80 mph on motorways good idea or not

[ClaireyLou]

It doesnt matter what the speed limit is... The people who will obey will probably drive under that speed and the people who take no notice of speed limits wont care if its 70 80 or 100mph.

[stereolab]

In the UK, there are no 'fast' lanes.

On a three-lane motorway, the lanes are (from left to right):

a. the driving lane;

b. a lane for overtaking slower vehicles in the driving lane; and

c. a lane for overtaking slower vehicles in the lane for overtaking slower vehicles in the driving lane.

 

I was taught to regard the driving lane as magnetic. Stay there- always- unless there's a good reason not to (= overtaking).

 

This is good advice.

 

I'd rather see lane discipline properly enforced than have changes to the speed limit.

[Shogun]

On the M18 and A1 this morning I was doing just over 80 and was being regularly overtaken.

I had Citroen CX GTX turbo a few years ago and I was overtook at 155 mph by a guy in a BMW 5 series on the A1, I know it was completely irresponsible driving at that speed but that was a long time ago and I don't think I would have got away with it nowadays.

[Cyclone]

It doesnt matter what the speed limit is... The people who will obey will probably drive under that speed and the people who take no notice of speed limits wont care if its 70 80 or 100mph.

 

I don't think it's as simple as you make out.

 

I suspect that most people take notice of the speed limit and then modify their behaviour based on their own judgement.

[Greengeek]

I think lorries should be limited to one lane personally.

Just because one lorry is doing 55mph and another is doing 56 is no reason to effectively turn the motorway into a single carriageway.

[Shogun]

I think lorries should be limited to one lane personally.

Just because one lorry is doing 55mph and another is doing 56 is no reason to effectively turn the motorway into a single carriageway.

There is a bit more to it than that you could not possibly have all the trucks running along in convoy at the speed of the slowest one in front, just think about it that could be as slow as 15mph on some hills with a fully loaded truck, 80mph speed limit on motorways is nothing to do with trucks they can only go up 60mph by law and they can not enter the outside lane anyway.

[Tess]

I think people will stick to the 80mph limit, but only because I imagine hundreds of little yellow money earners will be popping up on motorways all over the country.

[anywebsite]

Speed limits were set when stopping distances were much higher & cars were complete death traps. Brakes have improved a lot, stopping distances have improved a lot, most modern cars can be driven at 80mph+ without struggling, cars are much safer if they do crash than they used to be.

 

Driving tests have improved too & I'd argue they should go further, get the bad drivers off the road, it'll save more lives than slowing everybody down.

 

The roads are much safer than 45 years ago when speed limits were set.

 

I think they should turn most traffic lights off at night too.

[Jim Graham]

I had Citroen CX GTX turbo a few years ago and I was overtook at 155 mph by a guy in a BMW 5 series on the A1, I know it was completely irresponsible driving at that speed but that was a long time ago and I don't think I would have got away with it nowadays.

 

There's a surprise, a BMW driver acting irresponsibly. You don't see that more than every 30 seconds do you? I rest my case.

[HeadingNorth]

There's a surprise, a BMW driver acting irresponsibly. You don't see that more than every 30 seconds do you? I rest my case.

 

Had a sense of humour bypass? Or just didn't read the joke properly?