Well, it’s been a few months and the media seems to be at a bit of a loose end – so, hey! Why not dig up that thing about raising motorway speed limits to 80mph again?
This article in the Telegraph rehashes the same information from February this year.
It is argued that by raising the limit to 80mph, drivers will have more respect for the rules. You may as well argue that it will also end the recession and world hunger if you’re going to make silly claims up like that.
A DfT spokesman said:
We need to make sure that we are looking at the right criteria…
This means looking at the economic benefits of shorter journey times as well as considering other implications such as road safety and carbon emissions.
Any proposal to change national speed limits would be subject to full public consultation.
At least someone is still in touch with reality (a little bit, anyway).
Going faster will only lead to shorter journey times if there is no other traffic around. A typical journey on a typical UK motorway anywhere between 7am and 9pm is actually made longer by people already doing 80mph (and more). I explained this in the earlier article:
What happens is that even if you’re doing 70mph, a huge number of people will be doing 80, 90, even 100mph if they can in the outside lane(s). Conversely, a huge number of other people will be doing 60 or even 50mph in the inside or middle lanes.
…it means that inevitably someone going faster is going to have to slow down. This cascades down the whole line, and eventually – after all the lane changing to get round it has run out of steam – someone has to stop. Then, this too cascades down the line, and everyone else has to stop, and the further back they are, the longer the wait to get going again.
I call it the caterpillar effect.
Raising the limit might have some benefits, but shorter journey times are not one of them. And with the overall ability of many drivers, safety isn’t either.