Forum member on the BBC?

[Hurdy]

It is how the new generation of UK motorsists are brought into the driving world now I'm afraid.

Cutting people up in town, not indicating, using your phone in busy built up areas and drafting the car in front at 30mph whilst 2 metres from it are all socially acceptable nowardays, but dare to go over the speed limit and you are the car equivalent of the Yorkshire ripper or a child molester. Ridiculous.

The speed limits on dual carriageways and motorways should be raised, but they never will be as the social, eco-warrior do-gooders are afraid that we may use 0.0001 litre of fuel per mile extra if we raise the limit and that my friends is the nub of the matter today.

Rant over........nearly!

Right, I'm off to buy a V10 Cobra.

[Poverty]

It is how the new generation of UK motorsists are brought into the driving world now I'm afraid.

Cutting people up in town, not indicating, using your phone in busy built up areas and drafting the car in front at 30mph whilst 2 metres from it are all socially acceptable nowardays, but dare to go over the speed limit and you are the car equivalent of the Yorkshire ripper or a child molester. Ridiculous.

The speed limits on dual carriageways and motorways should be raised, but they never will be as the social, eco-warrior do-gooders are afraid that we may use 0.0001 litre of fuel per mile extra if we raise the limit and that my friends is the nub of the matter today.

Rant over........nearly!

Right, I'm off to buy a V10 Cobra.

That is a good point actually. At 90mph the 2.0TFSI for example uses alot more fuel than at 70mph, and this is because the car manufacturers ahve their cars geared to current speed limits.

[Janner_Sy]

i think the speding fine system in germany is excellent as well.

they take into account the traffic, time of day and area that you are speeding in as well as the excess o speed.  do if your on a motorway at night in the summer, with no cars, and are speeding, you get a lower fine.  and no points.  i had a ban in germany for speeding once, but it was for 1 month and didn't need to be declared. 

[Hurdy]

I get an average 33mpg at 70mph and 26mpg at 90mph, which is a 22% drop in fuel. Do you see where I am going with this?

If you lowered the speed limits further, the government would argue that fuel savings and the environmental effects would be positive and that fatal injuries would lower as proved in sample XXX of theoretical a spurious results survey!!

So how would anyone justify upping the speed limit?

[Hurdy]

i think the speding fine system in germany is excellent as well.

they take into account the traffic, time of day and area that you are speeding in as well as the excess o speed.  do if your on a motorway at night in the summer, with no cars, and are speeding, you get a lower fine.  and no points.  i had a ban in germany for speeding once, but it was for 1 month and didn't need to be declared. 

In Belgium it is just a Euro fine and no points. If you need to get somewhere fast and it is important, you can break the speed limit, get to that important meeting/appointment on time and if you get caught speeding, just pay the fine and forget about it.

[Sunglasses Ron]

TBH, even if the speed limit was 90mph, i'm pretty confident that I wouldn't cruise at that speed all the time..

[Janner_Sy]

christ that copper on the bike was smashing out over 130mph there, on an unmarked bike.  maybe in a proper police bike with lights etc, but how is that safe for him to do that in an unmarked bike on a single carriageway

[Poverty]

TBH, even if the speed limit was 90mph, i'm pretty confident that I wouldn't cruise at that speed all the time..

True, plus its really bad with a stage 2 plus k04 as the acceleration is so effortless and composed that you always sorta end up creeping past the speed your meaning to go at.

[stealthwolf]

I agree with some of tbe above comments.

I personally think passplus should be mandatory. After I bought my own car, I called up my old driving instructor and we essentially did passplus - driving on motorways, at night, in the rain. The only problem was that there was a fpur year difference between passing my test and buying a car. Was immensely useful.

As for fuel consumption, if the speed limit was 100mph, all new cars would be manufactured to be economical at 100mph. "Speeding" imo depends on the conditions. 100mph on a motorway, where you can see upto a mile down the road, dead quiet, nice and dry conditions, good daylight is better than doing the same speed at night, where visibility is drastically reduced and the road is soaked with rain.

[RedRobin]

Middle lane huggers aswell are bad, as those asshholes who sit in the fast lane at 70mph with a qeue of cars behind them, and refuse to move over, because in their eyes no one should be going over 70 as the law says so. Fooking do gooder job worths.

....That's a pet hate of mine too. It's actually potentially dangerous imo.

Dare I say that I've noticed that drivers in Germany are far better at lane discipline too. Probably cos they fear the uber fast approach of 180mph cars (with their LED DRL's blazing).

[cmdrfire]

I was once done for doing a shade over a hundred on a well-lit, empty motorway once.

There was a Jag in the middle lane cruising at about 95mph. I came by, overtook the chap, went back into the middle lane and touched the brakes. Soon as he saw my brake lights go on and knew he wasn't gonna get me for more he turned on the blues.   Was lucky to get away with 6 points and a ban.

I mean, tbh, I was speeding and it was a fair(ish) cop, but it didn't make much sense. The German "active" autobahn is really a much better system. Derestricted completely where appropriate, and a safe, reasonable speed (130km/h - 80mph) elsewhere.

I don't hold with speeding in 30-50 areas though. In terms of impacts, human survivability decreases rapidly beyond 28-30mph* so I usually run at about 25 in those areas, even if people behind me complain.


*Humans appear to have evolved to survive impacts at maximum sprinting speed, which is roughly 28mph. Makes sense. Luckily the government had set the lower speed limit at 30mph before they cottoned onto this fact.

[RedRobin]

In Belgium it is just a Euro fine and no points. If you need to get somewhere fast and it is important, you can break the speed limit, get to that important meeting/appointment on time and if you get caught speeding, just pay the fine and forget about it.

....I don't know what you mean  

[94Luke]

It is how the new generation of UK motorsists are brought into the driving world now I'm afraid.

Cutting people up in town, not indicating, using your phone in busy built up areas and drafting the car in front at 30mph whilst 2 metres from it are all socially acceptable nowardays, but dare to go over the speed limit and you are the car equivalent of the Yorkshire ripper or a child molester. Ridiculous.

Hey now, don't got tarring us all with the same brush!!! 

I get an average 33mpg at 70mph and 26mpg at 90mph, which is a 22% drop in fuel. Do you see where I am going with this?

If you lowered the speed limits further, the government would argue that fuel savings and the environmental effects would be positive and that fatal injuries would lower as proved in sample XXX of theoretical a spurious results survey!!

So how would anyone justify upping the speed limit?

My counter argument for this is that if you're going faster you'll get there sooner, ergo use less fuel (yes I know if you add it up you probably won't) and less traffic on the road 

[no golf clubs at all]

I got done (in 1992) at 78 mph on the a90 (it's a 70 or it was then) out of Aberdeen at 0120, dry clear night. You can see why I think plod uses little commonsense or discretion at times. No other car on the road apart from me and a jam sandwich land rover. Twats.

The irony was I was up in that part of the world then fixing a radio transmitter guess who for? Yes that's right.

Prolly done me for making their radios work again :-(  

[RobH]

We should have at least an unrestriceted lane on the motorway

I think each car should have some kind of speed rating on an individual basis like insurance groups and only them cars deemed safe anough from the FACTORY can go in this lane.

It would easily work as these cars would have high insurance groups anyway which would meen young idots that have passed ther test carnt afford the insurance so carnt get the car so carnt drive in the unrestricted lane.

Theres already a huge network of cameras on the motorways and you just convert the ones facing the unrestricted lane to read numberplates anyone in a car not in the special club gets a ticket simples.

Then people not wanting to go warp speed can just go in the other 2 lanes instead of getting undertaken, tail gated etc etc etc.

I have thought about this and its just full of WIN!