Interesting idea on speed limits

Flukester

Flukester

Flukester

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Just had a brain wave thought I would share...

With modern cars many can safely far exceed the 70mph limit totally safely.. when it becomes dangerous is when conditions don't allow it, but more importantly when your vehicle really isn't up to it.


My idea is to abolish the 70mph limit and instead your maximum speed allowed is a preset limit for your exact vehicle make / type. (when road conditions allow ie - no rain / fog / heavy traffic)

For example,

Transit van - 70mph, these things are a menace when hooning up mway at 90+

Lambo Gallardo - 160mph, could prolly still stop quicker from this speed than a average car moving much slower

Golf GTI - 125mph, hot hatches are pretty unstable above this sorta speed

Generic Luxo Barge - 140mph, they can sit safe at these speed all day, not really equipped for faster (hence many sticking 155 limiters on them)


Think I could be onto something here. People who own 'sheds' will be capped at low speeds.. better handling / equipped motors allowed much faster. Cars bought from new coould have a 'rated speed' plate, or maybe even a transponder that will give feedback to police speed traps on rated speed vs actual.

Just a thought ;)
 
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Flukester said:
Just had a brain wave thought I would share...

With modern cars many can safely far exceed the 70mph limit totally safely.. when it becomes dangerous is when conditions don't allow it, but more importantly when your vehicle really isn't up to it.


My idea is to abolish the 70mph limit and instead your maximum speed allowed is a preset limit for your exact vehicle make / type. (when road conditions allow ie - no rain / fog / heavy traffic)

For example,

Transit van - 70mph, these things are a menace when hooning up mway at 90+

Lambo Gallardo - 160mph, could prolly still stop quicker from this speed than a average car moving much slower

Golf GTI - 125mph, hot hatches are pretty unstable above this sorta speed


Think I could be onto something here. People who own 'sheds' will be capped at low speeds.. better handling / equipped motors allowed much faster.

Just a thought ;)
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each person would have to learn a new set of limit every time they change there car. and the police would have difficulty in keep track of themm all lol
 
i'm sure they could cope, just edited post about the transponders on cars, would be cheap...

fuzz could also have a 'ispy' book of cars lol, wouldn't take long to learn what car is allowed to travel at what speed. There could be even just half dozen different ratings... keep things simple.

the 70 limit is outdated with advances in technology, this fixes the problem in the safest way possible.
 
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It doesn't take driver ability into account, so it fails.

My own thought is to abolish the NSL, bring more police back on the roads and prosecute people for driving like a muppet, you know, like we used to do when road deaths were falling much quicker than they are now...
 
How many lanes will you want on the motorway? The van driver in one lane, the golf driver in another, the 7 series in another, the gallardo driver in another, the enzo driver in another and the bugatti in another. sounds perfectly reasonable to e.
 
Dolph said:
It doesn't take driver ability into account, so it fails.

My own thought is to abolish the NSL, bring more police back on the roads and prosecute people for driving like a muppet, you know, like we used to do when road deaths were falling much quicker than they are now...
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thats a pretty good idea... so if caught cruising empty mway at 150 they would not even stop you ?

could work though, if police could back up conviction as to why your were being dangerous... as long as they don't link speed as the sole cause, but instead speed coupled with XYZ condition / cirsumstance
 
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Crossy said:
How many lanes will you want on the motorway? The van driver in one lane, the golf driver in another, the 7 series in another, the gallardo driver in another, the enzo driver in another and the bugatti in another. sounds perfectly reasonable to e.
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I dont see a reason for a lane for every speed... people can use there heads. Empty road you can floor it to your allowed speed if it's safe to do so.

edit: love the idea of a veyron lane though lmao
 
But a Transit van is the fastest thing on the roads, everyone knows that!:D
The trouble is everyone will be doing their maximum speed in the outside lane and you are back to square one
 
They will not say "Actually, speed doesn’t kill" as it will be the biggest U-turn ever, and the politician would be seeing the end of his career.

Of course having more plod about pestering poor driving and having speed cameras changes to braking distance cameras would be much better ;)
 
Flukester said:
thats a pretty good idea... so if caught cruising empty mway at 150 they would not even stop you ?
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That would depend entirely on whether the speed was safe and sensible for the conditions

could work though, if police could back up conviction as to why your were being dangerous... as long as they don't link speed as the sole cause, but instead speed coupled with XYZ condition / cirsumstance
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That's in reality what the police used to do before camera enforcement. It's why getting points for speeding used to be considered much worse than it is these days, getting a speeding ticket usually meant you were driving like a pleb.

Having said all this, I doubt we'd see that many large speed increases if such a policy was implemented. Anyone with decent driver training knows how tiring the observation required for safe driving at 100mph is, let alone 150mph, and most roads (even A roads and Motorways) do not really have the observational distance to make 150mph safe.
 
lol brilliant idea :p would never work though

Put limit up to 100 on motorway.
And Instant ban for any vehicle that moves into the outside lane doing less than 70
 
chaparral said:
Does this brain wave of yours include seeing what left after these cars have hit another car with kids & baby in at between 125mph to 160mph ????
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only a matter in time before someone mentioned 'think of the children'

i'm not convinced that speed on a fast road is directly linked to chance of death.

people die at 40mph daily, yet we still travel at this speed.
 
The least they could do is make it 80 mph like in parts of europe, average highway code stopping distances also could do with some serious revision. Were they not derived from a morris minor with drum brakes all round or something similarly crap.

Making faster cars also tends to increase safety protection as they are built to withstand higher speed impacts, I'd rather crash in a porsche 997 than a fiat panda regardless of speed.
 
Tyre blow out at >100mph? No thanks.

Some idiot pulls out when going >100mph? No thanks!

Most vehicles simply aren't maintained thoroughly enough to travel at these speeds regularly.

Then what about fuel consumption?
 
Not really appropriate when were encouraging lower emissions and saving the sky high fuel. Even if you did that I doubt many would drive that fast, I wouldn't. Since starting my new contract 2 months ago i have noticed that the M40 now seems to move along at 70 rather than 80. People have started to slow down to save fuel.
 
NathanE said:
Tyre blow out at >100mph? No thanks.

Some idiot pulls out when going >100mph? No thanks!

Most vehicles simply aren't maintained thoroughly enough to travel at these speeds regularly.

Then what about fuel consumption?
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To aid with blow outs you could consider fitting runflat tyres, some control can be retained. Why have the german car companies lead with RFT tyres across their ranges? Either way 70mph/100 mph a blowout isnt going to be fun.

Have you ever driven on an autobahn, the level of driver courtesy and awareness is much higher than in the uk where every other drive is a lemming. They generally keep out of the way of fast moving vehicles.

If the cars are not roadworthy for 100mph why are they roadworthy at 70mph. Even a basic modern car can exceed 100mph, should MOT's be more strict to remove the old bangers off the road?

Some cars will also be more efficient at higher speeds, a differential in vehicle speeds may also aid traffic flow by allowing safe overtaking to be made (ie not at 3 mph faster than the adjacent lane for fear of plod/gatso) it could also reduce bunching.
 
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Dolph said:
It doesn't take driver ability into account, so it fails.

My own thought is to abolish the NSL, bring more police back on the roads and prosecute people for driving like a muppet, you know, like we used to do when road deaths were falling much quicker than they are now...
Click to expand...

When road deaths were falling, wasn't technology in cars improving at the same time?
 
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