http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/29/speed-limit-raised-80mph

Interesting…

Don’t folks do 80ish anyways?

In which case, won’t they now do 90ish?

* worries that not much has been achieved here *

There’s another thread about this on now…

Thank god no one tailgates in this country

What about speed limits at 80, but average speed cameras along the motorways? Shows how few traffic police are actually on the roads though, as I get the impression that the various rep-moblies doing over a ton drive like that all the time.

Don’t folks do 80ish anyways?

In which case, won’t they now do 90ish?
I regularly do 80ish. I am unlikely to change the speed I drive at (apart from where there are speed cameras). Shouldn’t think I’ll be doing 90 (10%+2mph) very often.

I’d argue there’s actually some joined up thinking here:
“Hammond is expected to couple the increase with an expansion of 20mph limits in many urban areas.”

There’s still not enough people to enforce it so it’ll get as much respect as the current 70mph limit.

Whilst we’re all making baseless predictions, I’ll suggest that the difference on accidents will be ‘none whatsoever’ and that more people will obey an 80mph limit than a 70mph one.

Motorways to 80 and more built up areas to 20 = good news all round.

I’m not sure about everyone doing 80mph now anyway. I drive on the motorways of Britain and I think the prevailing speed has dropped to nearer 70mph in the last few years just due to volume of traffic.

I suspect this change won’t make a blind bit of notice.

Unbelievable but true…
My car gets better fuel economy at 77mph than it does at 70mph. Something to do with the EGR valves apparently.

On long motorway trips the new speed limit would save me about 45p an hour as well as saving the planet…I for one will vote for it 😆

Why does the limit need to be raised?

80mph = 80mph + 10% = 88 mph

I’m looking out for one of these.

“Increasing the motorway speed limit to 80mph would generate economic benefits of hundreds of millions of pounds through shorter journey times. So we will consult later this year on raising the limit to get Britain moving.”

Hundreds of millions of pounds?
Shorter Journey times?
What planet is the bloke on?
Everyone who wants to do 80 on a motorway already does. The problem is finding a bit of motorway that isn’t so rammed with cars or road works to do it on.

An increase in the speed limit to 80mph seems like a good idea to me, as does a decrease in the speed limit in some built up areas to 20mph. 70mph seems rather slow at times, as does 30mph in a built up area.

Average speeds probably won’t increase that much due to all the delays that occur, so I doubt that average speed cameras will do much good – depending on the distance over which they measure said average speed.

The speed limit in France (in the dry) is 130kph (so, about 80mph) and the roads on which this is the case are mostly two lanes.

What we really need is a major improvement in the standard of driving: driving too fast for the conditions, tailgating, driving in the middle lane when the inside lane is empty and using a mobile phone whilst driving are all unacceptable.

From what I’ve read, Germany has tailgating cameras (not sure about speed cameras – probably not, I guess, on unrestricted roads), so obviously they think that tailgating is unacceptable when speed is not. I also noticed that lane discipline is much better in Germany – overtake, then move into the inside lane. This makes a lot of sense when there may be a car catching you up with a speed differential of up to 100mph!

Speed is almost irrelevant – it’s inappropriate speed that counts. That would include driving too fast on the motorway in fog (other conditions may be available) as well as doing 30mph in a built up area past a blind junction (and we live almost opposite one of those, so I think I can say that with some knowledge) or a school…

Why does the limit need to be raised?

To help generate more respect for speed limits. The 70 limit is so discredited it encourages people to ignore the other important ones.

I wonder if they are going to increase the limit for HGVs, Towing etc, otherwise there is going to be a significant difference in speed between vehicles which’ll be fun 🙄

Don’t folks do 80ish anyways?
In which case, won’t they now do 90ish?

No. They won’t. They just won’t need to keep looking around for cameras and will be able to look at the road more.

80mph is about 30 years overdue, but I’m not holding my breath personally

recently returned from a 4500 mile trip through Europe on the Motorbike.

in most countries, the limit is 130kph. superb lane discipline and awareness is what is lacking in the UK.

in Germany, my limit was about 200 kph on the un-restricted autobahns without suffering mental fatigue. loads of rest points with toilets all the way.

it’s not the speed limit but the quality of awareness and lane discipline that needs criticism imho.

Has anybody ever been done for going to fast in an average speed camera area?
Never have been myself and do not of or have been told of anybody receiving a fine for doing so .

I also noticed that lane discipline is much better in Germany – overtake, then move into the inside lane.

I thought this was the law in Germany, with a fine if you don’t adhere? It’s something I’d gladly see introduced in this country.

alba23 – yeah, my sister got 3 points for stepping on it through some roadworks.

Until they bring in an instant ban for failing to leave a 2 second gap between the vehicle ahead, then any increase in limit is a BAAADDDDDDD idea. The standard of driving on our roads is nothing short of abysmal, and I say that as a part-time recreational cyclist who normally drives.

I’m for the extra 10mph but it would make more sense to try and educate people on correct lane discipline before they let them go faster 😆 I do 300 miles a week commuting to work on the M5 and theres rarely a day when i get there without wanting to kill some f**kwad that has decided having to change lanes now and again is far too much effort for them 👿

I’m not sure about everyone doing 80mph now anyway. I drive on the motorways of Britain and I think the prevailing speed has dropped to nearer 70mph in the last few years just due to volume of traffic.

I’ve been doing the same motorway journey for 10 years now and i’ve noticed the same thing. Its either volume of traffic or people being more conscious about saving petrol due to rising fuel prices.

My car gets better fuel economy at 77mph than it does at 70mph. Something to do with the EGR valves apparently.

Is it petrol? Big petrol engines are so throttled back at lower speeds that the pumping losses in the throttle are higher than the extra air resistance at higher speed.

I would say make a deal – increase the speed limit, but enforce it. 70 or 80mph won’t make much difference in itself, what we need is everyone travelling at the same speed. Now people are frustrated with 70mph so they decide to speed by 10, 15, 20mph or whatever. If we all did 80 it’d really help.

That was my biggest issue with German motorways. Whatever speed you were doing you always had slow traffic you had to pass and faster traffic trying to get by you – bedlam, especially on a two lane motorway.

average speed on the M62 through W Yorks is about 10mph these days

I reckon this is about 10 years too late. People are -finally- waking up to the fact that travelling faster uses more fuel and therefore hits them harder in the pocket

In the summer the avg rush hour speed of the M1 from Sheffield to Leeds is about 85-90mph. The inside lane can be about 45mph!

When its dark it goes mad the outside lane can be doing 30 the middle 70 and the inside will have one car in a mile ling stretch doing 40. Then everyone will be doing 80mph before all breaking to 20 etc etc. People just can’t drive

JulianA is wise.

average speed on the M62 through W Yorks is about 10mph these days

That’s because they all use the same goddamn lane. I’ve never known a road like it for having Lane Two Owners’ conventions. When it goes to four lanes it doesn’t make a fig of difference because everyone just drifts out to the third lane.

I do 80-90 all the time on motorways, where it’s appropriate anyway. Changing the limit won’t change that. I’m sure a lot of people will speed up but not all.

Good idea and long overdue, modern vehicles are more than capable of cruising safely at 80mph…its just the person behind the wheel that stuffs things up once in a while….perhaps an increase in speed will raise people’s concentration?

With more and more urban areas going to 20mph, raising the motorway limit gives people an opportunity to claw back some journey time, i think this is probably the real reason for doing it.

The trend in recent years has been for 20mph urban areas and a lot of the national limit (60mph) single carriageway roads have been reclassified at 50mph….if you actually obeyed the limits these days you wouldnt get anywhere.

Personally i’d like them to go the whole hog in an Autobahn style without limits….but rigidly and mercilessly enforce lane discipline.

aracer – Member
Why does the limit need to be raised?

To help generate more respect for speed limits. The 70 limit is so discredited it encourages people to ignore the other important ones.

How will increasing the speed limit do that?

It’s foolish populist nonsense to appeal to the Jeremy Clarksons of the UK.

Traffic, which is what everyone is complaining about, flows better when speeds are slower, hence the speed restrictions on the M25 when it gets busy. All this will do is get you to the next traffic jam quicker.

Reduce the speed limit to 55 mph, stop wasting fuel, reduce emissions, reduce delays, and if you need to be there quicker, just get up earlier.

The reasoning of increased economic activity is bollocks, the only times when it will be able to achieve the very slight improvement in in journey time will be when there is little economic activity occurring. As others have said people who want to do 80 mph do anyway. I’d really like to see how he came up with the figures.

Unbelievable but true…
My car gets better fuel economy at 77mph than it does at 70mph. Something to do with the EGR valves apparently.

What is your source for that? While engines are tuned to have better economy at different rev / load ranges the increase of 10% in speed results in a energy requirement increase of nearly 20%, this would make the improvement by the ERG is incredible.

crikey, that might make sense on overcrowded motorways but not everywhere. Traffic wouldn’t flow better on the M8 at 55mph, since it’s almost completely free-flowing at 70mph except at the city junctions, where a 55mph limit would be irrelevant.

In areas where traffic would benefit from a slower flow different limits could be imposed but reducing the national limit because it’d serve the M25 better? No thanks.

deviant – Member
Good idea and long overdue, modern vehicles are more than capable of cruising safely at 80mph…its just the person behind the wheel that stuffs things up once in a while….perhaps an increase in speed will raise people’s concentration?

With more and more urban areas going to 20mph, raising the motorway limit gives people an opportunity to claw back some journey time, i think this is probably the real reason for doing it.

The trend in recent years has been for 20mph urban areas and a lot of the national limit (60mph) single carriageway roads have been reclassified at 50mph….if you actually obeyed the limits these days you wouldnt get anywhere.

!!!!!111111one

I call top troll!

Traffic, which is what everyone is complaining about, flows better when speeds are slower

When it’s busy, yes. When it’s not, 80mph would be more appropriate.

The answer to this: “Why does the limit need to be raised?” has been given, and it’s this: “It’s foolish populist nonsense to appeal to the Jeremy Clarksons of the UK.“

The government’s a bit unpopular because they haven’t got any money to spend on us, so everyone’s feeling a bit pinched, so they’re throwing a sop to the proles. Ironically, it’ll end up actually costing everyone more because fuel costs will rise, journey times won’t shorten because they’re constrained by flow and congestion rather than top speed, accidents will increase and it’ll generally solve nothing except blow smoke up the arses of the sort of whining morons who think the motorist is somehow victimised – notwithstanding the fact that more people than ever seem to be able to afford them, cover more miles in them, drive with more points on them (with over 10,000 people driving with more than 12 points on their licence) and seemingly mow down more cyclists than ever with apparent impunity. Victimised my big fat arse.

As noted above, anyone who’s been on stretches which are heavily controlled by average speed cameras should have noticed by now that compared to unrestricted traffic during congestion, the traffic flows more rapidly overall at a uniform 50mph than it does at a chaotic and intermittent 70mph. The whole bloody point of motorways is that they should operate at a steady, uniform speed – it’s safer and it leads to improved overall flow. That’s why we have slip roads and speed limits and lanes and minimum speed limits, to minimise any speed differentials and, where that’s not possible, minimise their effects.

“Populist nonsense” is exactly what it is. “Grovelling and retarded” would be equally apt.

The one thing it does achieve is to make us more dependent on oil. So that’s nice. We can keep on invading those sandy countries, it’s all good business. Not to mention the extra few quid in the coffers thanks to the increase in duty revenue.

so i wonder what the plan is for HGVs, cars travelling faster lorries at the same speed? knowing how much attention some drivers pay to their surroundings doesn’t sound like a good mix.

As for the economic argument, why not derestrict HGVs let them travel at car speeds…

The whole bloody point of motorways is that they should operate at a steady, uniform speed

Except they can’t when some of the traffic has different speed limits. If we all travelled at 56mph then it would work well. Much like the M4 on a Friday evening actually.

However in between insulting us all you seem to have overlooked the fact that traffic is not always heavy.

I’m always bemused by people looking up to how Germans drive on the Autobahn: Whilst it’s true that most drivers over there are law abiding, there is still a significant minority who tailgate at 140mph and they are responsible for the almost double death rate on motorways over there compared to here.
I have never yet, in years of driving in Germany, had a day (when I’ve needed to cover some mile) when I’ve not been stuck in some huge accident with multiple fatalities (back in July stuck from 3pm one day to find them still clearing up the next morning!).
Apparently no one has told the clowns doing 70mph more than the prevailing traffic that the human body can’t react in 1/100sec and that driving 5 metres behind another car at that speed is like pointing a gun at someone elses head..

“in between insulting us all you seem to have overlooked the fact that traffic is not always heavy“

Wasn’t trying to insult everyone but always quite happy to inadvertently do so 😉

Round here the traffic pretty much is always heavy – at least it certainly is when there would be any actual economic benefit to reducing journey times. A higher limit at other times is a separately arguable issue, perhaps, but I’m not sure it’s one that’s related to any worthy cause like supposed economic benefit (fuel companies aside).