Motorways are not suitable to cope with raising the speed limit according to the Road Safety Foundation (RSF).
The charity believes England’s motorways do not provide enough protection to drivers for an increase to the current limit. It found that half of the networks barriers are inadequate to cope with the increased speed and that neglect in the maintenance has exacerbated the issue along with trees being planted too closely to many motorways.
Later this year the Government is set to launch a consultation on the economic, environmental and safety implications of raising the limit, after the transport secretary Philip Hammond put the proposal forward last year. It is expected that if the limits where changed it would only be so on stretches which are suitable.
When the plans were announced in 2011 many motorists pointed out that the current limit on 70mph is consistently flouted and in actual fact the speed on most motorways is already 80mph. The RSF said it recognised the argument that respect for the 70mph limit was poor and it did not dismiss proposals to raise the limit. But the report concluded: “Drivers who want to are already travelling at 80mph when they can. Economic benefits only arise if ’80 means 90′ and opinion surveys show no public support for that. However, large economic benefits arise from fixing the motorways systematically rather than raising the speed limit.”
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One Comment
I rountinely drive across europe – where most contries have higher speed limits – and less safe roads
and have over 40 years driving experience and driven well over 500,000 miles and have NEVER been involved in a motorway accident.
People soon adjust and provided that they respect braking distances it is perfectly
safe. The problem in the UK is that the motorway is occupied by three problems that
are avoided in most of europe :
1. Loriies overtaking with only small speed diferential – so they effectively block
two lanes
2. A large number of older cars with inaccurate speedos and poor brakes who do not
realise that their indicated 70mph may actually be only 60mph and is blocking other
traffic, also many will insist on using lanes that are traveling at higher speeds
3. Most modern cars can safely cruise at 80-90 mph quite safely provided that
people leave adequate space, signal earlier and change lanes in such a way that
does not reduce people’s safe stopping distance
4. Rather than penalising competent drivers for speed, there should be education to
teach people how to drive at high speed as a part of their driving tests (this
happens in most other countries) and for them to understand how to avoid accidents
at speed.
Nearly all accidents are cause by either driving too close or by lane changing
without adequate warning – these can both be fixed by re-education
Perhaps people who want to use motorways should have to pass the advanced motoring
test (with the normal test only covering non-motorway driving)
It is about time that people pushing for lower speeds should actually spend their time learning to evolve and how to be safe at speed especially as the UK has the best and safest motorways in the world