Comparing 200 miles at 70mph and 50 mpg with 200 miles at 60 mph and 60 mpg saves half an hour of journey time and costs an extra £4 in fuel, valuing our time at £8 per hour, about the minimum wage. If the government is serious about reducing emissions, a national 60 mph speed limit would make a significant difference. It would also reduce the frequency and severity of road accidents. Probably not a vote winner though!
Absolutley not. If anything happens to UK speed limits they should be increased to 80 at least. Ideally the outside lane would be derestricted and allow people to get on a bit.
Let's be honest, 70 is trundling and 80 is hardly pushing on.
If speed limit increased to 80, cars would do 90 ( speed limit at 70 now and most cars do 80 ). De-restricting the outside lane would result in horrific crashes as people in centre lane pull out at say 70 to overtake, and a car in that lane doing 120. Things go wrong frighteningly fast at 70, at 90+ most drivers could not react in time. Everyone thinks they are are a great driver ( until the laws of physics prove them wrong ) but we share the roads with a lot of other people, and their safety should be our number one priority. Road deaths in Germany significantly higher than in UK, I wonder why ? If people want us to take global warming seriously they there are great fuel savings to be made by lowering the speed limits, electric cars do not like motorways, the remaining battery power meter drops like a stone in freefall at motorway speeds. The Jazz that went Lands End to John O'Groats on a single tank of fuel stuck to around 40mph.
I am beginning to suspect 150234 is a provocative troll... just my opinion ATM.
There is plenty of rubbish to pick apart here.
Most cars would indeed do 90 but we would get places far faster and you don't have to do 90 if you don't want to, there are two others lanes with slower moving vehicles for those stuck in the 1980's to enjoy.
As for things going wrong fast, I disagree massively. They just don't. Everyone bangs on about 70 mph and how fast it is, but next time you're doing 70 look at a gantry or a sign a long way ahead and watch how long it takes to come at you. Even closer range stuff like the catseyes don't come at you fast, let alone a car doing 20mph less than you. 70mph really isn't that fast and it's surprising how long stuff takes to come at you.
120mph is unrealistic for many as either their cars won't do it or they just couldn't bring themselfs to do it. In reality on a derestriced motorway most people are two much of a fanny to do much more than 90 anyway. Look at the Honda Jazz. Tops out at 110 on the flat (although on a long steep down hill I did once get 122 which was interesting) so very few people will ever achieve that.
As for sharing roads with others, if you move into the outside lane without correctly judging the overspeed of the approaching car, that's not the 120mph cars fault, it's yours, plain and simple. If people could drive we could all do 100 but because some people make a right meal out of driving we are all at a crawl.
Car crumple zones, seatbelts and airbags are constantly getting better and so it car safety in general or why aren't we upgrading out roads to suit?
