Safe Speed Forums

just to clarify, the "straight roads" question was inspired by the 250mph suggestion but wasn't intended to be a suggestion that 4 miles of straight road would be required to do that kind of speed.

What inspired the question was a conversation with my dad, who used to drive across Australia (or the east coast anyway) and said that there were times he could have tied the steering wheel straight and had a little nap! I know there is a road in Australia that runs out of Perth towards the east that has to curve as it's so long, so that it fits the curvature of the earth.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Probably about 110 bananas in the Cougar and 85-90 apples in the Rover.


Typically I'll start off around 70 in the Cougar (the wife drives the Rover mostly) and get bored after 10-15 miles and creep up to 85 chocolate oranges. Starts burning the juice a bit quickly after that, plus I want to be able to brake for the storm troopers firing their laser cannons at me.



I wonder who'll be first to build a stealth car

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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

Entirely unprovable hearsay, but ... I heard once that Alfa Romeo 147's were way under average (for the number on the roads) for speeding tickets. The reason suggested was that apart from the numberplate, there was not a single flat reflective surface on the front or rear of the car.

Another reason suggested was that they spent so much time on the hard shoulder and recovery trucks that they couldn't get up to speeding ticket levels very often.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Personally, I always drive as fast as is safely possible. On a motorway, (to pinch from Jamie) maybe 90 bananas on my Pan and in my car and 140 apples on my blackbird.

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Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

If it was clear and I didnt have a deadline then probably an indicated 75-80mph. No stress at all then from any enforcement and a nice relaxing drive. I dont seem to expierance this feeling of not being altert at slower speeds - and thats in all cars I've driven.

(All indicated speeds)

In the van: 85

In the van and busy: 90

In the Clio: 89 (cruise controlled)

In the Clio (special occasions) ~ 93 (CC'd)



Once again I find myself agreeing entirely with you. I wouldn't change a bit if the limit went up - I'd just be less scared of getting done. 90 to me seems a natural upper limit.



Was that an intentional pun? i.e. a handy power reserve, or handy's power reserve?

about 96-98 is about comfortable when there is little traffic about. At night (00:00-02:30 ) with a decent fast car 110-120 seems safe.

I have driven for 130 miles at 160 mile/h without problem. Having been awake for most of 36 hours the concentration was optimum. This was in Germany where lane 1 drivers are far more disciplined - they use their mirrors and signals.

I got an indicated 125 mph out of my Volvo 480 turbo on the M40 once. Bit scary...it's only a hairdresser's car, after all I like to sit around 80 - 90 as a rule, given reasonable conditions. I'm also quite happy around 65. It all depends.

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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the kerb.

On an empty motorway, in good weather I like to drive around 80 (or 75 according to my gps)

I occasionally drive faster but this really hits fuel economy especially on a long journey. Sometimes driving at 60 in L1 can be very relaxing too.

But sorry, I didn't answer the Q.

I think a safe speed on an Mway is dependent on the conditions - a bit like how long is a piece of string. The speed could be incredibly high or very low.

In practical terms, I think a limit of 80mph would be about right and 70 in wet conditions. This would permit prosecutions to occur at 90 and 79 respectively. The average motorist would need to have an indicated speed on an analogue speedo of over 95 before a prosecution would result assuming their speedo over estimates.

good idea except for the wombats, kangaroos, camels, cattle, sheep, emus etc, etc.

As for the original question, I find around 85mph to be a nice cruising speed (obviously only done in countries where it's within legal tolerances )

In the vectra (repmobile), anything remotely resembling 70 apples doesn't feel very nice. 80 apples + is comfortable.

On the bike, the suspension doesn't really start working until 100 oranges plus

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"Are you sh**ing me?"
"John Spartan, you are fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute."

if im in my rav4 75mph ish to 85
but if im in mrs goldys 3.30csi bmw then average 95mph i try and stay of the ton

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Audere Est Facere.....To Dare Is To Do

In my Clio I normally do 80mph, but this creeps up to 85 if I'm stressed .

My mum doesn't often look at the speedo on her car, and she often creeps up to 90mph without realising it, because it still feels safe. We're talking about a nervous wreck of a driver here too!

When I was younger it was 90-95 kumquats. Now, 10 or so years on I have a much more powerful car (2 litre Alfa vs. the 1.4 diesel Citroen I did my early motorway driving in), but I'm quite happy at 80kqs. Sometimes I'll press on to 90-95 for a bit if the road is clear but I'm back down to 80 soon enough. Just feels comfortable, good progress is made and I'm not bored to distraction.

To be honest though I don't really pay the speedo any attention when I'm on the motorway (although I do have a good idea of my speed). I think it's more about relative speed and the feel of the drive that matters.

I drove out to Stuttgart a couple of weekends ago and it was odd to find that 110mph on the derestricted autobahn was as relaxing and engaging as 80kqs on British roads, once I'd built up to the speed gradually. Has a lot to do with volume of traffic and other drivers' behaviour I think.