Motorway speed limits....

[flounderbout]

Why has no one mentioned SEPERATION DISTANCE? IMHO, greater seperation distances would be a major factor in increacing road safety. Maintaining traffic flow, reducing cluster braking (or "ripple bunching"), and allowing safer overtaking..............

Because there is no such thing...














SEPARATION distance on the other hand, now that is important...

[MWS]

Because there is no such thing...














SEPARATION distance on the other hand, now that is important...

"Spellchecker,......Spellcheck er,......Wayearfouer art thou, Spellchecker?"....................

[TonyN]

Why has no one mentioned SEP A RATION DISTANCE? IMHO, greater sep a ration distances would be a major factor in increasing road safety. Maintaining traffic flow, reducing cluster braking (or "ripple bunching"), and allowing safer overtaking..............

It is the biggest problem I agree. (Apart from rudeness and arrogance behind the wheel.)

Try and drive with a decent gap in busy traffic and someone will soon move over into it though.

[JamesG]

That is absurd.
You might as well say "tell that to the child who gets hit by some chump in a 2 tonne 4x4 doing 30mph" in support of an argument that driving at 30mph is unsafe. Emotive, but totally illogical.
Driving at a speed unsuitable for the circumstances is unsafe. That might be 20mph, or 90mph. But driving at 80mph in good conditions on a motorway in light traffic is plainly not unsafe.

PS Why an F Reg?

The choice of car/year was purely arbitrary

My point is that the conditions may be perfect but something beyond your control could cause you to lose control of your vehicle and hit another (an F reg fiesta for example) vehicle. The increase from 70 to 80 MPH causes an exponential increase in the amount of damage you do to the other car and potentially the people in it. You are increasing the potential risk of a given situation. How is that absurd?

Your point about the child wouldn’t stack up unless this discussion was about increasing the 30 MPH speed limit.

[flounderbout]

The choice of car/year was purely arbitrary

My point is that the conditions may be perfect but something beyond your control could cause you to lose control of your vehicle and hit another (an F reg fiesta for example) vehicle. The increase from 70 to 80 MPH causes an exponential increase in the amount of damage you do to the other car and potentially the people in it. You are increasing the potential risk of a given situation. How is that absurd?

Your point about the child wouldn’t stack up unless this discussion was about increasing the 30 MPH speed limit.

Well now you are just saying that an increase in speed carries an increase in risk. That is trite and self-evident.

Just as when you are driving at 30mph you are more likely to kill a child that you career into when your metaphorical meteor strikes than if you were driving at 20mph.

But in exactly the same way, driving at 30mph is not per se dangerous (circumstance dependant again).

The logical absurdity arises because you are equating the word "safe" in this context with "safer" or "safest". It is safer to drive in a town at 20mph than 30mph. It is safer to drive at 60mph on a motorway than 80mph. But on any sensible objective basis it is "safe" to do either taking into account the capabilities of a modern car (or 4x4).

It is a bit like answering the proposition "air travel is safe?" with the comment "try telling that to someone who is plummeting to the ground in flames from 30000 feet". It doesn't advance matters. Logically, it is absurd. Not flying is safer than flying (providing you don't go at all). But on any sensible objective basis it is "safe".

[Predictable Bob]

But the 70mph speed limit was introduced in the 50's when it was a silly speed, whereas nowadays there is nothing unsafe at driving at 80mph (depending on the conditions etc obviously).

Gotcha - it was 1965 you ignoramus !

[Dixie.t]

This is going to be a mute point if you have a 2.4 surf, get up to 80 MPH and then maintain it without breaking something, never going to happen.

[BioHazard]

This is going to be a mute point if you have a 2.4 surf, get up to 80 MPH and then maintain it without breaking something, never going to happen.

That's if you would ever dare drive that fast ......... 50MPH is my limit

[Voodoo-Child]

Statistics prove that it isnt high speed that kills but excessive speed in built up areas......there are less fatalities on motorways than there are on b roads and in towns/cities.....if everyone is in a lane..moving at a similar rate of knots then there is less chance of an accident...its changing direction at the wrong time (and usually someone else doing it) that causes havoc. In towns etc...you hve pedestrians.....young kids...old biddies and other people ranging from alert to completely out of it wandering and driving about..pulling out of junctions willy nilly etc....B roads...well, speak for themselves...I'm sure a majority have been licking along at a fair old rate when a 'surprise' corner popped up.....I think 80mph max on motorways (but not dual carrieageways) is wholly acceptable....Imho


*sits and waits to be shot down*

[JamesG]

Well now you are just saying that an increase in speed carries an increase in risk. That is trite and self-evident.

I would suggest you look up the definition of the word ‘safe’ before you call my comments trite!

“Protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; not likely to be harmed or lost.”

[Rustinho]

I would suggest you look up the definition of the word ‘safe’ before you call my comments trite!

“Protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; not likely to be harmed or lost.”

So why is 70mph safe and 80mph not safe?

If you roll off something about KE = ½mv² (hence your previous "exponential" comment) I won't be impressed!

Realistically it makes naff all difference whether you hit the F-reg Fiesta at 70mph or 80mph with a 2 tonne 4x4. It will still end up a very different shape.

Given the nature of motorway crashes (vehicles travelling in the same direction) the 10mph increase in speed does not make as much difference as you would imagine given that closing speeds are likely to be fairly similar.

The difference between that and, say, increasing the 60mph limit on country roads where you're talking about a 120mph closing speed in a head on (I've had one of those and was extremely lucky to walk away from it unharmed).

Head on collisions at 70mph+ on motorways are pretty rare because the crash barriers prevent them (with the exception of HGVs which are doing much less than that speed anyway).

[soramad]

I would suggest you look up the definition of the word ‘safe’ before you call my comments trite!

“Protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; not likely to be harmed or lost.”

use a bus, then you won't have to worry about driving into anything at 80mph, both my car and truck can cruise quite easily at 80mph on a motorway and I can assure you that they will both pull up quicker than a ford anglia could doing 70 mph in the 60's

[tonupteabag]

Drive according to the conditions but, stay within your own and your vehicles capabilities, even if the conditions are good a moments distraction can end in a tragedy at any speed or on any road/track

[Voodoo-Child]

Drive according to the conditions but, stay within your own and your vehicles capabilities, even if the conditions are good a moments distraction can end in a tragedy at any speed or on any road/track

True enough

[TonyN]

Drive according to the conditions but, stay within your own and your vehicles capabilities, even if the conditions are good a moments distraction can end in a tragedy at any speed or on any road/track

Thats the trouble isn't it, most peoples actual driving skills are far lower than they think.