UK Motorway speed limit to be 80mph? A wasted opportunity.

Reports say the Government is about to increase the UK motorway speed limit to 80mph, the first change since 1965. What a wasted opportunity.

Until 1965 there was no speed limit on UK motorways. Mind you, there weren’t many UK motorways to blat along in any case. The M1 was about it at the time, apart from odd bits of what would eventually become proper motorways.

But the M1 was a proper 100 mile blat by 1965, and got used by AC to see how fast the Cobra would go. Which, urban legend has it, was the reason the government introduced a 70mph limit as a ‘temporary’ measure in 1965 to stop AC causing mayhem with their 180mph Cobras.

Just as it was with temporary income tax 100 years before (yes, income tax was a ‘temporary’ measure too), the government made the 70mph limit permanent in 1967, under then Transport Minister Barbara Castle (a non-driver, it should be noted). But no one really moaned – apart from AC. Which makes sense. Most cars in 1967 struggled to get to 70mph, so the limit was meaningless for most drivers.

Stupidly, even though most cars made now could sit at 100mph all day and stop from 100mph in half the time the cars of 1967 could from 70mph, we still have a daft 70mph limit throughout the UK (well, apart from the Isle of Man where there is no limit on rural roads – why do you think Clarkson has a house there? Well, that and the 20 per cent tax rate). Which is about the same as a 45mph limit in 1967.

But when the new Con-Dems came to power last year, Secretary of State for Transport Philip Hammond said he would be looking at speed limits on motorways to see if they made any sense in 21st century Britain. Now, according to reports in the Mail and Telegraph this weekend, that is about to turn in to a new 80mph limit. Which seems a waste of time.

All that effort and all that money just to make the 80mph unofficial limit on UK motorways (we all know plod won’t touch you for up to 85mph) an official 80mph limit. Come on, Phil, you can do better than that.

What about night-time limits? How stupid is it having to do 80mph on the beautifully smooth pay section of the M6 at 2am when it’s empty, in a car that can do 150mph? Equally, how completely barking is it not to have an automatic drop in speed limits when the weather is crappy? Surely we should use technology to have proper (not revenue-enhancing) variable speed limits?

Set the National limit at something sensible – we’d opt for 90mph – but make it variable relative to visibility. That can’t be hard, can it? Give drivers on empty roads in the early hours the discretion for an extra 20mph. The cars can do it, and more safely than cars twenty years ago could do 70mph.

Bring in 20mph limits in places that matter – outside schools, for example – and enforce them rigidly. Use technology to not only vary speed limits to suit, but to issue fixed penalties to those who sit in the middle or outside lane on motorways and dual carriageways when the lanes to their left are empty.

Make it illegal for lorries to overtake on two-lane motorways. You’ve sat behind a lorry in the outside lane doing 1mph more than the three lorries on the inside lane for half an hour whilst they complete the manoeuvre (the M11 is particularly bad for this, as you know). By which time there are a hundred frustrated motorists queueing behind just so one selfish trucker can make it past the ‘slow’ trucks.

Look at what frustrates drivers – and ultimately causes accidents – not just the ‘headline’ limit. And while we’re at it, let’s make the imperative to get roads open as soon as possible after an accident, not close everything off just to make it easier for plod. Serve the motorist – by definition the most tax-penalised section of society –  by addressing the issues that frustrate, and you’ll end up with motorists who respect the rules, instead of flouting them.

Come on, Phil. You know it makes sense. And you know you agree.

Be brave.