even in housing estates and carparks,  and on our local Tesco carpark the other day an old lady was knocked down and killed by a white van,  now if the van had been doing 10mph it would have been bad enough,  but the old lady ended up UNDER his van - so god knows what speed he was doing - if there is no speed there is no collision possible, but as speed increases the outcome rapidly gets worse.  The impact force is proportional to the square of the velocity,  so hitting some / something at 20mph is four times as bad as 10mph.

I have done a lot of intensive and hands on research about road traffic crashes - more than 40 years of it to be exact. It is not the car which is the core element or cause of a road traffic crash - it is the human being in control of that car who is the core element of crashes. How cars were when the standards for current speed limits were set up had virtually nothing to do (in my country at least) with the criteria used to set up the limits - the criteria used was twofold: (1) "human perception time + human reaction time + time taken, after the perception/reaction phase, to complete or achieve what is necessary to avoid an impending collision like stopping or swerving in time". (2) The actions and reactions of road users based on their experience and expectations of what they perceive other road users are usually doing - virtually all driving decisions are based on what the driver expect or belief another road user is doing based on his previous experiences regarding the usual behavior of other road users. Example: when a driver wants to cross a road he looks for approaching vehicles on the road he wants to cross and when he saw a vehicle approaching he will decide, based on his previous experience and what he normally expects from other road users, to cross or wait. If the approaching vehicle is at a distance which his experience taught him he has enough time to safely cross, he start crossing the road. Now imagine, if the approaching vehicle is doing 130 miles per hour instead of the 30 miles per hours it is supposed to do at that section of the road, what would happen? (the point here is that it is not the great capabilities of the driver or the greatly advanced modern car of the speedster that should be the criteria for determining speed limits but the reasonable expectations of the average road user).
The speed limits were thus based on the average time it takes for an average human to perceive/react/achieve in relation to the rate of speed of a moving object AND the way the average road user usually react to the actions of other road users.
It is thus the capabilities and perception of the human which is the central factor in collision avoidance and NOT how good or bad the vehicle is. The modern car may have improved tremendously over the older cars BUT the capabilities and perception of the human (the road user) has NOT improved (changed) at all between then and now so no new justification or reason to change the current speed limits came up.
It is true that poor driving skills, recklessness, negligence and criminal behavior (breaking the law = speeding) are SOME of the factors that must be present to cause an accident but the other factor SPEED (speed is the rate of movement of an object) must ALWAYS be present as without it no collision can happen (no movement = no collision - unless you belief in motionless collisions of course). The test to decide if a factor (speed) is the cause of a result (collision) or not, is to simply take away the factor and see if the result still follow - if the result can not follow without the factor, the factor is obviously the cause for the result. A collision is a forceful contact between two or more objects due to the movement (speed) of one or more of the objects involved in the collision and the force of the contact (lethality) is caused by the rate of speed involved in the contact - so speed is not only an essential cause (requirement) for a collision to happen, it is also the main cause of the severity of the collision AND will determine if the collision can be avoided or not due to to reduced action/reaction time available caused by higher speeds. Today, in contrast to the past when current speed limits were set up, traffic is very much more dense and the typical distance between people/vehicles on the road is much less (much shorter distances) than in the olden times drastically reducing the available time for road users in which to act or react so current speed limits should in the interest of road safety be reduced and not increased. As to your moaning that speed limits make only the government / police department / insurance companies rich I counter with the following: (1) do not make the criminal speedsters who have no regard for the law or the safety of other road users out to be "poor victims" - they are not! (2) The desire to speed in public spaces can not outweigh the desire of the law abiding to be safe on their roads. (3) Speed limits can not be based on how good a driver you are or how fantastic your cars is - it must be based on the capabilities and expectations of the average road user. (4) Speed limits can not be based on your lightning like reflexes or the carbon fiber brakes of your car but on the reflexes and standards of the average driver and car. (5) "Let crime pay" - it cost to protect the law abiding road user and somebody must pay for it. I much prefer that the criminal rather than the law abiding tax payer do the paying (through heavy fines how else) - In fact I would like the criminal to pay so much that he also fully cover the cost of medical care, pain and suffering and the damages and stresses he caused. Arrive alive! and remember speed kills
« Last Edit: November 28, 2016, 05:24:37 PM by culzean »
Some people will only consider you an expert if they agree with your point of view or advice,  when you give them advice they don't like they consider you an idiot

peteo48

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #13 on: November 28, 2016, 01:01:12 PM »
Really interesting article. On the 80 mph thing, I'm a bit agnostic. I just wonder if, with smart motorways becoming more prevalent with their variable speed limits, an 80 limit could be signalled when traffic is light and the weather conditions good.


guest6316

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Re: Are you in favour of raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph?
« Reply #14 on: November 29, 2016, 08:32:30 AM »
What will happen if speed limit was raised everyone will start doing 90 instead of doing 80 like they do with the 70 limit.

Life is fast enough as it is chill out and slow down.

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