Motorway speed limits

[Durzel]

I've been caught doing 85 in a 50, which is more than 50% over the speed limit. Ultimately it comes down to discretion, but seeing as how most drivers on motorways go between 80 and 90, the Police (seem to) turn a blind eye to this so long as its in context.

If you were doing 90 when it was raining and/or foggy - that's a different matter entirely.

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by Durzel
I reckon most Police in this country would turn a blind eye if you were doing 90mph in clear, dry conditions - so long as you weren't obviously the only person doing it (ie. if everyone else was doing 50 because of roadworks or something).

I've been sat behind a police car once on the way to Bristol to go to University and as we reached the slip road he put the hammer down and was doing about 95 before even reaching the motorway. He wasn't even chasing/bluelighting anything either!

3 figure numbers (100mph+) are definitely the realm of license losing. I would imagine most traffic police would pull you over if you were seen doing 100+.

My dad was doing 100 on a clear night and the police just came up beside him looked and he slowed.....they did nothing.

 

[Wij]

Originally posted by Durzel
I've been caught doing 85 in a 50, which is more than 50% over the speed limit. Ultimately it comes down to discretion, but seeing as how most drivers on motorways go between 80 and 90, the Police (seem to) turn a blind eye to this so long as its in context.

If you were doing 90 when it was raining and/or foggy - that's a different matter entirely.

Yup, drive with the conditions. I would feel fucking stupid doing 70 with no traffic around late at night on the M62 on the really straight and well lit bit near the M1 (junction 29.)

 

[Mr B]

Absolute speed on a motorway means VERY little...

If you are doing 70mph but are sitting 2ft off someone else's bumper, if they slam on the anchors without warning, you WILL hit them - pure and simple.

What causes the majority of accidents is people driving too close and not paying enough attention to the road ahead.

Yes, Germany has advisory speed limits on certain sections of their AutoBahns - but they have a shocking accident/death rate and also they have some of the worst traffic I've ever spent 7 hours sitting in (I remember playing a game of tennis over the central reservation waiting for a queue to clear once).

IMO, accidents are caused by:

a) people driving too close - if you are a driver that leaves less than 2 seconds gap between you and the car infront, please GET THE FUCK OFF THE ROAD.

b) people not paying attention to the road ahead

c) people not FUCKING indicating - the indicators aren't there for a "bit of a laugh" - they aren't there to say "I AM CHANGING DIRECTION" they are there to say "I *INTEND* TO CHANGE DIRECTION."

It seems that MIRROR - SIGNAL - MANOUEVRE goes out of most people's heads after they pass their test - which is a shame.

With regards to the Police, they are FAR more worried about reckless driving and driving without due care and attention than absolute speed - they are more likely to jump on someone speeding if they are doing so 2ft off someones bumper than on an empty road.

B

 

[GDW]

LOL
judging by the popularity of Novas and 1.8 fiestas from earlier posts I find it hard to believe the people in this forum can travel as fast as they are claiming.

 

[*Exor*]

M3 from southampton is best :| Always clear when I've been on it and they're doing 90 on the inside!! You can get from Southampton to London in about 25 minutes at 130mph

I think harsh on the spot fines should be introduced. I don't know about anyone else but I'd be happy to pay a £200 fine for speeding, if I didn't get any points. Points fuck up my insurance quotes

The automatic ban speed* is 96mph on motorways. I don't know if raising the speed limit would make any difference at all to peoples speed, it would just mean you DEFINATELY don't get pulled over at say 80-85mph, which can happen if a copper is having a bad day, or didn't get any from his wife the night before.
Unless you have one hell of a car, the vast majority of people are gonna start to feel 'uneasy' at 100+mph, so I don't think many people will do it regardless of the new speed anyway.

*Subject to status.

 

[GDW]

Originally posted by *Exor*
M3 from southampton is best :| Always clear when I've been on it and they're doing 90 on the inside!! You can get from Southampton to London in about 25 minutes at 130mph



*Subject to status.

Until you kill somebody. Youll not be able to travel that fast behind bars as a friend of mine recently found out after speeding

 

[gremlin]

Originally posted by SoWat
They have no speed limits on some sections of the german autobahns (not all), but the germans are much more disciplined drivers than us brits.

I assume you've also seen an autobahn? They tend to be very straight and very wide. They also have very well maintained surfaces.

Compare that to say, some parts of M1 which is bendier than a country lane, or the road surface on some parts of the M25 where you can't actually see the white lines in bright sunlight.

Yes, I'm all for increasing motorway speed limits, just make sure the actual roads are safe at that speed in the first place.

 

[Durzel]

Originally posted by Mr B
Absolute speed on a motorway means VERY little...

To a degree.

I dont think the speed you're travelling has much bearing on the likelihood of causing or being involved in an accident, but moreof - as you rightly stated - the manner in which you drive at this speed.

That said, I have no doubt that if the Police saw you doing 120+ on a motorway irrespective of there being other traffic around or not, they would pull you and administer a severe license bashing.

 

[~Lazarus~]

Originally posted by Mr B
It seems that MIRROR - SIGNAL - MANOUEVRE goes out of most people's heads after they pass their test - which is a shame.
B

I personally think they still do that - only now it doesnt matter whats coming - they STILL pull out.

For my 2p worht on this. I do not drive on a lot of motorways to/from work but the bit I do is a frigging nightmare.

Outside lane hoggers, bumper to bumper = nightmare.

Im not that bothered about someone driving too fast (safely) i.e. far enough from the car in front etc.

What bugs the tits on me is people driving too slowly.

You know the kind - join the motorway and straight to the middle / outside lane at 43 mph. Or the ones on a mobile slowing from 70 to 40 ./.....

Or the folk on the outside lane (of a dual carriage way) hogging the outside lane, with noone in front of them, because they are turning right 5 miles up the road.

Heres a small message for all of the above


BASTIDS

 

[shabazz]

Originally posted by Lazarus

You know the kind - join the motorway and straight to the middle / outside lane at 43 mph. Or the ones on a mobile slowing from 70 to 40 ./.....

ARG tell me about it

Especially whens theres:

a - a lorry coming down fast
b - a lorry overtaking the lorry
c - roadworks on the hard shoulder

Nearly got squished by a lorry once, cos this feck face was going onto the moterway doing 30.


As for the topic, i dont mind if people wanna go 80+, as long as its safe.

But tbh, majourity of drivrs i see on moterway most days cant drive, plain and simple. Bumper drivers are the worst.......

 

[xane]

There is a big difference between an accident and a death caused by driving conditions. Speed has a marginal effect on causing an accident, as reaction times are obviously extended, but where speed comes in is it dramatically raises the chances of death or serious injury in the event of an accident.

On an urban road, if some silly bugger decides to pull in front of you there wouldn't be any difference between going 30mph or 40mph if you are talking about avoiding the accident. But it could easily mean the difference between injury and death once the accident has occurred.

One critical point in deciding speed limits is the volume of traffic a road can handle. Its a strange fact that you can actually get somewhere quicker by going slower, or rather everyone can get there quicker if they all went slower, basically because it reduces the occurrances of bottlenecks (jams) in the traffic at certain points, like motorway turnoffs, where dual carriageways go into single lanes, junctions, etc.

Selfish people are the main cause of traffic congestion, how many times have you sat in a queue and seen those b*stages whizz by you in the bus lane ? Well did it ever occur to you that the reason why there is a queue in the first place is because of those same b*stages ?

Speed limits are decided by traffic capacity, a road that suddenly narrows by a lane sometimes simply cannot handle traffic hitting that spot at, say, 60mph and the inevitable jam occurs, so the road before is rated down to 50mph. For this reason speed limits need to be enforced whatever they are because if you let people get away with it then everyone starts speeding and you are back to square one but with a higher risk of death and greater chance of congestion (more pollution etc).

Saying all that, I'd agree to rasing motorway limits as there is very little evidence to suggest that 70mph is based on traffic volume limitation, my only concern would be that 80mph may increase the death rate significantly (for the same amount of accidents).

 

[bigbb]

*puts voting slip in ballot box*

I elect camazotz as our road planner.

 

[bigbb]

Just weminded me. I saw a programme on de telly welly tother day about this sorta stuff. Apparently, there are literally thousands of accident black spots dotted throughout the UK where the roads (in particular motorways) have been structured in such a way that:

Ppl coming onto the motorway from a road are coming on and moving across to the right hand > to faster lanes while ppl in the right hand fast lanes are moving across to the left hand lanes to turn off for a pending slip road just a bit further up. Apparently this cross where ppl are moving across to the right, and the right are moving across to the left causes masses of serious accidents with people crossing in front of each other and the traffic in limbo while people are criss crossing and confusing drivers.

Perhaps with this massive transport "investment" over the next 10 years we're get some alterations in these black spots.

v.interwesting programme, I believe it was on the mighty bbc, called gridlock UK or sommet.

quite difficult to explain but u get da jist.

 

[SoWat]

If the police put speed cameras in real blackspots, it would help with reducing accidents. Instead they put them in places where a steady income is guaranteed.

 

[Wij]

hehe yep. they luv hiding them on long straight bits of road in non-built-up areas

 

[xane]

I can't disagree with the positioning of cameras for "financial" purposes, I've seen too many cameras in a 40mph placed just before the national speed limit signs, I've even seen (and been flashed by) a camera on a motorway (end of the M11 where it suddenly becomes the A406).

I elect camazotz as our road planner.

Honoured as I am I must point out my solution to bus lane hogs who zip by you then put on that pathetic baby seal pleading face to let them in front of you - basically it involves fitting buses with guided missile systems ... you can guess the rest

 

[bodhi]

Speed doesn't kill, improper use of speed does.


And after that mildly prophetic piece of advice I shall venture the theory that, all motorways north of Junction 31 of the M6 should be derestricted, as I drive these motorways quite a lot, and there's never any fucker on them.

For me it is a 5 and a half hour drive to get to uni from where I live most of the time in Stoke on Trent. I rarely dip below 85 on this trip, and haven't been caught once. I've overtaken a couple pf police cars at this speed, and none of them bothered their arse.

 

[]SK[]

Originally posted by Kan
Wanna make the roads safer?

dont let anyone Drive on them till there 25 years old then

Or let women on them

 

[old.Mr_Black]

Speed i understand whats li..lim....limi..limits?

Ah seriously you can use speed responsably and you have the skills of being a good driver then youl do alright

 

[old.Mr_Black]

And fromw hat i read the otherday , hidden speed cameras will be a thing of the past over.

 

[Summo]

Roger that.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Originally posted by Mr_Black
Speed i understand whats li..lim....limi..limits?

Ah seriously you can use speed responsably and you have the skills of being a good driver then youl do alright

Yes. Only problem is most drivers think they're really good drivers, when they're not. It's a known fact nigh on all drivers overestimate their driving abilities.

I go with variable limits, they work.

 

[Durzel]

While we're still on the subject..

I wish the government would resurface the fucking M42 - the tarmac has worn away so much you are just driving over the reinforcements. It's so frustrating..

 

[]SK[]

Originally posted by Mr_Black
And fromw hat i read the otherday , hidden speed cameras will be a thing of the past over.

Apparently this could take upto 2 years to get all of them up to scrath as they got to move alot of them.

 

[old.=DI=Penry]

Way too many crap drivers out there to have ANYONE driving much quicker than they do already!

Who’s wanting to drive faster in this thread? 18-25 year old males mainly? – the age group and sex with the highest insurance premiums! – the most fatal crashes! – The overconfident drivers who however good they are, still get some old granny pulling out blindly in front of them at every other junction!.

Driving on roads is like joining a co-operative, the whole driving thing is only as good as the weakest link. The crap drivers out there are the problem, and if one pulls out 2 foot in front of you, it’s not the speed you were driving safely before that kills, but the speed your cars hit the barrier.

 

[Durzel]

I'm vehemently for a driving license retest (theory & practical) every 5 or 10 years. This would take care of most of the old folk on the road who still think its 1940 where the fastest car travelled at 2mph, and retard drivers in general.

It staggers me to think that we are all allowed to propel a 1 tonne+ block of steel around at high speeds, endangering life as and when we choose, after taking a 45 min (?) test for which the preperation we are given is geared towards passing the test rather than learning real driving skills.

 

[old.ignus]

I agree about the test being shite
3 point turns: Do what I do, find the nearest junction and use the extra space to turn around.
Reverse around a corner: WTF is that all about, I can't remember having to do this once the way I was taught how.
Paralell parking: This should be concentrated on much more judging by the row of badly parked cars in the town centre.
Emergency stop: Every stop I make is an emergency.
correct steering: I don't know about you but if you're gonna drive you should drive how you feel comfortable.
Engine braking: Don't know about anybody else but my instructer used this term a lot, "don't ride the clutch because you loose your engine braking" Surely the strength of the four (in some cases 8) brake pads and 2 drums locking the wheels solid negates the engines ability to regulate the vehicles speed when ticking over?

 

[Durzel]

When I was learning to drive I was coming up to a junction in 5th gear (was from a long road) and my instructor told me to put it in 2nd and basically let the engine "slow itself down". Not sure what the objective of this was except to rant the engine....

3 point turns, reversing around a corner and parallel parking are all used in real world environments in some way, but the first two should really be second nature. I definitely think more emphasis should be placed on parallel parking since it is probably the most useful thing you can do on the road (I'm utterly shite at it and as a result have ended up spending 10 more minutes looking for an alternative parking place).

Emergency stop is a waste of time in my opinion. The teaching for emergency stops varies from driving instructor to driving instructor. Some say put your foot on both the brake and the clutch at the same time, some say put the clutch in at the last minute, some say don't even bother with the clutch. To be honest, what most people do (myself included) in the event of an "emergency" is just jam the anchors on. If you had any time to apply rational thought to what you were doing, or if the braking distance was sufficiently great, or known well in advance of the danger - well it wouldn't be much of an emergency stop would it? I skidded about 10 metres on my emergency stop and still passed my test first time.

"Correct steering" is another weird thing. Some places teach "quarter to 3" hand positions while others do "ten to 2", while others do that weird hand-over-hand steering motion thing. There is method to the madness of steering - mainly that you shouldn't let the wheel slip around your fingers (although we all do it) because if you hit something the wheel could violently turn and snap your finger(s). Apart from that, as you say, you should be able to drive however you like (assuming you use both hands).

My pet hate with driving tests is mirror usage. I was taught from the start of my driving lessons that I basically had to look in the mirror for every conceivable action I was about to take - slowing down, speeding up, indicating, changing gear, etc. Whilst some of these things are valid in practice it just distracts you from actually concentrating on the road. They say (apparently) that during the test you need to look in the mirror at least once every 6 seconds, regardless of what you're doing - which to me is a bit silly really.

 

[Nozzer]

I've been taught to look at my mirrors every 5 seconds "under normal conditions". Safe, yes, but at around a second each mirror, if you check them properly, that leaves you two seconds looking infront of you.

Seems a little silly, but still... You're only learning how to pass the test, after that you start learning to drive.