To think cars should legally have speed limited to 70mph?

[clairemcnam]

The upper speed limit in the UK is 70mph. So why does the Government not just pass a law saying that all cars should have a speed limited so that is the fastest it can go? Sure I know some people would disable it, but in general it would stop most people going faster than 70mph.

Lorries overtaking lorries with slightly different limiters are great for traffic flow obviously, especially on 2 land roads. YABU.

Oh and if you stick cruise control on at 70mph it's likely you're doing about 64mph..

Impressed with the number of people saying "YABU because I want to go faster than 70 and anyway everyone goes faster than 70." At least it's honest...

Only lorries have limiters.

53rdway Yes very honest.
70mph is the speed limit, no one should be going faster than that.
And I find that people who ignore laws always justify what they do by saying - well everyone does it. I have heard people who take illegal drugs, who cheat on benefits, who cheat on tax returns, all say this. The reality is not everyone does it.

70mph is the speed limit, no one should be going faster than that.

Good for you. Just bear in mind that you may think you are doing 70 but your speedo can read up to 10% more. So 70 can easily only be 64, making you an even bigger liability.

I have a minibus, and it's limited to 70 (in reality it's about 67).
Motorway driving is a nightmare. If I want to overtake a lorry, I need to make sure I'm not going to hold up a load of other traffic. I often can't get up to speed to get into the middle lane. And, there's always an arsehole who pootles along at 60 until I pull out to pass them, at which point they speed up to 70. I pull back in, and they slow down to 60. Again and again and again. Almost every time they are elderly men.
Sometimes, you just need an extra wee bit of speed to get out of the way of arseholes.

There’s a NSL (60mph) dual carriageway bypass here which was built to ease congestion on a 30mph local road. Beautifully straight road with clear sight lines, great drainage and lovely grippy tarmac. Majority of local —twats— drivers drive it at 40mph and then complain about being legally and safely overtaken. Why are they on it if they don’t want to drive at the appropriate speed? They should stick to the original road (although they tend to do 40 there as well, and in the 20 zones near schools....).

I regularly upload dashcam footage of them to the police. They’re a bloody hazard.

Bet your lovely police love you!

Local police even!

They’ve had me attend court twice to give evidence. One had their licence revoked and the other got 6 points for dangerous driving (they were weaving/texting/not indicating/not maintaining speed etc).

It’s a national website that you upload to.

I'm with you, OP. Lots of company cars and vans are limited to 70 with no ill effects. I think we would have calmer roads, and I suspect we would all get where we're going just as soon.

That YOU upload to, i’ve got better things to do with my time than report slow drivers.

There you go then. I obviously have extra time because I don’t waste my life sitting behind them.

Of course there is other driving behaviour that is dangerous. But speeding is also dangerous. And you should stick to the speed limit.

Speed isn’t dangerous.

Inappropriate speed is dangerous.

And going above 70 on a motorway isn’t automatically inappropriate.

It’s basic physics.

And it’s high time the speed limits were reassessed. 70 is ridiculously low.

The speed limit is 82mph in France and unlimited in parts of Germany! My car is limited to 110mph it's pretty shaky at 101mph so we slowed down , 85 it's perfect - legally in Germany!

OP, I'm curious. Are you a driver?

Oh sorry, ignore me op, I see that you are (must get new glasses or a new brain).

What a stupid idea.

70 on a motorway is an archaic limit long overdue review.

Why?

It can be a contributory cause of accidents but it isn't the only one and I suspect driving at over 70 isn't a huge cause of accidents - distraction with the increasing use of mobile devices, increased drink driving/drug driving, and poor standards of driving are a bigger issue.

Nobody, including the police, wants everyone going at 70mph on a motorway. Its incredibly dangerous when people pull out into the overtaking lanes at 70mph and stay there. It should be 80/85 with mofern cars and roads and then, yes could limit it. Not many people go much faster than 85/90 though so Im not sure it necessary.

There's really 2 arguments hiding in here ...

1. Should the speed limit on motorways remain at 70 ?
2. Is there case for limiting cars to whatever the maximum speed limit is ?

I've never been a fan of the "what if you need to speed up ?" school of accident avoidance - and since seeing some heartbreakingly cretinous behaviour on a speed awareness course, I would say my cars limiter is the most used gadget ... my only grumble being I really can't see the logic in it starting in the "off" position when the ignition is turned off.

I am the one going at 70 at 2am on a motorway. So not true that nobody does that speed.

Doubtless in the middle lane with your brain switched off.

I am old enough to recall when Ernest Marples introduced these entirely arbitrary speed limits. When I passed my test that black diagonal on a white background was called - end of speed limit or the deregulation sign.

Do you know why 70mph was chosen?

Because virtually no new 'affordable family' cars could cruise fully laden at that speed. Most small cars struggled to even reach 60mph, and if they did they were lethal! So at the time a limit of 70mph only actually had any effect on 'supercars'.

Why does the limit vary from 100 to 140 kph around the EU?

No reason - it's all arbitrary.