Should The Motorway Speed Limit Be Raised To 80mph?
At the dawn of the UK’s motorway network, there wasn’t a speed limit at all. That ended in 1965 as 70mph speed limits were introduced, but over 50 years have passed, so is it time for an update?
Improvements in crash safety, brake technology and even road technology since then have been massive, so it’s no surprise that the idea of an increase in speed limit has been raised by both campaigners and members of parliament in recent years. It’s even been discussed in the House of Commons, but proposals have never been given the go-ahead.
Upping the speed limit would mean quicker journey times and this will benefit the economy, not to mention making long trips less frustrating and slipways more entertaining…
Thanks to new ‘smart’ motorways with variable speed limits it’d be easy to introduce 80mph limits in test areas, or even roll out a higher speed limit on all newer sections of motorway, leaving older, less safe parts at 70mph.
On the other hand, bumping up the speed limit could still lead to an increase in accidents, even if the 315 foot 70-0mph braking distance given by the Highway Code is rather generous (with most modern cars, you’re looking at around half that). You’d get a substantial increase in emissions across the motorway network, too.
So with these things in mind, what’s your opinion? Get voting!
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
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In the Netherlands we went from 120 kph to 130 kph on most sections of highway. Recently the safety advisors published the statistics wich stated the increase of speed did not result in a notable change in highway safety. The enviromental effects are still in the unknown. Some lobby’s claim there’san increase in pollution. Others claim no notable effect. Speed increase is bad for my miles per gallon ratio tho. Switching to an motorcycle soon. More performance. Lower costs. More fun!
I don’t trust a lot of people on the roads doing 70, let alone 80!
Plus there will still be the idiots doing 60 in the middle lane who now have cars flying up behind them even faster and with even less time to react and brake as hard as they can before realising they could just overtake them.
As a German CTzen, I don’t know how to handel the term “speed limit” correctly, sorry!
Meanwhile in Australia our speed limits are 110km/h soo everyone does 130
It’s 87mph in Bulgaria. And our roads are pretty much the same as in London, mind you London during the blitz. Best part? You are doing 87 and somebody passes you with 200mph
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0njOUHNgAQ4
UK has the lowest motorway speed limit in the EU with 113 km/h against the average of 130 km/h as well as high volume of packed traffic, if people drive faster they will clear the motorways faster also. The main thing is…Dumb pieces of excrements who should never have passed their driving tests, the people I’m talking about here at the ‘below 60 middle lane corsa drivers’ who do not understand the motorways (not to include van drivers that can only do 60 max yet they tailgate at 80). Without proper motorway knowledge people will never drive how they should on roads like these, as far as I’m aware other countries in the EU provide better understanding on motorway driving than the UK.
Maybe if the speed limit in the UK raises then America will do the same.
80mph seems reasonable to me as long as they improve driving standards (including educating people who already have licences) and make sure all cars are safe to be driven at 80mph (like a few additional MOT checks)
Although, its worth mentioning that a lot of people are doing 80-90mph or even more if they know there aren’t any cameras around anyways
In France we estimate that higher speed limits mean less speed delta, so less “chain reaction” danger. Which is true imo