Comments on: Crazy proposal to raise speed limits above speed limiter settings

By: Calvin macfarlane

Calvin macfarlane — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:54:04 +0000

I agree same speed limit is best but would not be happy if car speed limits were reduced to accommodate this. For safety all vehicles could not do 70mph. I drive 15 metre single deck coaches (50ft) and 14.5 metre long doubledeck coaches with trailer, and 70 mph for latter vehicle would affect its stability in my opinion. I can only presume this would be the case for large HGV’s. As far as km/h and mph, it don’t bother me what we run by. Can’t ever see km/h ever taking over in GB.

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 16 May 2010 10:21:42 +0000

When will the people responsible for these decisions get real?
Isn’t it obvious that vehicles travelling in one direction at the same speed have to be safer than different types travelling at different speeds? This is exactly the reason so many manoeuvres are made on motorways and in many instances the cause of collisions & crashes on a daily basis on our motorways. The same goes for the antiquated 40mph single carriageway rule with cars overtaking on bends etc due to frustration. Surely upgrading LGV’s to 50mph and downgrading cars from 60 to 50mph has to make these roads safer. We forget, I think, that HGV’s and LGV’s are much more safer and driver-friendly these days and together with the extensive driver training are probably much safer on our roads than most other vehicles.
Come on Britain. Get a grip. We’re in 2010 not 1950.

By: gareth holloway

gareth holloway — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:35:38 +0000

I feel that the speed limit should be raised for lorries and buses to 65mph. So less drivers don’t have accidents by falling asleep at the wheel with the drone of the engine at 56mph in hgvs. And maybe more people will use coaches as they will get you to your destination quicker at 65mph. And that should mean less cars on the roads and leave us delivery drivers to have safer roads without cars pulling in front of you. Thank you.

By: Ezra Steinberg

Ezra Steinberg — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:43:10 +0000

Actually, non-UK spec vehicles would never have mph on their speedometers, would they? I presume such vehicles are perfectly legal on UK roadways, yes? So, if bridge strikes are an issue for foreign drivers in foreign lorries, hence requiring dual signage for dimension limits, would it not also behove DfT to use dual signage for speed limits for similar reasons (at least in those areas where the speed limit is less than what the speed limiter would enforce)?

Yet another safety issue DfT is failing to address in its mad effort to resist metric units with all its might.

By: Glen

Glen — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:40:42 +0000

Given the fact the km is the major unit (outside ring of the speedo dial, trip counter, odometer, tachograph) of vehicles with tachographs (which now means any comercal bigger than a light van (and including them if they have a towbar) it would be far easier for a lorry driver to point the needle at 90km/h than it would be looking for the smaller 60mph mark. For this reason, the drivers of these classes of vehicles will already be pretty familiar with km, so simply setting the limit in klicks shouldn’t cause them much bother, it’d be easier for them. There’s also the considerable bonus to road safety that the large number of foreign registered lorries (some of which seem to pass you with suspiciously high speed limiter settings) should understand the max speed accurately as non UK spec vehicles tend not to have mph marked on their speedometers at all.

By: busby

busby — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:58:06 +0000

I’m sure we’ve all seen the speed limit “100″ stickers on the back of many UK coaches.

If the DfT proposals go through, I wonder if some owners of older coaches will advertise their new speed advantage by sticking a “105″ sticker on the back of their vehicle.

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:38:09 +0000

Calvin’s neatly rounded up, but essentially different, imperial equivalent of the 12-metre vehicle length that governs current coach speed limits is a good illustration of what the DfT have done in their proposals to define speed limits in terms of rounded up imperial equivalents of metric speed limiter settings.

The DfT’s stated intention of aligning all the different commercial vehicle motorway speed limits with speed limiter settings will, as Calvin points out, result in a simplification and reduction in the number of different speed limits. But, by sweeping the km/h-mph issue under the carpet, we will end up with 4 different effective limits, instead of only 2 if commercial vehicle speed limits were to be set in kilometres per hour (km/h):

90 km/h for newer HGVs
60 mph for older HGVs
100 km/h for newer PCVs
65 mph for older PCVs

Things would be simpler, and a lot less confusing, if we all used one system of measurement and didn’t distort values by converting them back and forth between different systems.

By: philh

philh — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:43:01 +0000

No one is suggesting that the DfT do not have legitimate safety reasons for their proposed changes, or other matters of concern.

Indeed, as far as km/h are concerned it is not on their agenda at all.

It remains a fact however that part of the problem is trying to accommodate km/h based limiter settings within a framework of speed limits in mph (hence the odd figure of 62 mph). The point of the article is the unnecessary complexity that arises from this.

If clarity and simplicity is what they want then the proposal here would provide a better basis for it.

By: Calvin macfarlane

Calvin macfarlane — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:16:31 +0000

The proposed changes are for more reasons than justfor you people to just moan about km/h and mph, the main reason is due to so many different speed limits, for example a coach unrestricted can do 70mph unless over 40 ft, if coach restricted it can only do 62mph if 40ft, minibuses can do 70mph coach with trailer 60mph coach over 40 ft 60mph and the lorries are even more confusing so DFT quite rightly want to clarify and make this simple as one speed limit.
The 2nd reason is to make the differential speed gap between cars and lorries smaller meaning safer roads this has been proven within roadworks where average speed cameras use to control traffic at 40mph causing delays, when roadwork speed increased to 50mph as are now, delays were minimalised.

By: Ezra Steinberg

Ezra Steinberg — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 23:38:59 +0000

Here is a link to the story about the super test centres that Alex refers to:

http://news.parliament.uk/2010/03/millions-wasted-on-new-motorcycle-super-test-centres-says-report/

Here is the part that really strikes me from the Transport Committee report (as paraphrased in the article):

“The Committee condemns Ministers’ failure to negotiate an exemption from the EU requirement that parts of the test should be performed at 50 km/h or 31.07 mph. MPs argue that it is both bizarre and confusing that tests should be performed at speeds not permitted on the public highway in built-up areas, and that it should be measured in units not commonly used in the UK.”

The MPs have it the wrong way ’round: what is bizarre and confusing is that signage and all applicable laws pertaining to motoring are not exclusively in metric units.

Once again, I believe (or at least hope!) we are approaching critical mass regarding the anomalies and unnecessary expense that has its root cause in the UK retaining Imperial units on road signs. Let’s hope enough influential persons, both within and without government, will raise their voices and exercise their influence to finally turn this sorry situation around.