Motorway Speed Limits Out Of Date?

Conor_3

Iamthesmartestmanalive wrote: »

Lorry's should be banned from outside lanes

They are....:rolleyes:

Iamthesmartestmanalive wrote: »

As said they also need to be far stricter on tail gaters and people who drive far too slow and cause tailbacks

And if car drivers used proper lane discipline on the motorways, it'd be the equivalent of building an additional 800 miles.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Speed limits on motorways are widely ignored. Of course it's safe to raise them, but lets not have a universal limit. There are sections of motorway that are wholly inappropriate for speeds higher than 70mph, the bottom of the M61, a good chunk of the M60 through Stockport and Stretford and the Eccles interchange, the M6 as it merges into the M1, the Thelwall Viaduct on the M6 at J19.....

Something is going to change though - the major motorways are at bursting point. A big expansion is in order, theres no way around it.

tomstickland

France is good - legal 130km/h (80ish) in the dry.
Derestricted German Autobahns even better.
I tend to drive at 85 indicated on motorways as a default, sometimes taking advantage if there are opportunities on empty bits.

The current situation seems to work quite well though - legal limit of 70, but generally no bother if you travel at 80-85 indicated. Only thorn in that side is camera vans.
So I'd prefer a legal limit of 80.

With regard to improving efficiency, it's the indecisive middle lane morons who tend to moan the most about lorries. Mainly because when they catch up with a lorry they have to actually engage their brain and pull out round it. Either that, or they follow it for 10 miles travelling 1mph faster than it, lorry catches up with something, indicates and pulls out; the middle lane moron has a fit, even though anyone who was thinking could predict what would happen.

If every car was travelling at 70 dead then having to pull out round lorries in the middle lane would not be a problem

Conor_3

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

Something is going to change though - the major motorways are at bursting point. A big expansion is in order, theres no way around it.

Yeah...LEARN TO USE PROPER LANE DISCIPLINE.

Below is a picture I see regularly. Guess which lane was moving the fastest. Can someone tell me why non of that lot moved over to the empty L1 as you're supposed to do? BTW, that's the M42 where so many people were complaining that it was the lorries holding them up that they introduced an overtaking ban. The picture tells the true story...

spaceman5

Conor wrote: »

Yeah...LEARN TO USE PROPER LANE DISCIPLINE.

Below is a picture I see regularly. Guess which lane was moving the fastest. Can someone tell me why non of that lot moved over to the empty L1 as you're supposed to do? BTW, that's the M42 where so many people were complaining that it was the lorries holding them up that they introduced an overtaking ban. The picture tells the true story...

if this is a quiz question, i would say then you would probably end up undertaking, which in itself is illegal(m42 they where the days travelling from somerset to yorkshire)

andyrules

anewman wrote: »

I've been many a time stuck behind two lorries going up hill in the outside lane of a dual carriageway NSL road. The lorry in he outside lane inching on the lorry on the inside lane by an inch a minute.

On a two lane, yes, and the half hour overtaking is so frustrating and scary when you are sandwiched between the said lorry and bmw tailgating.

Conor_3

spaceman5 wrote:

if this is a quiz question, i would say then you would probably end up undertaking, which in itself is illegal

Err, no it isn't. You may want to go read the Highway Code. Particularly Rule 268 which states:
Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.

andyrules

Conor wrote: »

They are....:rolleyes:

Thanks

spaceman5

Conor wrote: »

Err, no it isn't. You may want to go read the Highway Code. Particularly Rule 268 which states:
Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.

thanks for the highway code lesson :rolleyes: , i did realise that, was only trying to lighten things up a bit, by giving a stupid answer to a stupid question

bert&ernie

robpw2 wrote: »

i thnk speed limits should be dropped to 50mph the faster you go the more chance of losing control ...........

why stop there? We should reduce the speed limit to 3 miles per hour and Ahave a man walk ahead of each vehicle waving a red flag.

Think of the lives this would save!

[/sarcasm mode off]
I can think of many valid reasons for increasing the limit or even derestricting certain sections of motorway, but its just not politically realistic at the moment.

The green and road safety lobbies are far to powerful. Even if it could be clearly demonstrated that an upward revision would have negligible or even positive effects on the environment or safety, its an extremely hard sell.

The best we could get is small raise to say 80, but this would probably be offset by more restricted speed in certain sections of motorway and other types of road. It would, of course, come with a massive increase in automated enforcement - probably at zero tolerance . In fact I would expect to see some sort of sweetener like this when we inevitably move to universal road charging and the pervasive tracking that this would entail.