Question of the week: are UK speed limits out of date?

[hibby]

I voted to leave it as it is. The speed limit is there to protect you should somebody else have an accident which then smashes into you. On a single carriageway road, if somebody coming the other way loses control and veers towards you the collision speed is 2*60=120mph, not something I want to see increased.

And really, how far are you travelling on the motorway that you're going to get somewhere significantly quicker travelling at 80mph rather than 70mph? It's a matter of ~10 minutes per 100 miles travelled.

In my opinion, what is needed is enforcement of all the rules of the road not just the speed limits. If we can crack down on all the inconsiderate people who put other people at risk then we can all get on with the job at hand, getting from A to B as smoothly and safely as possible.

[impossible]

Well I think lorries should be banned from travelling between 11pm and 7am. The noise the bastards make clanking and rattling round the roundabout near me still wakes me up at all hours, after 3 years living here I'm still not used to it. Not only that, it would be better for the drivers not to have to work at night and maybe make for less sleep driving accidents.

The down side of this would be extra traffic around peak times (9am and 5pm) I think its in spain where large loads are not permitted to drive in these peak times to reduce congestion!

Imp

[directhex]

increase the speed limit to 80, and the safe gap between you and the car in front (and behind) becomes 72 metres. reckon the bmw trying to flash you into the hard shoulder is gonna leave an increased gap? how about 80, for 90mph? 90m, for 100mph?

is driving fast nice? yes. not that i can do it with my puny 1.4l engine, but generally speaking, it's nice not to artificially limit yourself when driving. but given the congestion on our roads and motorways, is it safe? have you *really* left your 63m gap, for travelling at 70mph? or 72m at 80mph? if the guy in front does an emergency stop without warning (by definition it's without warning), would you be safe - both from crashing, and being crashed into?

if not, then there's another problem, and not one that would be solved by blind increases in speed to accommodate your lust for speed

look at it this way - if your brakes are kick ass and better than a ford anglia, even with a decent stopping distance, you'd better hope the guy behind you is at least as good as you on that front (reaction time AND braking distance), because if not, you've got a collision incoming. if your car is so wonderful that you halve the braking distance compared to the stats (lowering total stopping distance from 96m to 59m at 70mph), then are you certain that the car behind you has a stopping distance low enough to not hit you? are you confident you'll never be followed by a ford anglia?

[explicitlyrics]

I find it crazy that so many people think it should be increased! I accept that it would be great if it was increased, but under no circumstances should it actually be increased. Only on Saturday I saw another person dead on the M25, it happens far too regularly. You just cannot say it will never happen to me since there are so many uncontrolled variables!

[dangel]

you confident you'll never be followed by a ford anglia?

Well, aside from the fact the anglia would disintegrate on impact (into a modern car) and most anglia's on the road have vastly uprated brakes thesedays (i helped put the discs on my friends restoration project) and weigh as much as a wheelbarrow - good example! You should be more worried about lorries - even at a 'mere' 60mph their stopping distances are.. well..

Jazz will do 106mph according to honda - so i'm sure 80/90 is achievable
Eventually..

[Salazaar]

Just considering the argument for increasing the motorway/dual carriageway speed limit to 80 (I don't think anyone is realisticaly asking to increase the limit on small er roads); if you look at actual state of the roads today, the question is not whether to give drivers the opportunity to drive faster but to legitimise their current driving habits.

I can't think of any time recently when I've been on a major road where the majority of the traffic was driving at or less than the speed limit. The majority seem to do 70-80 anyway, so why not bite the bullet and decriminalise it?

[Mblaster]

increase the speed limit to 80, and the safe gap between you and the car in front (and behind) becomes 72 metres. reckon the bmw trying to flash you into the hard shoulder is gonna leave an increased gap? how about 80, for 90mph? 90m, for 100mph?

People define safe gaps in different ways, as I see it the gap between the car in front and me only needs to cover my reaction time, and any differences between the stopping distance of my car to the car in front, e.g. if I'm behind a sports car with huge brake disks and high end tyres etc then he's gonna stop faster than me, so I leave more gap.

I usually leave more gap than that as most of the time leaving a bigger gap makes no difference to me, but I wouldn't consider it unsafe to be driving behind with only enough room to cover my reaction time.

I can't think of any time recently when I've been on a major road where the majority of the traffic was driving at or less than the speed limit. The majority seem to do 70-80 anyway, so why not bite the bullet and decriminalise it?

Agreed, I do a lot of motorway driving and only about 10% of the cars are actually doing 70mph or less, current motorway speed limits are a joke but no government will have the balls to increase it because they all need to keep up the 'save the planet' image.

[dangel]

I think it's more that it'd be admitting that speed isn't the main issue in road deaths - this invalidating the insane speed-camera-instead-of-plod program.

[iranu]

Motorways are the fastest roads in the UK. Motorways are the safest roads in the UK. Work it out people. Speed is not the issue. Poor driving is.

I once had a period of doing 850 miles a week mostly on motorways usually the M4 and I can say that there are a number of problems imho and the people driving quickly were not the problem because they were paying attention to what was going on around them.

1. Lorries/heavy goods vehicles - they are restricted to 56mph which causes lots of problems and congestion especially when they try to overtake one another. This could be solved by banning vehicles over a certain tonnage during rush hours say 6-9am 5-7pm on motorways and banning them from overtaking unless there is a valid reason.

2. Caravans. I'm sorry people, I'm with Clarkson on this one. Should be restricted to the hours of 8pm to 6am. Anyone caught doing otherwise has their caravan impounded and it will then appear on next weeks Top Gear. You have been warned!

3. The Center Lane Owners Club. They are dangerous drivers who "disengage brain, stick finger up bum" as soon as they get onto a motorway. They drive without due care and attention. I'd like to see the police clamp down very hard on them. Sitting at 65mph in the middle lane with a gormless expression should be punished. £60 fine 3 points.

I used to play a game of looking at the CLOC and they fell into distinct categories. The layed back exec, the zombie/gormless, the chattabox, the gripper (grips steering wheel hard, leans forward and stares out the window in panic), the reader (someone reading or shaving/applying makeup,brushing hair etc), the tradesman, Betties (old people).

4. Tailgaters. In the outside lane, doing 90mph behind everyone else with a proper gap infront, middle lane is chocca block and they are doing 70-80 and you've got nowhere else to go and some dumb prat is right up your backside. Again should be heavily clamped down on. £60 fine 3 points. Do it again = £500 fine 3 points.

5. Lack of police and reliance on speed cameras. Yep, put speed cameras on the safest roads and remove police who are able to make proper judgement of driving, vehicle roadworthyness, etc. You can be dangerous at 50mph (which is the minimum speed limit), but no camera is going to pick that up. Get more police onto the roads and enforce the above.

Speed limits should be raised, I think 90mph is ok and increase minimum speed to 60mph. Variable speed limits are also a good idea so perhaps in rush hour make it 80 and 100mph between 11pm and 5am when all the lorries and caravans are out and about.

I can't think of a car that isn't capable of doing 70mph, jeez I had a 957cc Ford Fiesta (E-reg/1987/8) that would do that (if you wound the rubber band up a bit more). I used to pootle at 80mph in the damn thing.

[kalniel]

To add to some wishful thinking, ban vehicles above a certain height from entering lane 3 - they block visibility.

[GoNz0]

well another fun day of delays due to lorry's on the east coast roads stuck at 40mph in a 60 zone, i wouldnt mind but most of the smacktards make it impossible for you to overtake by leaving a 2 foot gap from the lorry there following.

if they dont like being stuck at 40mph go drive a fekin van instead you ignorant bastids.

[kalniel]

if they dont like being stuck at 40mph go drive a fekin van instead you ignorant bastids.

And get stuck at 50 instead? Woo

[GoNz0]

its better than 40

[dangel]

Motorways are the fastest roads in the UK. Motorways are the safest roads in the UK. Work it out people. Speed is not the issue. Poor driving is.

Shhhhh! It's a secret. We mustn't let common sense overtake us (bad pun).

To add to some wishful thinking, ban vehicles above a certain height from entering lane 3 - they block visibility.

Like iranu i'm in favour of the no-overtaking during peak hours for lorries rule - it really would make a difference. They've been trialling this for AGES out here but have yet to come to the very obvious conclusion and roll it out region wide.

[kalniel]

*nods* I was talking about SUVs and 4x4s as well though

[directhex]

Jazz will do 106mph according to honda - so i'm sure 80/90 is achievable

couldn't possibly comment