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Motorway roadworks speed limit could be increased

Roadworks speed limit could be increased

"Currently the normal speed for such stretches of road is 50mph (80km/h).

But trials carried out by Highways England found drivers' heart rates were lower when they drove at 55mph (88km/h) and 60mph (96km/h) through roadworks."

I find this last bit quite interesting.

Back in the 90s, when the M25 was but a mere slip of a lad, I remember sitting in the usual morning "rush", whilst on my way to somewhere near Bath. I didn't normally travel the M25 at the time I was doing so, but I'd been delayed getting away. So, I found myself sitting there looking at countless drivers saying to themselves "What is the most stupid and selfish thing I could do right at this moment. Why, thank you, Emperor, what would I do without you ...".

After an hour of this, and a quick estimate of distance to go vs time remaining until meeting, I was feeling rather irritated and tempted to break out the GPMG. Out of idle curiosity, I decided to check my pulse - 90 bpm.

Once I broke out of the M25 and onto the M40, I was back on track, keeping it down to 100 mph, and feeling vigilant but relaxed. Again, the idle curiosity module kicked in, so I pre-briefed myself on measuring my pulse at a rate of knots, waited for a clear stretch, and checked - 60 bpm; much nearer to my normal resting heart rate.

I shall write forthwith to Highways England and others in Officialdom about this ridiculous 70 mph speed limit imposed on motorways and how badly it affects my blood pressure. Furthermore, time spent looking for police cars and speed cameras is time I could be spending further analyzing the road. :nod:
 
It comes out every now and again that speed limits could be increased, but then again maybe they won’t


Bear in mind that no matter what studies there are the drivers on British roads vary considerably, a safe driver at 100mph will meet fuckwits between 30 and well over 100
 
They could try actually working for more than about 10 minutes a day, and then the speed limit could go back to normal a lot sooner!
 
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Health & Safety recommend that the speed limit is lowered by 20mph at roadworks. Everyone slavishly follows the advice just as they restrict U turns at ATS as a matter of course because it is recommended in the Traffic Signs manual.
 
It cant possibly be true. On my speed awareness course the two dickeads in charge (think of the chuckle brothers with a rudimentry grasp of numbers) were addament that even a few mph over the 50 would mean total armageddon and the instant death of anyone in a 500m radius.
 
This might not be such a bad idea. At the moment 50 mph is a pain for HGV drivers as the are limited to 56 mph so they are loathe to drop even a few mph as it takes a long time to build their speed back up after the road works especially if there is an incline. The result of this is the sight of the cab of an HGV in your mirror six inches from your rear bumper. If it was changed to 60 this would allow for cars to increase the distance between themselves and the HGV and so decrease the stress levels and make for a calmer experience. All this of course assumes that the traffic has not crawled to a snails pace because the road system can't cope with the amount of traffic already on the roads!
 
It cant possibly be true. On my speed awareness course the two dickeads in charge (think of the chuckle brothers with a rudimentry grasp of numbers) were addament that even a few mph over the 50 would mean total armageddon and the instant death of anyone in a 500m radius.
This might not be such a bad idea. At the moment 50 mph is a pain for HGV drivers as the are limited to 56 mph so they are loathe to drop even a few mph as it takes a long time to build their speed back up after the road works especially if there is an incline. The result of this is the sight of the cab of an HGV in your mirror six inches from your rear bumper. If it was changed to 60 this would allow for cars to increase the distance between themselves and the HGV and so decrease the stress levels and make for a calmer experience. All this of course assumes that the traffic has not crawled to a snails pace because the road system can't cope with the amount of traffic already on the roads!
Another aspect of these systems are that many of them are just fixed speed, regardless of time or traffic. There are situations when 50 mph is both dangerous and impractical, and others where there's nobody else on the road and 3 lanes open.
 
It cant possibly be true. On my speed awareness course the two dickeads in charge (think of the chuckle brothers with a rudimentry grasp of numbers) were addament that even a few mph over the 50 would mean total armageddon and the instant death of anyone in a 500m radius.
It's twats like that (and the plethora of twats that got caught speeding) that mean that I rarely manage to get above 35mph on a NSL road that can be transited perfectly safely at the posted limit. Or higher, despite the bendy nature of it.
 

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