Motorway Speed Limit Set To Rise To 80mph

[+Steve]

Motorway Speed Limit Set To Rise To 80mph, about time in my opinion… need to catch up to modern motoring. What do you think?

[Bos]

<p>Motorway Speed Limit Set To Rise To 80mph, about time in my opinion… need to catch up to modern motoring. What do you think?</p>

I disagree with you. If you raise the limit to 80 then most drivers will go up to 90. At 70 most go up to 80 anyway.

Don't forget that at 70 mph you travel over 102ft. / sec , at 80 mph. nearly 120 ft./sec. That is quite a long stopping distance.

Also the 70 limit was brought in to save fuel, with the cost today only the tax man will benefit, due to increased fuel usage.

[mrpj]

It's at a consultation stage, not a decision yet.

I agree with Bos, it's fine as it is and a raise on motorways will just encourage those who now think 80 is acceptable with a 70 limit to go that bit faster. They'll just think 90 is then acceptable.

On most mways at peak times, as in the best part of the day, you're lucky to reach 70 anyway!

Think of all that extra fuel used too. There's too much emphasis placed on speed and acceleration these days as seen with car manufacturers hyping these in their advertising.

It can be seen on this forum as well, where people are wanting and fitting go faster electronics or re-mapping for the same effect!

[KPARRIS-JONES]

I think it is about time but I am also aware of the increased risk of driving on the motorways due to this rise.

I have to say that I think with all the driver aids we all have now, the stringent test and strict laws, there is very little excuse for crashes. We are responsible for our awareness of other drivers and ourselves, assuming we passed our tests with validity rather than luck, then there really should not be much more of a threat.

And when crashing at 70mph, you aren't likely to survive anyway, so a step up to 80 isn't going to change the result too much.

KP

[Cyker]

Cars will need better brakes

While it may increase the average speed as the law-abiding take advantage of the increased speed limit, it won't make any difference to those that fly along way in excess of 70 anyway.

When conditions allow it, it's not uncommon for people to be flying along the out-lanes at 90+ even now.

I do worry how it will affect overtaking tho'; I generally drive at around 60 in the left lane, until I hit slow lorries (Many of which have been limited to 50-55 down from 60! ) at which point it's time to break out the old mirror-signal-overtake malarky.

Now, my ickle Yaris will go from 60 to 70 in a second and a bit (Yay for turbo chargers!) but going from 60 to 80 will take longer so finding a gap in the middle lane will be trickier. I'm also dreading these gutless 1.0L cars that will try to overtake and force everyone in the middle lane to brake as they get impatient and just pull out when they can barely hit 80 anyway! (Heck, this already happens; There's always some twit running at 58 who pulls out and doesn't accelerate to keep pace with traffic, but *stays* at 58 to overtake a lorry doing 55 and ends up holding up everyone in the middle lane :censor: And lets not forget the good old side-by-side lorry racing!)

Hmm... thinking about it, it's very likely a change to 80mph will have no effect, on the M25 at least, as there's too much traffic; Hell, I consider myself lucky if I can get to 60mph for any amount of time on the M25!

[Jan&tone]

It's a cynical ploy by the government to raise more tax from fuel... The faster you go the more fuel you use, the more fuel you use the more tax you pay!

And anyway, the 70mph limit isn't enforced, so why would an 80mph limit be?

IMO two things should happen,

1- enforce the existing limits

2 - allow undertaking, but at your own risk.

This for Motorways only....

Limits are limits, not targets!

[Cyker]

I'm not sure what the motivations for the 80mph are, but I'd like to think it's just a common sense thing (Unlikely I know!) since, as you say, enforcement isn't great.

I doubt many people will change their driving tendencies; The economical ones will stick to 55-60 and the fast ones will continue to go too fast

The fact that most lorries are limited to 50-60 will put a real-world limiter on things anyway.

Disagree on the undertaking, depending on what you mean by undertaking

If some ***** is driving at 50 in the middle lane and you are at a steady 60mph in the left, you will obviously pass him but this shouldn't constitute undertaking. (If it is, then the law needs changing).

What I think should never be made legal is where people that are in the far right lane, who don't think they're going fast enough, dive into people's separation gaps the middle lane and sometimes even the left lane and then try to bully them to go faster so they can get ahead of the congested bit of the right lane, or where they use the left-lane to overtake said ***** instead of the right lane.

TBH, we wouldn't even need to worry about undertaking if drivers had better lane discipline in this country; I am always seeing people in the middle and right lanes braking while me and Eddie Stobart in the left are just flying past them all at 50 mph with massive separation gaps (I was a good 4 seconds behind the Eddie (Which is a huge gap!) while everyone in the middle and right lanes were bunching up and braking!)

Ideally, it's the right lane that should be virtually clear so that people are free to overtake. If you're in there for more than 10 seconds you're using it wrong IMHO.