In what circumstances should a minimum speed limit be introduced and why?

Answer 1

THERE is no reason to have a MINIMUN speed limit as excess speed kills.

Answer 2

Perhaps for revenue purposes.
Speed Camera's could be converted to Minimum speed camera's, especially at rush hour, so everyone stuck in a commuter queues gets flashed.
Seriously, even if the outer lane of a motorway was given a minimum speed limit, conditions would dictate if it was possible or not to comply.
As for cars creating queues on single carriageways, does it not give recomendations in the Highway Code when to pull in and let faster traffic past?
Perhaps every home should have a Highway Code posted through their door.
Politeness never hurt anyone!

Answer 3

Interesting but why not look at flexible limits??????
20 past schools etc during letting in and out times etc????
People will always break them !!!
Should concentrate on making licenses harder to keep THEN and ONLY then will people wake up to the fact holding a license is a privilge and NOT a right !!!
Tired of people who repeatedly speed going to court and getting a day to re-train and then doing it again new drivers act should be across the board !!!
Also if people speed their insurance should become invalid if it becomes apparent it caused death or injury...
They are too soft on older motorists who can't drive and too harsh on the new better qualified new drivers HOW MANY people do you know who state they couldn't pass now???SO why should they drive........
Speed limits are the last thing the AA should be looking at Getting serious about driving standards and enforcing the law properly will increase road safety far more than stopping people passing or holding their license when they young

Answer 4

I use the A82 between Inverness and Fort William regularly and it is a nightmare getting stuck behind tourists crawling along at 35-40 mph. This is a road which can comfortably be driven between 55 to 60 mph in most places. This creates frustration which in turn encourages people to overtake in desperation and is the cause of hundreds of accidents and fatalities every year. There is no alternative route as there are lochs on one side and mountains on the other. It is not physically possible to widen the road but there are plenty of parking or pull-in places but the tourists just cruise by and don't seem to use their rear view mirrors (or they just don't care) which makes regular users of the road even more frustrated. I, myself, have been stuck in a queue sometimes of more than 20 cars (no exaggeration) and it is impossible to get past and don't even get me started on the subject of caravans and campervans!!!
In my opinion, here is a very good case for a minimum speed limit but difficult to enforce.

Answer 5

Depending on road conditions eg wet weather etc a minimum speed limit should be applied to most A class roads and certainly motorways. I'd say 50 mph on motorways and 40mph on unrestricted A class roads.

People crawling along are nearly as dangerous as speed freaks. Impatience being stuck behind a driver going at 30mph on a 60mph road can lead to accidents. Likewise tractors using town bypasses that were meant to speed the flow of traffic up but have farmers using them to go field to field at 20mph. For these I'd limit the time they could use these roads, eg before 8am and after 6pm.

Answer 6

Severity of accidents depends greatly on the differential of speed between vehicles. Consider the extreme case of striking a parked car while traveling at the limit.

I could see a good case for a minimum speed limit on any road where the speed is over, say 35mph and following the interstate practice of being 20mph below the maximum limit.

Answer 7

I suppose I'll say what most people would be thinking m-ways
and dualcarrige ways during rush hour!.
I can understand why we have a 30 mph in residential areas and yes I agree that speed kills but as noted by one of the leading moterist magazines, and TV shows speed is only one of the elements in which accidents take place. I believe that so meny other facters are over looked like driving error,
Drugs Illiagel and Proscribed, Alcohol and a lack of driving abillity as i believe the word skill would be a lose word that would mean that the likes of boy races swerving between cars could be described by them selves.
so this would be my conclsion
I beleive that speed would be kept more constant and concise if we was to set up better training feciltys for driving.
by doing some of the following.
> I would make it so driving schools have a peice of land by that i mean a safe open space of tarmac that can be used for training in the following ways.
>to show the effects of driving on snow by using artifical snow
the answer for this is those that drive in summer have not had the experince.
>to show the effects of driving in fog this exercise would require them to drive the car whilst wearing glassas that would simulate such weather.
> the effects of aquaplaining by driving cars on extreemly wet roads.
to be fair the list could go on and on. I recently heard on the radio that they are on about introducing a system were you need to complete a minimum amount of hours. but since cars dont have a clock showing amount of engine running hours acumilated this could be difficault to prove.
this in my books would be of no benifit to anyone and yet put moterists backs up even more because they would see it as another money scam by the goverment.
I hounestly believe that the effects of a training school as out lined above would make all the difference you could use these exercises to put ristrictions on peoples licences. this system of giving rateings for driving in bad weather driving at night wouldn't be those much different than those used by pilots, you see the CAA Cival Aviation Athauritys have used this system for decades.I believe with all this training in place minimum speed limits need nether be introduced!.

Answer 8

For a start it would have to facilitate the slowest type of vehicles that are permitted to use the particular road. Furthermore even the overtaking lane on motorways can be clogged with traffic doing 50mph in certain circumstances. And what about tractors on ordinary roads? What I would like to see is driving for more than so many metres with a clear motorway lane on the inside of a car being made an offence.

Answer 9

I think they should be introduced when there is no inducement to slow down. Straight roads with no turnoffs, or if their are multiple lanes, much like a mini motorway I guess. Also, on the motorways the different lanes could have different speed limits to encourage people to use them properly rather than all dawdling in the middle lane.

Answer 10

Speed limits, like anything else, just gives another "law" that most people will probably break one way or another. Many highways in FL at some point will have a sign with a 55-60MPH limit, then under it 45 Minimum. Granted, because of traffic, you will approach and dip well under that.

But in roadways such as the Turnpike, you will have 70MPH posted, then 55 being minimum. But I personally find many other things to worry about, than just the minimum. When you have 2+ lanes, having a minimum isn't much of a problem. The slower drivers can keep to the right-most lanes.

I think common courtesy is latting other drivers pass, which are going quicker, much more important, than keeping a minimum speed limit enforced.

I once was stuck on the turnpike behind someone who was doing 55, on a 70. On the right lane a truck, on the left lane someone rude who for 9 miles, kept the same speed as the truck. Behind him, roughly 20-30 cars waiting to pass him...blinked their headlights, honking. The guy was just an absolute jerk. I was the 3rd car behind him so when the frustration built, I took the emergency lane and passed the 2 in front of me, and the rude driver causing this.

Other drivers seeing this, started to do the same...one other guy in a pick up truck maybe 9-10 cars behind got some road rage and actually got in front of the rude driver, slowed down to about 40MPH to allow for the truck on the right to pass, so other peopel could just pass the rude driver.

It does NOT need to get to this point that people must take such actions, because of one persons inconsideration. I think just common sense and plain courtesy are things that should be enforced.

Whenever I watch on TV (specially in Miami), people being shot in the highway for road rage....yes we hear the assailant and what he did, but I always ask myself..."What did the victim do, to call for to occur"...And if you dig deep enough, there is always some motive of plain out rudeness, which called upon the road rage incident.

Just my thought... :-)

Answer 11

should be unlimited, no one pays any attention to the 70mph limit, so do away with limits alltogether..

minimum speed should be 100mph, anyone over the age of 50 should not drive, same goes for cars not capable of 100mph. Should be a lane for 'supercars' only and trucks should be converted to boats and sent to sea.

motorbikes should be melted down into scrap and used to make the signs that say 'speed unlimited'

women can only drive between 4am -5am and teenagers should only use the train.