Government U Turn On Motorway Speed Limits

Friday, 25. July 2014

Now here’s an idea that I threw out there a couple of years ago which attracted the usual amount of attention that my ideas receive but am I disappointed – nah cos I just keep on throwing the ideas out there till one day I get recognised as the man that made a difference.

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I have just read that the Government has made yet another U turn regarding motorway speed limits. It wasn’t that long ago when Stephen Hammond said that it was the Government’s plan to introduce an 80mph speed limit on motorways. We then received the caveat that this would be a ‘zero tolerance’ limit.

In other words, crack on at 81 mph and you’re nicked sunshine. But chat to any traffic cop and they say that they use as a very rough guide, speed limit + 10% + 3mph before they light up your rear view mirror with a mass of blue lights. So let me see (gets out calculator), umm, 70mph + 10% = 77mph + 3mph = would you believe it 80mph.

So no sodding change! Added to which, for fear of losing votes, Mr Hammond’s boss came out immediately after and said he wasn’t considering a change to motorway speed limits. Back to square 1. But not quite because the greenies amongst us, having heard Mr Hammond, decided to make the case for the environment and insist that rather than increase the speed limit the Government should decrease it to 60mph. Good grief!

So then the Government decided that they should carry out experiments on stretches of ‘Smart’ motorways, currently undergoing widening, where it would be possible to set limits on specific stretches of road whilst the Highways Agency stood at the side and assessed the air quality under different conditions.

Having decided that this was a good idea (I don’t for the record) and to be in place as soon as the motorway improvements were completed on the M1 and M3, Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, has decided to shelve the idea and instructed the Highways Agency to look for other ways to improve air quality rather than drop speed limits.

This announcement was not necessarily a vote winner, more likely not a vote loser. Look the answer is simple. It is already an offence to hog the centre lane on a motorway but why not go one step further and say if there are no cars to the left of a driver he must move over or be fined, flogged and receive 3 points.

This would result in the freeing up of tens of thousands of motorway miles and help traffic flow. My original suggestion was rather than impose a fine and points make the tar on the inside lane fine and therefore low noise in the car, middle lane a little courser and outside lane much courser increasing the noise, at speed, in the cabin.

Constant drumming in the car whilst hogging the outside lane would soon move them over! Sorted – job done! Thank you very much! By Graham Hill