Further proof that speed is not the problem...

[Dolph]

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=20890

An experiment to raise speed limits to 80mph in Utah has been declared a success in road safety terms.


Limits can go up, as well as down...
Since 2008, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has been allowed to raise posted limits to 80mph from 75mph, but because motorists were already driving at speeds greater than the original limit the effect has been simply to bring drivers within the law, rather than worsen highway safety.


That’s the official view of the UDOT which has been studying the move closely, as described by the department’s deputy director Carlos Braceras:

“"Overall we saw speeds increase between two and three miles per hour," he says. "The speed differentials did increase and we saw no change in accident history, while the number of vehicles exceeding the speed limit decreased 20 percent."

According to thenewspaper.com which has reported the story, when the speed limit was 75mph, 85th percentile speeds measured between 81 and 85mph - a barely perceptible change from the 83 to 85mph speeds recorded when the 80mph limit was introduced.

The 85th percentile speed represents the speed at which 85 percent of free-flowing traffic feels is the safest, and according to the report engineers have determined that the best safety is achieved when speed limits match that 85th percentile speed.

Which all makes perfect sense, given that the 85th percentile speed used to be the basis of speed limits in the UK originally until some people decided, without any evidence, to ignore the idea that drivers know what is safe and to create random, arbitary limits with no factual basis...

Will we see similar sensible policies in the UK? Or will the speed facists carry on their campaign of FUD to prevent it from happening?

 

[Dolph]

Didn't the Government introduce the speed limit on motorways to curb fuel consuption during the oil crisis in the 70s?

n

No, they introduced them in the 60's as a result of panic driven hysteria about fast cars with no evidential basis...

 

[Dolph]

Well when you consider the ford anglia was the car of the time and how pant wettingly scary it was to brake from just 50mph, you could probably understand why

well, that wasn't the problem, so much as people in e types and cobras on the then new and unrestricted m1. the fact that there were no accidents attributed to it or that those cars were miles ahead of things like the anglia was completely forgotten...