Does it ever

[samuel23]

make you wonder about how the speed limits were set at their current limits.?
I expect that originally they would have reflected the ability of the vehicle to cope with the speed / braking / road conditions etc. but with cars these days being so much better, with power assisted steering, ABS braking systems, better tyres, traction control etc is 70mph on a 3 or 4 lane motorway really necessary?

[katangel26]

Hi Samuel, I'd say yes it is necessary as not everyone has cars that have power steering, ABS etc. Imagine what the roads would be like over here if there wasn't a speed limit on the motorway!

[Toureman]

Think about it, it has very little to do with the car.

There's so many morons on the road if they could do any speed they wanted the speeds would automatically come down as you would be forever trying to get past all the crashed cars littering the roads.

[samuel23]

Thanks for your answers, some valid points to consider.
I undersdtand the line that you are taking Toureman, but how does that explain the situation in Holland and Germany where the autobahns don't seem to have the delays and crashes that we get and yet the speed limits are considerablly higher than ours?

[jake-the-peg]

The 70mph speed limit was introduced in 1965 after some very nasty accidents and the figure was derrived from looking at cars from about then.

However we have just about the safest roads in the world in terms of number of fatalities and whilst there's not a convincing link between the two you'd need a strong case for messing with a system that's working.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdatase t.asp?vlnk=7254

The Association of British Drivers have a campagn to raise it to 80

http://www.abd.org.uk/motorwayspeedlimit.htm#r eferences

But speaking personally I'm not very convinced by their case of the benefits that would bring.

[Toureman]

Hi samuel,

The speed limits in Germany are only higher on certain motorways, Holland is only slightly higher than here, the standard of driving in North West Europe on motorways is far superior to here.

I was leaving Amsterdam in the evening rush hour and it took me a mile or two to realise how much better the driving is there.

The inside lane was traveling at 70 mph, the middle lane at 80 mph and the outside at 90 mph.

All the drivers were alert and knew how to drive on a motorway properly, if a driver on the inside lane wanted to move out to go quicker all he had to do was indicate, the driver outside and behind him would immediately ease off and let him out because he knew the driver he let out would immediately move back in, this happened in all lanes all the time.

The ignorant morons in the UK would never do that and are to stupid and selfish to ever learn to do that.

[wduk2005]

Toureman, couldnt agree with your last answer more, not that i've been to amsterdam but every day when i'm stuck in traffic on the motorway i just thing to myself if people knew how to drive, be a bit more sensible and a bit less selfish everone would get home a little earlier. what gets me is people in the middle lane doing 60 oblivious to the cars flashing them and undertaking them