Safe Speed Forums

Daily Telegraph

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

So why didn't the DfT publish the results of this study that we the public have paid for? Is it flawed and therefore just a waste of taxpayers money, or does it contradict some other flawed policy?

Sorry, but just noticed the quote



How can they be this sure? Since on a vast majority of motorways the increased limit would have almost zero affect, ie the M25, you could raise the limit to 260mph, and we would still all be sitting in a jam doing 5mph if we were lucky.

Surely a car sitting at idle is highly inefficient (modern cars can't even tick over without the electronic wizardry) whereas 80mph is relatively efficient.

Something tells me a lot of figures have been plucked out of the air for said report.

I suspect the current heatwave is causing huge amounts of extra emissions, as we all flick on the air con, or throw the 'rag' top down.

According to my trip computer, travelling at a speed in the vicinity of 80 but which obviously isn't 80 and that's the story I'm sticking to occifer, burns fuel 9 times faster than when sitting at idle...

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Chris

dear oh dear oh me how misguided.

Raising the limit to 80 will cost the treasury millions. Think of all the petrol tax lost if cars run efficiently. Think of all the speed camera revenue lost if speed limits are sensible and based in reality. Can good old Gordon possibly go for that when his economics sail so close to the wind? No of course not.

Now stop trying to apply intelligence to the speed debate. Move along nothing to see here.

Since most cars on clear sections of motorways are already doing 80 or nearabouts, (some well over !!), and we know this from the latest traffioc speeds survey of the DfT, then the extra emissions are already being generated. So what will be the Government's next move - drop the limit to 50 or raise it to reflect reality.

Remember all the trucks are on 56 mph limiters. Maybe we should restrict trucks on busy sections to Lane 1 only. This is already done in some countries of Europe, and indeed, all trucks are banned from the roads at weekends and national holidays.

Wouldn't the truck drivers on this forum prefer their weekends free ??

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Good manners maketh a good motorist

If we did that, wouldn't we be squeezing the same number of journeys into five working days, thus making the roads quite a bit busier during the week?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

The limiters are not all the same, so that's going to pee off the lorry drivers that can go a bit faster, and I've been in a coach limited to 100km/h which was doing about 120km/h down a hill (according to gps)...

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Mike

You can read the full report here:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/d ... 611725.pdf

I like this quote from it:
"The relationship between speed and accidents is very complex and not fully understood"

Funny how the government's "understanding" has developed since then...

...but covering a few more miles, I'd venture?

Well indeed, sitting idle may well use less fuel per minute than doing 80 mph, but you're getting 0 MPG so that's not really something to be proud of

I have conducted my own (less than scientific I admit) experiment. My commute covers 65 miles and covers most of the A31 to Winchester, the M3, M27 and back onto the A31 at Ringwood.

Armed with only a stopwatch yesterday I aimed to maintain an indicated 80mph on all dual carriageways and motorways. On all roads with a limit of less than 70 I observed the limit.

Today I observed every speed limit including the 70mph, and guess what? My travelling times were both identical 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Once again I contest that no real evidence went into this report.

Mind you since my journey does take me into car hating, revenue raising Dorset I have to observe the ludicrously low 50mph limit on the A31 now! I wonder if since I never saw an accident when it was 70, and since it has been 50 I have seen 3 (obvious tailgating incidents) whether the council will rethink, answers on a post card please

PS I apologise to any pedestrians/cyclists who may have spontaneously combusted etc. as I exceeded the speed limit on a pedestrian/cyclist free motorway. I shall be having stern words with myself for maintaining a minimum 2 second gap at all times I can tell you!

Not to forget about the tank which fell off of it's transporter around the large roundabout on the A31 in the new pointless 50 limit.
I really have not felt any need to stick to that limit.
Trouble I see is people might think it's safe to do 50 around the roundabouts...

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Andrew.

Talking of that tank, I never got to see how they resolved it, when I went home there were a lot of Traffic Cops scratching their heads and looking bemused.

Since it had fallen into the subway, how on earth do you recover a 60 ton vehicle?

And on the subject of the 50mph, have you noticed that it is deliberatley extended onto areas that do not need it. One other point, due to crap signage, if one heads from Ferndown and turns left at that roundabout there is no limit change from 40 to 50, so the limit of 40 applies. However, come in from the other way, and turn right, you are still in a 50. So the speed limit depends on which direction you came from for the first 1/2 mile on the next stretch before it is NSL again. And Dorset wonders why they have so many accidents?