80 Miles Per Hour on British motorways?

[highlandsflyer]

There are parts of the motorways where many of us sit at 100 odds, will sticking the limit up to 80 mean that becomes 110?

I think it might.

That is actually beyond the safe limit for most cars on some of these roads. (Driving through the lakes for example.)

Upping the limit to 80 could not be done on a blanket basis.

Thus it would be a logistical nightmare to signpost and enforce across a huge network. All for 10 mph?

I would rather they left it at 70, continuing non-enforcement where it is 'safe' to exceed it.

 

[RobMac]

There are parts of the motorways where many of us sit at 100 odds,

I would rather they left it at 70, continuing non-enforcement where it is 'safe' to exceed it.

You (sit) at 100 odds?????

Where's this 'safe' non-enforcement area about?????



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[Grannygrinder]

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M4 is like that in morning rush hour.
The fast/outside lane is like a 100mph train anything less and you get undertaken, bumper to bumper 20 metres max apart. Little wonder then that there are so many accidents :?
I don't think the danger is in the speed as such, but in the fact that the stopping distances increase hugely and people still drive on top of each other.
Maybe the police would be better off clamping down on tailgaters rather than speeders?

 

[petitpal]

I'd agree with grannygrinder, tbh. The speed itself isn't the problem it's the fecking idiots who drive half the cars these days. I actually, geuinely, saw the old favourite of a BMW flashing his headlights on the motorway the other day after whacking (at 100+) to within about a foot of someone who was already in the fastlane. Not only does this make the driver an arrogant prick but also, potentially, a murder - if they had misjudged it a tiny bit we would have had a nice fifty car pile up. You also find people doing 40 in the middle lane. And lorry drivers who think it's fun to swipe out when you're a foot away because they could see the fast lane was clear and assumed you'd swing out in to it at a moments notice. I have a mate who used to be a truckie and he said one 'fun' game he used to play was moving as close as possible to caravans when overtaking to watch them 'snake' down the road. And it's not just motorways either - normal town and estate roads seem to be full of egotistical, angry, agressive drivers who feel that the only important person on the road is them and whoever they're texting at that moment. Cars are very big, very heavy and very dangeours and less and less people seem to take that fact seriously anymore. A woman in our office was hit by someone reversing off a drive the other day while she was driving down the road. On the one hand the person reversing should have been looking, on the other the person I work with should have been looking while she was driving an trying to anticipate things that might happen and actually paying attention to the road.

For me - 80 on the motorways is fine and I'd support it. I don't see why it would be difficult to sign either; mainly because we don't sign motorways and if you see a 'national speed limit' applies sign anywhere (road works, end of variable speed limit) it means just that - national speed limit, not 70 (it's just that 70 happens to be the national speed limit for a single car on a motorway).

Last time we went to France the autoroutes were signed with new speed limits of 80 in the dry and 70 in the wet and that system worked fine. We don't even need to sign here.

Personally I'd agree with an 80 top limit here and better enforcment of, and harsher penalties for, dangerous driving - be that excess speed, tailgating, cutting people up, etc, etc.

 

[Dr S]

If people moved back over after overtaking a slower car, as per the highway code, then there would be no tailgating. It really annoys me to see cars just driving along in the middle and outside lanes. Countless times I've had to go across three lanes to pass, or flashed a car out of the way only for them to move back across into 'the fast lane' for no reason.

It's these idiots and their poor driving standards that cause accidents not speed in most cases. Speed is blamed though as justification for the vast revenues that speeding generates. As with most things, a little care and common sense goes a long way.

I don't think increasing the limit to 80 will make people drive even faster. Most people drive at a comfortable limit, and won't feel the need to go any faster than they already do.

 

[Drencrom]

Re: .

Maybe the police would be better off clamping down on tailgaters rather than speeders?

+1

 

[petitpal]

If people moved back over after overtaking a slower car, as per the highway code, then there would be no tailgating. It really annoys me to see cars just driving along in the middle and outside lanes. Countless times I've had to go across three lanes to pass, or flashed a car out of the way only for them to move back across into 'the fast lane' for no reason.

It's these idiots and their poor driving standards that cause accidents not speed in most cases. Speed is blamed though as justification for the vast revenues that speeding generates. As with most things, a little care and common sense goes a long way.

I don't think increasing the limit to 80 will make people drive even faster. Most people drive at a comfortable limit, and won't feel the need to go any faster than they already do.

Spot on.

 

[Neil]

If people moved back over after overtaking a slower car, as per the highway code, then there would be no tailgating.

I disagree with that - it's naive. I get the problem with MLOC and people not moving over to the left-most lane...

But all the same, you can get idiotic tailgaters on single carriageways, or multi-lane roads where there is nowhere for the car in front to go.

True enough, there is a problem with many stupid drivers bimbling along, mile after mile, in the middle lane(s) on motorways, or right hand land on 2 lane dual-carriageways. But many years and many thousands of miles has shown me that those that tailgate, will always find somebody to tailgate.

It's best when 2 of them converge at the same time / place - then you can observe something of a tailgating war between them. Shame, really, that there's other people on the road in the way...

It really annoys me to see cars just driving along in the middle and outside lanes. Countless times I've had to go across three lanes to pass, or flashed a car out of the way only for them to move back across into 'the fast lane' for no reason.

It's these idiots and their poor driving standards that cause accidents not speed in most cases.

I'd agree with them being useless drivers with poor standards, but rarely do these numpties seem to cause accidents. Accidents I see tend to be because of poor observation and planning, not allowing and providing sufficient braking and manoeuvring space.

The cautious MLOC may be a huge inconvenience, but I'm far from convinced that they're actually unsafe.

Speed is blamed though as justification for the vast revenues that speeding generates. As with most things, a little care and common sense goes a long way.

Speed is blamed, because it's an easy-to-market pariah that can easily be trapped and dealt with.

That's the problem with running services like businesses - they start to act like businesses. Once their performance and proof in stats became KPIs, then can we really blame them for marketing an ill, creating infrastructure to capture it, and assaulting judicial rights in it's pursuit?

 

[orange71]

The cautious MLOC may be a huge inconvenience, but I'm far from convinced that they're actually unsafe.

well it isn't they who are unsafe per se but by being where they are creates an unsafe situation especially with aggressive drivers around.

 

[rosstheboss]

Excess speed blah blah blah - put a speed camera in, people slow down and speed up again, like wise when everyone flashes when there's a mobile unit around

Dare I say it but the country needs a more visible police presence on the roads who will come down like a ton of bricks on bellends who tailgate, swerve in and out of lanes, on the phone etc - anti social driving if you will

I drive all over the place for work and can safely say the 80mph won't make a jot of difference. What would make a difference is if the Highway Code was modernised, stopping distances based on a Ford Anglia anyone? Or if you're in London what's the deal with the Cycle Superhighway? Very few people actually know these things!! People need educating about there actions in a way that is applicable to modern life, otherwise they just ignore it