It’s about time we threw out the 70mph speed limit

Enforce speed limits like mad!! Everywhere!! Would cut down that awful CO2 some people think is a pollutant.

It is strange but when there are average speed cameras operating the traffic seems to flow quite nicely usually. But there are always idiots who don’t care about other people or the law.

And in Germany half the autobahns have a speed limit of 130k and the police used to hand out huge fines to those who exceeded the speed limit excessively.

Quote: “Modern cars are more than capable of cruising quietly and safely at 80-90mph and above.”

Very true. Cars have improved enormously in the last 40 years. Sadly, drivers haven’t.

Vision, reflexes, ability to concentrate for long periods of time, etc. are exactly the same as 40 years ago, and 40 years before that. And remember it isn’t only YOUR reflexes that matter.

Traffic has increased enormously, and (anecdotally) distractions, frustration, aggressiveness and impatience have all increased.

I’ve driven high powered BMWs and Volvos on unrestricted German roads at speeds up to 140mph. Believe me, it’s absolutely terrifying and I don’t think any sane person would argue that it’s safe. Oh, and you wouldn’t believe what it does to your fuel consumption.

Cars might have got safer and more capable, but humans haven’t. The law is now 70 and most people think 80-90 is acceptable. Make it 80 and people will be justifying 100 mph.

Higher speeds are bad for road safety, its bad for those that those that don’t want to drive at high speeds being ‘bullied along’ by speed freaks, its bad for the environment and it raises stress in the driver.

70 mph is the MAXIMUM speed in perfect conditions, that means daylight, dry, low levels of traffic, adequate stopping distances and a car in perfect condition, correctly maintained with properly inflated tyres.

Yet when its heavy rain, poor visibility, night time etc people still drive like too fast, too close and wrongly anticipate what others are going to do.

Very few drivers lift their vision to look far enough ahead to properly ‘read the road’ and make good decisions to keep things flowing smoothly. This is why we get sudden tailbacks, because a bad driver has read the road wrong, suddenly had to break hard and caused a knock on affect. This doesn’t happen in places where the speed limit is lower. Actually lowering the speed limit to 60 mph creates a smoother, more consistent drive and a lot less stressful journey.

What happens on the M25 with variable and mostly lower speed limits from 40 mph, to create this smoothing effect should be used more often country wide.

Keep 70 the maximum and enforce it better.

I think the time has come to actually lower the speed limit to 60, both to reduce the environmental impact and also to keep a better flow of traffic. But I also feel it’s right to increase the minimum speed from 40 to 50.

However, I also believe in stricter enforcement of traffic regulations, and stopping people cruising in the middle and outside lanes would help the general flow, and also improve road safety.

While our cars have become more capable at speed since the 70mph limit was introduced, our roads have become much more congested and we have become more concerned about the environment. I think these factors have about cancelled each other out and 70mph still seems about right. Our roads are amongst the safest in the world, and certainly much safer than German or French roads. Perhaps the 70mph limit has something to do with this. I would be very surprised if increasing the limit did not increase fatalities, and there is no doubt at all that it would increase CO2 emissions. Currently all cars can cruise at 70mph, so speed differentials are minimal but would definitely increase if the limit were to rise substantially. It’s not the 70mph limit that is to blame for excessive and unpredictable journey times – it’s the congestion. Tackle that.

Although the 70 mph speed limit was introduced when most cars would barely get above this speed, there were also many fewer cars on the roads. On two lane motorways there would be too high a speed difference between the lanes for safety if the upper speed was increased.
If there was a Minimum as well as a Maximum speed limit on each lane this would perhaps reduce the speed difference and have the benefit of geting the “middle lane regardless of speed” drivers over to the appropriate lane.
Does 50 to 70 for the nearside lane, 60 to 80 for the second lane and 80 to 100 only if there is a third lane, sound appropriate?