If you could change UK speed limits..

[AshD93]

.. What would you change them too?

Just interested in opinions.

The main "road sections" I can think off are:

Schools and other "Pedestrian" areas -
Road with Street Lamps (Speed Unmarked) -
Single Carriage -
Dual Carriage -
Motorway -
Countryside -

Let me know if I've missed any and I'll update the list.

 

[Rroff]

For the most part I wouldn't change them - I think they are mostly fine as is the odd place where I'd upgrade or downgrade the limit.

 

[sorn21]

I'd like to be able to go faster near schools.

 

[Howard]

For the most part I wouldn't change them - I think they are mostly fine as is the odd place where I'd upgrade or downgrade the limit.

Agreed.

 

[GinG]

Are they not reviewing the limits and upping to 80mph? And reducing in built up areas? Or is this a myth?

 

[sorn21]

I think it's a myth, there's been speculation of increasing it to 80mph for years now.. But I doubt it will happen.

 

[Matt82]

I wouldn't bother. I'd just make the driving test much much harder

 

[[TW]Fox]

All I'd really change is the ridiculous random 40/50 limits in the middle of nowhere on ex NSL roads.

Nothing more annoying than crawling along a nice, well maintaned open road in the country, at 40, every so often passing junctions with single track roads that are barely more than a farm track all with NSL signs on them indicating you could legally drive 20mph faster on them. Bizarre.

Don't care about the Motorway speed limit. In an ideal world I'd want NSL at 70 not 60 but thats not going to happen.

 

[Conscript]

I think it's a myth, there's been speculation of increasing it to 80mph for years now.. But I doubt it will happen.

They are already looking at trials on the M20 in Kent and elsewhere.

http://news.carrentals.co.uk/80mph-motorways-to-be-trialled-34255705.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-17455760

 

[Muffin`]

Nothing bothers me more than this local control of limits, It's just costing time and money to review, implement and live with.

So my ideal speed limit would be back as they were in 1990. 30 for a built up area, 60 for NSL.

 

[Conscript]

Nothing bothers me more than this local control of limits, It's just costing time and money to review, implement and live with.

So my ideal speed limit would be back as they were in 1990. 30 for a built up area, 60 for NSL.

Agreed. Especially when the decision to lower the limit on certain roads is based on the fact that there was an accident there where either the primary cause wasn't speed, or if it was, the offender was wilfully breaking the limit anyway.

 

[ShakenNstirred]

All I'd really change is the ridiculous random 40/50 limits in the middle of nowhere on ex NSL roads.

Nothing more annoying than crawling along a nice, well maintaned open road in the country, at 40, every so often passing junctions with single track roads that are barely more than a farm track all with NSL signs on them indicating you could legally drive 20mph faster on them. Bizarre.

Don't care about the Motorway speed limit. In an ideal world I'd want NSL at 70 not 60 but thats not going to happen.

yeah same here
a few roads near me over the past 2 years have gone from 60 to 40 yet i travel these roads every day and have never seen or heard of any crashes etc on these stretchers of road

 

[Biffa]

NSL 60 on single carriage roads? Maybe if the roads are awesome. AFAIK once a NSL signposted road turns dual carriage for whatever length, NSL goes up to 70.

TBH most roads in the UK are such poor quality that 80 seems too fast to me

 

[AndrewNR]

.. What would you change them too?

Just interested in opinions.

The main "road sections" I can think off are:

Schools and other "Pedestrian" areas - 20-30
Road with Street Lamps (Speed Unmarked) - 30-40
Single Carriage - 50-70
Dual Carriage without divider - 70
Dual Carriage with divider - 80-90
Motorway - light speed
Countryside - horse and cart speed

Let me know if I've missed any and I'll update the list.

Unfortunately I think having the speed limit above 80 would really put the **** up nervous/old/incompotent drivers.

 

[Muffin`]

Agreed. Especially when the decision to lower the limit on certain roads is based on the fact that there was an accident there where either the primary cause wasn't speed, or if it was, the offender was wilfully breaking the limit anyway.

Aye,

Man dies doing 80 on a 60 road = 50mph
Man dies doing 80 on a 50 road = 40 mph
Man dies walking drunk in the road at 2am = 30mph


'Speed kills' mantra was dangerous, trying to make it a social taboo was never, ever going to work, and it didn't.

I did laugh when the head of the Plymouth 'Safety' camera partnership was being laid off and she said "The bodies will start piling up".

 

[AshD93]

I'm surprised no-one has said Motorways should be more then 70.

Personally, I think most of them are okay. However some roads should be 40, not 30 (Especially during times when there is no traffic) and motorways should be 70 minimum.

The Autobahn has no limit and that works fine. Why can't we have even near to that.. Such as 100 MPH.

Most people on the motorway already do more then 70.

 

[Conscript]

I'm surprised no-one has said Motorways should be more then 70.

Personally, I think most of them are okay. However some roads should be 40, not 30 (Especially during times when there is no traffic) and motorways should be 70 minimum.

The Autobahn has no limit and that works fine. Why can't we have even near to that.. Such as 100 MPH.

Most people on the motorway already do more then 70.

A lot of motorways in this country are full of idiots who have trouble using them at 70MPH; I would be for an increased motorway speed limit if it went hand in hand with improved driver tuition. No point being able to do 100MPH on the motorway if you're still going to be tearing up behind morons dawdling along in the middle and third lanes doing 60MPH with no clue whats going on around them.

 

[Tute]

I'd have the motorways up to 80. And i'd ditch the 20mph zones and replace them with 30mph zones as they're an absolute waste of time.

The rest would all be about going around and fixing the over-conservative speed limits on many of the individual roads.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Based on my experience of UK roads motorways could use condition/time based variable limits with harsher penalties.

That is, poor conditions/heavy traffic usage sees a lowering of the limit to less than 70 when appropriate.

Good conditions, low traffic volume would see the limit increased beyond 70, perhaps even unrestricted on the better motorways where volume is low.

Breaking either limit should carry harsher penalties however.

As always, irrespective of limits the UK needs a comprehensive review of driver training and the levels required to obtain a licence. It's far too simple and far too easy as of now.

 

[Uriel]

I quite fancy having advisory limits. Exceeding them wouldn't be an offence in itself but if there is an incident and you were exceeding the limit you're more likely to be found liable or charged with an offense such as careless or dangerous driving.