Headed by the transport secretary the government plans to raise the speed limit to 80mph from 70mph by 2013. According to the misguided politician Philip Hammond “Increasing the motorway speed limit to 80mph would generate economic benefits of hundreds of millions of pounds through shorter journey times. So we will consult later this year on raising the limit to get Britain moving”.
What our fair transport secretary fails to mention is the increased death toll on our roads together with increased fuel bills for motorists already struggling as the government drives us into another debt soaked recession.
Research suggests that over 49% of of UK motorists currently flaunt the speed limit, opting to waste fuel and risk lives in the process. So maybe 90mph will be the new 80? We dread to think.
For the record, we a totally against the proposed plan. The benefits of the slightly increased journey times will be outweighed by both fuel costs and the danger to UK motorists. Travelling at 80MPH opposed to 70MPG could reduce mpg by up to 20%.
Maybe we should have taken a leaf from Spain’s book and reduced the speed limits.[ad]
The planned 80 limit is well over due and will be welcomed by sensible people across the country. A few points about your post. Firstly, there won’t be an increased death toll. Before Labour came to power our motorists essentially ignored most speed limits, even in the mid 90s the average motorway speeds were in excess of 80 MPH. After the roll out of safety camera partnerships and a mass campaign of speed enforcement we saw no reduction in the average annual death toll on the roads per miles driven. You suggest we should be like Spain and reduce our limits, have you been asleep for the last 13 years? Did you miss the introduction of the 20 MPH limit under Labour and the huge cut in limits in 30, 40 50 and national zones? We already lowered limits, to no ones benefit!
Fuel bills can not be increased by an increase in the limit, a driver chooses how fast to drive. In fact research shows that each driver will have a speed at which they feel most comfortable and show optimum concentration level. If you totally removed all speed limits you wouldn’t see everyone driving at 120 MPH on all roads. Believe it or not, people have a natural sense of how fast they like to drive. The reason we have limits is because this varies from person to person. The damage to to economy in relation to fuel bills comes from only one thing which is fuel tax and stupidly high VAT.
If you wanted to lower peoples fuel bills, cut the tax, not the speed limits.
The anti speed and green lobby need to step aside in the name of common sense.