Should the UK motorway speed limit be raised?

[Groucho]

I would go to 80mph myself.

 

[Runub]

I would go to 80mph myself.

First….how quick was that ?

 

[Rita_Poon]

I would go to 80mph myself.

Everyone already does 80 though don't they? Would making it 80 mean everyone then jumps up to 90? Limited top speed vehicles will struggle further. And the smart motorways with no hard shoulder complicate matters again.

 

[4737carlin]

I'd say no because the only people who will drive even faster are those who drive too fast anyway

 

[ArtetaMoney]

Motorways are 90% covered in 50mph average speed cameras anyway. Would make no difference.

 

[4737carlin]

Everyone already does 80 though don't they? Would making it 80 mean everyone then jumps up to 90? Limited top speed vehicles will struggle further. And the smart motorways with no hard shoulder complicate matters again.

Yeah, I stick to 70 becusse it's safer, I'd probably still do 70 if 80 was fine, but those who speed will just go faster

 

[Groucho]

Everyone already does 80 though don't they?

Not judging by the slowarses in the middle lane when I went to IKEA before.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Not judging by the slowarses in the middle lane when I went to IKEA before.

Mable and Henry do like their Monday afternoon runabouts...

 

[Eiffel 65]

Too many variables related to peoples driving attitude/style and vehicle capability to say objectively if raising the limit to 80 would be safe enough or too dangerous.

 

[FrenchDarrenBent]

Cars are better and safer nowadays, so you could raise it, but then again there are more cars on the road.

People with 18y/o children will probably all vote no...

 

[PhilM]

Statistics from Google etc. suggest that between 45-55% of cars on the motorway exceed 70mph on a regular basis anyway.

However, statistics also suggest that going between 60-65mph is by far the safest and, in many cases, it's actually more likely to improve overall journey times.

If someone is doing 70mph+, they're more likely to brake harshly, which like a set of dominoes causes many to slow. These drops speed down significantly.

A good example of this is the M56/M53 junction going Eastbound to Jct 14, which is regularly down to a crawl because cars drop their speed sharply when joining.

To be fair, I'm happy doing 80mph or above on the motorway, but far too many aren't great at.

 

[john jako]

Genuinely think it should be based on the motorway. Be arsed doing it to the m6 anywhere below preston. However the m6 up to the m74 is normally quiet(apart from holidays for the lakes) and don’t see a reason for that not to be a 80mph.

They have so much data and know what motorways and sections of motorways are more dangerous and busy. Suppose they could do different limits on different sections. However that will probably confuse people and could cause more accidents.

If we had a better train network am sure it would reduce cars on the road and make motorways safer.

 

[john jako]

Is it true that all car speedometers are set to 3-4mph faster than you’re actually travelling at? Or is that an old wives tale?

 

[john jako]

Also anyone over the age of 60 should have to redo a test. Eye test and theory should be mandatory.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Also anyone over the age of 60 should have to redo a test. Eye test and theory should be mandatory.

Also everyone after every accident over say 10mph (parking bumps and shopping trolley dings need not apply for instance)