Drive faster to relieve "frustration".

[stockhausen]

Speed limits through most roadworks on England's motorways will be raised to increase traffic flow and ease driver "frustrations".

Highways England says raising the limit to 60mph from the usual 50mph comes after "extensive research and trials". The AA welcomed the move, saying it would reduce journey times and help reduce tailgating by motorists.

Previously, unions have said increasing speeds through roadworks will put the safety of workers at risk.

Limits will not necessarily be increased at every set of roadworks. Depending on the road layout and the work being done, 40mph and 50mph restrictions will continue to be used in places. (LINK)

One downside to this is that drivers will "tailgate" at a higher speed; on the other hand, since the speed limit may be 60, 50 or 40 MPH, extra revenue will be earned through fining motorists who get it wrong

 

[Chris Wilson]

A 60MPH limit has one serious drawback n that LGV's are speed limited to 56MPH so there will only be a 4 MPH speed difference between them and cars running at 60MPH, meaning overtaking in narrow lanes, and often only two of them, means a longer time in truck driver's blind spots. A 50MPH limit means trucks can legally go as fast as the cars, meaning overtaking is less likely. I

had it drummed into me from my earliest days of driving not to "hover" alongside trucks for any longer than need be when overtaking. This came from my late father who had a Riley Pathfinder with a longer wheelbase and a narrower track than designed, thanks to a LHD truck driver not seeing him alongside as the truck changed lanes.My wife just doesn't seem to get it and will put the fear of God in passengers, (including me), by lurking alongside trucks for minutes at a time rather than putting her foot down and clearing the hazard in a timely manner. Frustrates the poor truck drivers, too!

 

[ianh]

My preference would have been that, instead of having a 20 mile stretch of 50mph roadworks with only 1 or 2 tiny sections actually being worked on because of a lack of workers and/or equipment, they'd only done 1 mile sections and spent the money previously needed to buy 20 miles of signs, barriers and cameras etc on more workers/equipment so they could work 24hrs and therefore get each 1 mile section done faster meaning the whole 20 mile stretch wouldn't take 2+ years to complete.

Then again I'm not a highly paid "road maintenance planner" who knows better and has a big Government budget they need to blow through because it's not their money!

 

[Diddums]

A 60MPH limit has one serious drawback n that LGV's are speed limited to 56MPH so there will only be a 4 MPH speed difference between them and cars running at 60MPH, meaning overtaking in narrow lanes, and often only two of them, means a longer time in truck driver's blind spots. A 50MPH limit means trucks can legally go as fast as the cars, meaning overtaking is less likely. I

had it drummed into me from my earliest days of driving not to "hover" alongside trucks for any longer than need be when overtaking. This came from my late father who had a Riley Pathfinder with a longer wheelbase and a narrower track than designed, thanks to a LHD truck driver not seeing him alongside as the truck changed lanes.My wife just doesn't seem to get it and will put the fear of God in passengers, (including me), by lurking alongside trucks for minutes at a time rather than putting her foot down and clearing the hazard in a timely manner. Frustrates the poor truck drivers, too!

Show her some vids of truck tyres exploding, that'll convince anyone how dangerous they can be.

 

[mjt]

Seems like a crazy decision. If there’s only a 10mph difference, no one is going to slowdown and they’ll all blast through at 70 anyway.

Why not just increase the normal speed to 80?

 

[Stumble Bum]

Seems like a crazy decision. If there’s only a 10mph difference, no one is going to slowdown and they’ll all blast through at 70 anyway.

Why not just increase the normal speed to 80?

These road works tend to always have average speed cameras, so every car does go through at 50mph. Increasing it by 10mph, will makes a difference, it's a sensible decision, 50 does feel way too slow going through these, especially when there is never anyone working there anyway.

 

[bremen1874]

Because many of the people that already speed will add another 10mph to what they think is acceptable.

Most serious speed restricted roadworks have enforcement cameras on them. They need to be on, and people need to know that they're on and will be used.

 

[Rroff]

Dunno if it is just me but in the last couple of weeks I've noticed a big increase in people who are doing 40 in a 60 (where it is safe to do the limit) that is frustrating. And a fair increase in people behind me who catch up at 40 in a 30 in a built up area then sit glued to my tail.

I just don't understand the mentality.

 

[bremen1874]

There will always be the people who drive at 40 whatever the speed limit is. They are a complete menace where ever they are driving.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Well 50mph is too slow almost the entire length of the M27 is 50mph and has been for at least a year its maddening it takes a good hour to traverse it while it shouldn't take anything as long as that. Its also weird coming of the dual carriageway where its 70mph and having to slow down for an age then when speed up when you get off, makes a mockery of the whole idea of motorways I've yet to see any work being done on it its just permanent restrictions.

A 60MPH limit has one serious drawback n that LGV's are speed limited to 56MPH so there will only be a 4 MPH speed difference between them and cars running at 60MPH, meaning overtaking in narrow lanes, and often only two of them, means a longer time in truck driver's blind spots. A 50MPH limit means trucks can legally go as fast as the cars, meaning overtaking is less likely. I

had it drummed into me from my earliest days of driving not to "hover" alongside trucks for any longer than need be when overtaking. This came from my late father who had a Riley Pathfinder with a longer wheelbase and a narrower track than designed, thanks to a LHD truck driver not seeing him alongside as the truck changed lanes.My wife just doesn't seem to get it and will put the fear of God in passengers, (including me), by lurking alongside trucks for minutes at a time rather than putting her foot down and clearing the hazard in a timely manner. Frustrates the poor truck drivers, too!

Well I assume most people will simply exceed the speed limit for the short distance and if necessary dropping under a for a short time to even it out, most cameras have a margin of tolerance i.e. you won't get busted if you're caught doing 51mph for a stretch. As always don't push your luck though.

 

[Steeps]

The issue was HGVs sitting on their limiter in the middle lane but can't go back to lane 1 because the flow of cars is too slow, then get held up by a car slowly overtaking another. It's just like the A1 lorry races where the A1 gets clogged by lorries trying to overtake on limiters but with cars in all 3 lanes. 60 was a lot smoother.

 

[builder22]

the only thing more annoying than trucks creeping past each other in an elephant race is cars doing the same!

 

[bremen1874]

What about people incapable of keeping to a consistent speed on free-flowing roads, even when they are driving cars that will certainly have cruise control?

 

[Burnsy2023]

This is proof that people will complain about any change. I think all the worries here will amount to nothing and people will adjust to the change and think nothing of it - including taking for granted that they saved a bit of time on their journey.

 

[theone8181]

Sounds good to me, I'm not a fan of cruising at 50 with a lorry getting ever closer to my rear bumper. I stick the cruise on at 50 but the amount of people that must be doing 60 is unreal.

 

[GreatAuk]

I think this is a great change, will reduce the frustration factor a little bit.

Absolutely ridiculous how long it's taking them to do some of these upgrades, but at least I'll be driving past miles and miles of deserted roadworks a little bit more quickly than before .

Interesting point about LGV limiters though, suppose will have to see what effect this has on traffic flow in reality.

 

[Semple]

My preference would have been that, instead of having a 20 mile stretch of 50mph roadworks with only 1 or 2 tiny sections actually being worked on because of a lack of workers and/or equipment, they'd only done 1 mile sections and spent the money previously needed to buy 20 miles of signs, barriers and cameras etc on more workers/equipment so they could work 24hrs and therefore get each 1 mile section done faster meaning the whole 20 mile stretch wouldn't take 2+ years to complete.

Then again I'm not a highly paid "road maintenance planner" who knows better and has a big Government budget they need to blow through because it's not their money!

I agree with this a lot. Unless you have a lot of manpower to work on all sections of a 20-30 mile stretch of roadworks, then the stretch should be capped to something like 5 miles, and then once that section has completed, they can move onto the next section. I appreciate this might take slightly longer to finish a project this way, but the tradeoff is less hours that traffic is spent on moving slowly. I recall seeing a statistic of quite a few millions lost in the economy for every minute that the motorway doesn't run at its optimal speed.

 

[200sols]

Well 50mph is too slow almost the entire length of the M27 is 50mph and has been for at least a year its maddening it takes a good hour to traverse it while it shouldn't take anything as long as that.

The M27 is like 28 miles long and the roadworks dont run the entire length so how does it take a good hour at 50mph? Also the traffic at peak times has been much better at 50mph, before that it really could take 2 hours to travel end to end.

 

[builder22]

Interesting point about LGV limiters though, suppose will have to see what effect this has on traffic flow in reality.

The trucks in a hurry will be on the limiter, catching and wanting to overtake cars that are sitting at 60 on the speedo...

 

[m4rmite]

A 60MPH limit has one serious drawback n that LGV's are speed limited to 56MPH so there will only be a 4 MPH speed difference between them and cars running at 60MPH, meaning overtaking in narrow lanes, and often only two of them, means a longer time in truck driver's blind spots. A 50MPH limit means trucks can legally go as fast as the cars, meaning overtaking is less likely. I

had it drummed into me from my earliest days of driving not to "hover" alongside trucks for any longer than need be when overtaking. This came from my late father who had a Riley Pathfinder with a longer wheelbase and a narrower track than designed, thanks to a LHD truck driver not seeing him alongside as the truck changed lanes.My wife just doesn't seem to get it and will put the fear of God in passengers, (including me), by lurking alongside trucks for minutes at a time rather than putting her foot down and clearing the hazard in a timely manner. Frustrates the poor truck drivers, too!

Older hgvs have the 56mph limit, it was raised to 60mph a few years back.
However you can't program older hgvs to go at 60mph, it's illegal