Minimum speed/power requirement on Motorways

Jez said:
Road safety is already very good in this country, when you say "ban budget tyres", i presume that you guys actually mean that you disagree with the standards which need to be met.

Ask @geekman about the safety standards in Mexico if you think ours need attention, he has posted some funny pictures :p
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The standard for tyres is to low. Some of the budget tyres are lethal in the wet/cold. Especially when stuck on something with any performance.
 
Nasher said:
The standard for tyres is to low. Some of the budget tyres are lethal in the wet/cold. Especially when stuck on something with any performance.
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I was sold a car with "brand new" tyres...didn't recognise the brand but thought **** it they are new.

Went round every corner with tyre sequel in the summer on dry roads. It was honestly like driving with plastic wheels on a drift buggy.
 
I think a simple minimum motorway speed limit would be a sensible addition to our driving laws. There's nothing wrong with cruising along at 65mph if you're not in a hurry, but if you're being overtaken by HGVs then you're doing something wrong. I don't believe a car has been manufactured in the last 30-odd years that can legally drive on a motorway that isn't capable of cruising at 70mph all day long?

Also Fiat 500s and Corsas may be crap and slow but a decent driver would have no problem keeping up with any traffic in one, or driving it in accordance with the conditions. It's not the car, it's the driver. Unless it's a Ford Galaxy with a private hire plate. In which case you'd be wise to steer clear.


[TW]Fox said:
Probably can't see properly over the 5 dashcams most terrible drivers seem to have these days.
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:D Don't ever change, sir.
 
Jez said:
Road safety is already very good in this country, when you say "ban budget tyres", i presume that you guys actually mean that you disagree with the standards which need to be met.

Ask @geekman about the safety standards in Mexico if you think ours need attention, he has posted some funny pictures :p
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Those are mild compared to some of the stuff I’ve seen, but I don’t take pictures of fatal accidents etc for obvious reasons. Even compared to the US, the UK has very high safety standards. I’ve seen stuff driving around in Texas and Florida with obvious structural rust, bent frames etc that I’ve never seen in the UK. The shoulders of US highways are littered with bits of truck tyres from blowouts, which you don’t see that often in the UK either.
 
^ Indeed, we just love a moan in the UK. Our roads and safety standards are amazing compared with the US/Canada, and frankly ditto the French and a lot of Europe bar the very expensive toll roads.
 
Ours are some of the safest in the world, especially with the overpopulation we have.

Not seen stats since "smart" motorways came along. But I can't see it being an improvement as it's just throwing in a bunch of random variables to distract people.
 
geekman said:
Those are mild compared to some of the stuff I’ve seen, but I don’t take pictures of fatal accidents etc for obvious reasons. Even compared to the US, the UK has very high safety standards. I’ve seen stuff driving around in Texas and Florida with obvious structural rust, bent frames etc that I’ve never seen in the UK. The shoulders of US highways are littered with bits of truck tyres from blowouts, which you don’t see that often in the UK either.
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Yeah it was something that amazed me when in the US - more than once I've been passed a vehicle where you can see in through rusted out holes in the door panels, etc.

I've not been to Canada in awhile but one of the things I did note was how so many of the roads were concrete type surface quite uneven with a myriad of patches and so on - looked really ugly (though I suspect that is partly due to the weather they can get - I suspect the road surfaces we have here would get destroyed very quickly if we had the kind of cold and frequency of gritting/salting like in Canada).
 
geekman said:
Those are mild compared to some of the stuff I’ve seen, but I don’t take pictures of fatal accidents etc for obvious reasons. Even compared to the US, the UK has very high safety standards. I’ve seen stuff driving around in Texas and Florida with obvious structural rust, bent frames etc that I’ve never seen in the UK. The shoulders of US highways are littered with bits of truck tyres from blowouts, which you don’t see that often in the UK either.
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correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think there's even mot's in Florida is there? Wasn't there a picture if a guy's door rusted so bad so could see his legs through the hole:eek:.
 
theone8181 said:
correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think there's even mot's in Florida is there? Wasn't there a picture if a guy's door rusted so bad so could see his legs through the hole:eek:.
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I think a few members live there so will be able to confirm for sure, but I know there's several states which don't have any MOT equivalent. That doesn't mean you can't still be stopped and fined if your car is in a dangerous condition, but with the amount of space there is in the US it must be pretty easy to go a long time without encountering an officer who's sufficiently bothered about it to pull you over.
 
Nasher said:
The standard for tyres is to low. Some of the budget tyres are lethal in the wet/cold. Especially when stuck on something with any performance.
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totally agree with this.
Whenever i am in getting rubber (which is quite a lot lol) i am always hanging about the reception of the tyre place while others come in and ask for quotes and almost every one is after budgets.
"ohh i dont drive fast" or "i only go around town" is the usual **** from them.
Cheep rubber is crap, and tight car owners with cheep rubber are idiots.
 
TBH they are ok if you're just rolling around town at 20 mph, that isn't fast enough to get in to real trouble. But sticking them on something like an M3 and doing 70+ on a wet motorway is just asking for it. Even with modern ABS and traction control they won't be able to stop in an emergency.
 
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kurosagi01 said:
My greatest fear are sliproads as i've had my first accident on small slip road entering a dual carriage way with 50mph speed limit, this was my own error though crashing into a busy traffic with cars lining up to get onto the dual carriage way.
But I use this slip road everyday and I always get tensed up, not because I can't reach the 50mph speed on slip road and then enter the dual carriage way but because I can't see if its clear enough to enter the road as the sliproad is on a hill and the grass covers the dual carriage way slightly so your view is slightly obstructed by it. So I approach it at 30ish to make sure I can enter safely without causing people to slow down and gives me enough time to brake if I can't..but people behind me don't really think that.
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Just get up to speed man!! Accelerate up to the 50mph limit and slot safely in, what are you pottering around at doing 30mph? It makes absolutely no sense and is just dangerous. I get it constantly on junction 14 southbound of the M6 where the sliproad is a slight incline up to the motorway, the amount of people that dawdle up there without a care in the world is unbelieveable. It's almost like they want to cause a pile up! Can you tell this is one of my pet hates on the road??

kurosagi01 said:
Anyway in my opinion it depends on the commute, a 60bhp car might be fine to do short commutes but doing anything longer than 2 hours it will start to struggle a little to keep the car at the national speed.
A 1.6 or car with 90 bhp would be minimum to get to any speed or travel on motorways without any problems in my opinion.
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What has the length of time a car being driven got to do with it not being able to stay at the national speed limit? I've never heard so much twaddle...
 
[TW]Fox said:
If you're driving sufficiently slowly in a car that laden HGVs are having to pull out and overtake you on a motorway or dual carriageway then you are driving tkk slowly. Why do people do it?
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Howard said:
I think a simple minimum motorway speed limit would be a sensible addition to our driving laws. There's nothing wrong with cruising along at 65mph if you're not in a hurry, but if you're being overtaken by HGVs then you're doing something wrong. I don't believe a car has been manufactured in the last 30-odd years that can legally drive on a motorway that isn't capable of cruising at 70mph all day long?
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I sometimes have to take my work vehicle on the motorway. It's been limited (all company vehicles are) to 51mph but there is simply not enough time in the 'trip' to go around surface roads.

I don't particularly like it & drive with the pedal to the floor.

Although it's not a car, it's a tad bigger.
 
coupe69 said:
Just get up to speed man!! Accelerate up to the 50mph limit and slot safely in, what are you pottering around at doing 30mph? It makes absolutely no sense and is just dangerous. I get it constantly on junction 14 southbound of the M6 where the sliproad is a slight incline up to the motorway, the amount of people that dawdle up there without a care in the world is unbelieveable. It's almost like they want to cause a pile up! Can you tell this is one of my pet hates on the road??

What has the length of time a car being driven got to do with it not being able to stay at the national speed limit? I've never heard so much twaddle...
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Its a small slip road and checking if its clear to slot in safely isn't always that clear and i'm speaking relative to experience of cars overheating after long commute on a hot summer day. My old Peugeot 206 1.1 overheated once on a long commute on a hot summer day, to the point I needed to stop at service station to let it cool down.
 
[TW]Fox said:
If you're driving sufficiently slowly in a car that laden HGVs are having to pull out and overtake you on a motorway or dual carriageway then you are driving tkk slowly. Why do people do it?

Even worse are those who join the motorway at all 30mph. Probably can't see properly over the 5 dashcams most terrible drivers seem to have these days.
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How many you got then? 10?
 
[TW]Fox said:
If you're driving sufficiently slowly in a car that laden HGVs are having to pull out and overtake you on a motorway or dual carriageway then you are driving tkk slowly. Why do people do it?

Even worse are those who join the motorway at all 30mph. Probably can't see properly over the 5 dashcams most terrible drivers seem to have these days.
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Over the last couple of weeks I've had to make several trips up and down the A12 and I can relate to this. Its depressing enough when one lorry pulls out to make an achingly slow overtake of another, but when it does it to overtake some moron doing 55mph, in a car perfectly capable of maintaining a much higher speed, "bEcAuSE it's the mOSt eCoNOmiC spEEd!!", its rage inducing.
 
kurosagi01 said:
Its a small slip road and checking if its clear to slot in safely isn't always that clear and i'm speaking relative to experience of cars overheating after long commute on a hot summer day. My old Peugeot 206 1.1 overheated once on a long commute on a hot summer day, to the point I needed to stop at service station to let it cool down.
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This is nothing to do with the type of vehicle and everything to do with poor maintenence.
Peugeot will have run the thing in baking hot /freezing cold conditions for thousands of hours in development and testing.
 
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