Absolutely.
Whilst i hate the speed cameras with a passion, i’d be far more tollerable of them if we had 21st century speed limits.
The same one that introduced the 70mph limit in 1965?
Probably less so back then.
53 years and no change in limit is quite mind boggling.
Obviously the nannys have their reasons but still...
The fact we have the slowest motorway speed limit in Europe!
I mean, even the ultra safe Swiss can go faster than us on the motorway.
Cars change, but drivers don't. Perhaps we need to train people to drive sensibly at higher speeds.
Fine with that too.Anything to lift us out the stone age.
My issue is how happy would you be driving at 90 mph, knowing that that dimwit ahead is on their phone, that HGV Driver next to you is half asleep, and your only hope is that my 90 year old Dad right behind you even knows you are there?
All hypotheticals.
If we adopted that mentality we’d still be living in hutsdata:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
There wont be a HGV driver next to me for long if i’m doing 90 eitherdata:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Nor should 90 year olds (driving) be on the motorway. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
I suspect (without any actual evidence to support it) that our motorways are much, much busier, congested, crowded, than in many other states.And that, of course, brings with it an additional level of risk.
A good many years ago - when traffic levels were nothing like what they are now - for about six months I did a commute that was about 65 miles.Here is a description of that journey
- step out of the house and into the car
- drive about 9 miles/15 minutes out of the village and then on very ordinary country roads, with corners, junctions and the like, to the motorway junction.
- drive about 43 miles on the motorway - at an indicated/- 80mph max (which equates to a real average of maybe 70) so about 35 minutes.
- and then a further 6 miles/15 minutes on a bit of dual carriageway, plus some city streets, with junctions,traffic lights and other similar obstructions, but little traffic (at my time of morning)
- park and then walk 15 minutes to the office.
End to end journey time - about 80 minutes.
And, as you do, I pondered as I was driving, the effect of going more quickly.
Let's suppose that realisitically one could not, even in the worlds best supercar and with no restriction or other impediment, achieve much time saving on either the first or last driving segments because of the nature of the roads - nor in the walking.And let's suppose that I had a supercar and could legitimately drive the motorway element TWICE as quickly.
I could do my 43 miles in 18, rather than 35, minutes.Overally, my 80 minutes would reduce to 63 minutes.Even with a 140mph supercar, no other traffic and no legals, it's still going to take me 63 minutes to get to work.Obviously - a lesser speed differential alongside any constraint such as other traffic and/or obstruction and/or corner etc... only serves to reduce the saving.And my conclusion, therefore, is that a huge increase in maximum speed would have achieved little on end-to-end journey time.
In truth - traffic levels have increased to such a degree, one could quite simply not - with the best car and driver - shave anything like this off that trip nowadays.I'd guess at a tiny number of minutes at best.
Faster speed limits show their worth on long journeys such as Austria to Luxembourg, circa 418miles. I did that in less than 4 hours (checked out of the hotel a little after 8am, drove outta town and onto the motorway, in Luxembourg city centre for pizza at 12 noon) and that included some roadworks with a 30mph limit.