Should the motorway speed limit be raised to 80/85/90 mph?

Question

Travel on any motorway nowadays and MOST drivers are doing 80-90mph safely.All these are breaking the law because of an archaic speed limit set in the 60's,when the max speed of say a Ford Anglia was 90mph and it took ages to stop safely.Modern cars are safer and can stop in half the distance of a Ford Anglia.Surely it is time to raise the speed limit...40 years is a long time...I don't condone over-fast driving when it's wet or foggy only sensibly fast on a dry safe day.The pollitically correct brigade will surely go against the idea so will the cash-grabbing "safety" cameras brigade.

Answer 1

Definitely should be raised. probably 90MPH is best, you can drive modern cars perfectly safely on a motorway today at that speed. I also think a minimum speed should be introduced as most motorway accidents tend to be caused by people driving too slowly, not the other way around. If all traffic is flowing normally at 80MPH except for one person that is doing 50MPH, then you have an equivocal situation of everybody doing 30MPH and somebody has built a brick wall in the middle of the road. A minimum of say 60MPH when the road is clear. Vehicles that cannot do that speed along the straight or minor inclines should not even be on the motorways and on steep inclines you have a crawler lane for them to drive in.

Answer 2

According to the Department for Transport, every year 97% of people break the motorway speed limit at some point, so this will just legalise something that happens anyway. We can only start to worry about the problem of drivers speeding once we have made sure that all the speed limits are reasonable. Dragging the motorway speed limit into the 21st century is a good place to start.

Answer 3

Actually the speed limits are set where they are for fuel economy reasons. Most highways are designed to be safe for speeds of 80 and 85 mph or something like that. It's not so much the cars themselves, although you are right in that todays cars are much more capable and safe then cars of even 10 or 15 years ago.
The real aim was to reduce the consumption of fuel. As you go faster and faster the amount of power it takes rises exponentialy. The main culprit is wind resistance. So it takes say 40 HP to go 55 mph and 80 hp to go 65mph. ( these aren't exact or anything but were meant to illustrate a point ) So there is a real scientifc fact behind the lower speed limits.
Whether you feel the government should be able to force us to conserve fuel is another arguement altogether. The whole "speed kills" campaign is simply a scare tactic to get you to comply.

Answer 4

Raise it to 90 and they will drive 100. Problem is you have the streets, signage and automobiles are designed to maintain control for the current speeds. Raise the speeds and you have to redesign. Also you need to look at fuel conservation. That extra 10 miles an hour will make a major difference in the fuel your automobile will use. Now look at the time you save, marginal, very very marginal. Today's automobiles are set up for best fuel economy at a highway speed of 70-75 mph. Here in Germany there has been a push for years to set a speed limit of 120-130 Kmh (75-80 Mph) due to safety, wear and tear and most of all, fuel economy and the environment.

Answer 5

I can see your point and i must agree with you, however if the speed was raised to say 90mph you would then get people going even faster, with the defence " i was only 10mph over the limit whats the problem ?" I think the continent have it right was driving in France/Spain during the summer, they had signs 135km in sunny weather 100km when wet it might work but not convinced.

Answer 6

90mph - this would stop bunching of traffic on motorways. Drivers would need to be a lot more speed aware when changing lanes however. Speed isn't really the problem overall - it's aggressive bad mannered driving that is!

Answer 7

I agree. modern cars can brake quicker and are built to the highest safety standards, which needless to say have come along way in the 40 years since the national speed limit was introduced. maybe it is time to raise the limit at least 10 mph!

Answer 8

80

Answer 9

yes higher speed limits would be acceptable given the correct road conditions like a quiet stretch of dry road. but on the other side the mandatory speed limit in bad weather or poor visibility should be reduced.

Answer 10

yes i think they should raise it, i think it would cause fewer accidents because people wouldnt go up peoples arses to get them out the way, and maybe less people wouldnt undertake, which is also very unsafe, i think it should be 90, but maybe down to 80 in poor weather conditions? not sure how it would work thoughlike that, oh ok just 90 then!