Why can cars go over 70mph?

The UK isn't about to become a nation of advanced drivers anytime soon, or ever, at least until the robots take over.

For that reason it would be crazy to increase the speed limit on motorways which is why it won't happen, until the cars are driving themselves, which by the way is one of those things that is always 15 or 20 years away and may not ever happen.
 
Colgates_shaving_foam said:
The UK isn't about to become a nation of advanced drivers anytime soon, or ever, at least until the robots take over.

For that reason it would be crazy to increase the speed limit on motorways which is why it won't happen, until the cars are driving themselves, which by the way is one of those things that is always 15 or 20 years away and may not ever happen.
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There are 2 sides to the story on increasing the speed on motorways.

Firstly, if you consider 2 cars, one travelling at 70 miles an hour and another at 100 miles an hour. If they break simultaneously, when the one doing 70 comes to a full stop, the one that was travelling at 100 miles an hour would still be doing 70 miles an hour. It's a huge difference and changes the dynamic of an accident.

The second, and counter argument, is that cars are much safer now than they were when the 70 mile an hour limit was introduced, so why shouldn't the speed limit be increased to account for better engineered cars?

Personally I think 70 is plenty on a motorway, but I wouldn't be complaining if it was increased to 80, living down south I wouldn't get much chance to do 80, it's motoring freedom on the M1 when you see the sign go from 40 to 50!
 
Laughing said:
There are 2 sides to the story on increasing the speed on motorways.

Firstly, if you consider 2 cars, one travelling at 70 miles an hour and another at 100 miles an hour. If they break simultaneously, when the one doing 70 comes to a full stop, the one that was travelling at 100 miles an hour would still be doing 70 miles an hour. It's a huge difference and changes the dynamic of an accident.

The second, and counter argument, is that cars are much safer now than they were when the 70 mile an hour limit was introduced, so why shouldn't the speed limit be increased to account for better engineered cars?

Personally I think 70 is plenty on a motorway, but I wouldn't be complaining if it was increased to 80, living down south I wouldn't get much chance to do 80, it's motoring freedom on the M1 when you see the sign go from 40 to 50!
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That's a really sensible post. I like that.
 
Laughing said:
There are 2 sides to the story on increasing the speed on motorways.

Firstly, if you consider 2 cars, one travelling at 70 miles an hour and another at 100 miles an hour. If they break simultaneously, when the one doing 70 comes to a full stop, the one that was travelling at 100 miles an hour would still be doing 70 miles an hour. It's a huge difference and changes the dynamic of an accident.

The second, and counter argument, is that cars are much safer now than they were when the 70 mile an hour limit was introduced, so why shouldn't the speed limit be increased to account for better engineered cars?

Personally I think 70 is plenty on a motorway, but I wouldn't be complaining if it was increased to 80, living down south I wouldn't get much chance to do 80, it's motoring freedom on the M1 when you see the sign go from 40 to 50!
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I think with the nature of people in this country and their outlook on driving, all an increase would do is encourage them to drive even faster as loads of people go above the speed limit anyway.

I'd be minded to increase the tolerance of overs a little bit but beyond that increase the punishment levels for serious speeders.

There's a clip from one of the motorway cops programmes where the officer gets passed by a BMW giving it the beans in the North West and he says that they make assumptions about the offender depending on the speed that they are travelling at. Once it gets to ridiculous speeds they assume that they're chasing serious criminals.
 
SmallTown said:
True. But doing, say, 80 on a motorway is illegal but not necessarily bad if given a decent driver and a properly maintained car
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Everyone thinks they are a decent driver though when a huge number clearly aren’t. Huge steps need to be taken to improve driving standards before this should be considered
 
Unravel_Morrison said:
I think with the nature of people in this country and their outlook on driving, all an increase would do is encourage them to drive even faster as loads of people go above the speed limit anyway.

I'd be minded to increase the tolerance of overs a little bit but beyond that increase the punishment levels for serious speeders.

There's a clip from one of the motorway cops programmes where the officer gets passed by a BMW giving it the beans in the North West and he says that they make assumptions about the offender depending on the speed that they are travelling at. Once it gets to ridiculous speeds they assume that they're chasing serious criminals.
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The fact that at extremes people ignore driving laws suggest that raising the speed limit to 80 will have no effect on these people.

Not really for or against it to be honest.
 
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