80mph Motorways

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

Brilliant. Although it would be a fairly minor adjustment, I'll be very pleased if, after the consultation, UK motorway maximum speed is brought in line with the standard 130kph that applies all over continental Europe.

Having done the journey from hell yesterday, a drive that usually takes us 2 hours and instead took us 5 hours I think that rather than an increase to 80 I would like to see more police cars on the motorways enforcing the temporary 40/50/60 limits they put on for congestion.

We got stuck in the hell that is Bristol M4/M5 junction at teatime. If people would just see the 50 sign and slow to 50 maybe we wouldn't all grin to a halt.

We slowed straight away and were promptly passed by about 30 cars that didn't. 10 minutes later and there we all were, sitting still or crawling at 5mph. For the next 3 hours.

Straw Poll:

I go to work on the m/way 3 days a week. I drive at around 80 because

b) comfortable/natural cruising speed.

130kmh is not standard in mainland Europe.

Many countries have 120.

On motorways there are right laners, middle laners, and left laners.
It would all be fine if each lane drove at the same speed. The problem is when right laners overtake and get in front of middle laners, thus causing middle laners to overtake them and get in front of left laners.

And then there are stupid middle laners who always drive at the same or less speed than right laners.

There are Lanes 1, 2 and 3. Everyone should drive in Lane 1 unless they want to overtake....

80mph is not a problem .

The problem is that people do not use the lanes properly and think the middle lane is the 'lets hug it all to myself and not move back over lane'

That was extraordinarily rude, Cogito. Maybe I'll nominate it for "Rude Post of the week". I think on the back of that I shall put you in the category of MNers to ignore at all costs.

'Personally I've found my desire to save money has slowed my driving down more than an antiquated speed limit.'

Me too! I did one overnight drive this summer, and obviously did drive fast as there was no traffic. The fuel usage was HORRIFIC!

Wrt the lane issue, if lorries had their own lane then cars would probably be more likely to be in appropriate lanes.

Another thing I found this summer to reduce fuel consumption, reduce stress and speed up the journey was to delete the M6 section of the journey on the sat nav. Always did that with a smile :)

Im not sure you can blame middle laners on lorries, because if their was a lorry in lane one they wouldnt be called middle laners, they would just be overtaking a lorry, it's the people who drive in the middle when the left is clear. The majority of lorry drivers are very considerate ime, they are experienced drivers, they flash to let other lorries they are clear to pull back in to lane one, so a lot of them do it to cars too, could be habit, could be frustration at people cruising along in lane two oblivious!
Middle laners are the driving equivalent of sitting on the fence, it's utterly dangerous.

I didn't mean it that way Byeckerslike. People are made nervous by the almost continuous lane of lorries on some motorways and don't want to be in it.

Ragged - you didn't answer the question though. Do you drive?

In which case, katherine, they should stick to A and B roads or learn to go faster.

There is no excuse whatsoever for hogging the middle lane at 60 or 70 MPH. It's downright bloody dangerous!

Ok then Piss. I was suggesting reasons, not offering up excuses. But y'know, you don't have to read the actual words, you can just make stuff up :)

If you are nervous of motorway conditions that include lorries you really shouldn't be on them.

There is no 'slow lane'. There are 3 x lanes with the outside lane designated as the overtaking lane.

Raising the speed limit raises other issues. Fuel consumption goes up therefore Govt. revenue/petrol sales rise. Braking distance increases dramatically - at 70mph, braking distance is given at 96m or roughly

Lorries cause tremendous bunch-ups on motorways, chiefly by overtaking each other on long slow hills so that it takes about 5 miles for one lorry to overtake another.

They even do it on the stretches of the M11 where there are trials banning lorries from the middle lane on uphill stretches.

But the truth is that it isn;t any of these drivers who are reponsible for accidents - middle laners, 60mph drivers, slow lorries etc, it is drivers who get frustrated with this and think it is their right and need to drive fast even if all this is going on - the driver who actually makes the manouvre which causes the crash. If the traffic in front is low, it's YOU who is to blame if you try and dodge thorugh or tailgate or pull out and cause someone else to brake , etc.

This is a dumb idea that is designed as a quick 'Cameron is alright' to the Jeremy Clarksons. Raising speed limits to 80mph or more is fine if the road network is all motorway and no junctions, or if it was only outside peak traffic times because all this would mean is that all the junctions that are overloaded now and not letting cars through would just fill up faster with more traffic, and block the traffic flow even more. Think about it like an egg timer, if you keep pouring sand into the egg timer, it doesn't matter how fast you pour the sand in, it won't go through faster, but if you pour sand in faster than its going through, all you will do is make more sand stationery for longer.

Poor analogy Missing* - increasing the speed limit is equivalent to widening the neck in the egg timer, not pouring more sand in.

'If you are nervous of motorway conditions that include lorries you really shouldn't be on them.'

That's not how life works though love.

And what Blu said!

The Department of Transport itself has said "There is convincing evidence from the USA that where some freeway speed limits have been raised and vehicle speeds increased there have been more casualties."
The best estimates I have found ? in a report by the Transport Select Committee in 2002 are that ?Casualties, including deaths and serious injuries, on the motorways might be expected to increase by 5 to 10%?. Based on 2010 Department of Transport figures this equates to, for a 10% increase, 147 additional deaths and serious injuries per year.

You shouldn't be nervous of bad drivers either. Watch out for them, obviously, but don't feel rattled into making a dangerous manoeuvre.

On the US statistics... isn't the speed limit there something like 50mph? And don't they refuse to allow seat-belt laws? Any minor increase in speed is going to result in more deaths if drivers and passengers are rattling around in cars like peas in a bottle.