Motorways to trial 60 mph speed limits to reduce pollution.

[wraymond]

Always thought motorway drives were the most boring and tiring a thing you can do. That's before you get to the dangerous bit.

Never been in a hurry to get anywhere because I started the journey allowing an hour to spare. Take the byway every time, it pays huge dividends for those who have forgotten what a beautiful place we live in, except for the vandalism that is a crammed motorway. For lorries only.

[macafee2]

Originally Posted by wraymond

Always thought motorway drives were the most boring and tiring a thing you can do. That's before you get to the dangerous bit.

Never been in a hurry to get anywhere because I started the journey allowing an hour to spare. Take the byway every time, it pays huge dividends for those who have forgotten what a beautiful place we live in, except for the vandalism that is a crammed motorway. For lorries only.

I think having other traffic about to overtake, no too much mind, helps.
Thing about motorways, no Roundabouts, T junctions, Traffic lights, speed limit (the sign posted ones) is more continuous along the stretch not prone to such fluctuation as on some A roads, navigation is easier. All of these things particularly if one is towing, make quite a difference as to how tiring a drive can be. Slowing down and building up speed again only for the cycle to be repeated time and time again or roundabouts when towing a caravan is hard work. My wife likes the A43 but then I'm the one towing, me, I hate it, motorway every time if I'm deciding. Even solo, I'm not an A43 fan.

macafee2

[edwardmk]

Originally Posted by macafee2

I think having other traffic about to overtake, no too much mind, helps.
Thing about motorways, no Roundabouts, T junctions, Traffic lights, speed limit (the sign posted ones) is more continuous along the stretch not prone to such fluctuation as on some A roads, navigation is easier. All of these things particularly if one is towing, make quite a difference as to how tiring a drive can be. Slowing down and building up speed again only for the cycle to be repeated time and time again or roundabouts when towing a caravan is hard work. My wife likes the A43 but then I'm the one towing, me, I hate it, motorway every time if I'm deciding. Even solo, I'm not an A43 fan.

macafee2

But when you're unshackled from your rig the byways are more fun.
Last year's August bank holiday took us over 6 hours from Camborne to Bristol. The plan was M5 further north but we'd had enough and the AA said 'bad' near Gloucester. We ended up going east on the M4 and through the Cotswolds to get to Stratford. Forgot how nice it was on B roads and no congestion on our trip that time. But towing I'd have stayed on the motorway for sure.

[SCP440]

How much of a reduction in emissions will this reduction is speed be? I suspect it will be 5% at best. Most cars are set to be economical at cruising speed because they are in top gear and the ECU will be set the optimise the fuel air ratio as we know they are easily capable of doing.

Yes these percentages add up but what real effect is this going to have when you have some countries still making cars with big V8's and some countries have little or no emission control with much larger populations and vehicles than our small island.

There are also thousands of aircraft billowing tons of emissions in the upper atmosphere. With ridiculously low air fares it hardly encourages people to worry about it, some friends are off to Germany at the weekend for £28 each. How does that make sense?

My guess this trial will become the new norm and electric cars will be aloud to travel at 70mph. How else are they going to make these ridicuosly over prices short range vehicles made to look better than the vehicles we drive now.

[wraymond]

My habit these days is a reaction to years of being tied to appointments. The need, nay necessity, to be on time was often the first and last opportunity to make a good impression and emerge with a sale and signed paperwork!

So now I flatly refuse to be hurried, but the need to be prompt remains. Anything that gets in the way of that irks greatly. So, I start early and enjoy the scenery. Sometimes, rarely, circumstances conspire against but thankfully not often.

The things that irk about motorways are the hypnotic and monotonous drone-and-thump of poorly maintained surfaces. The madness of the racing idiots who should not be on day release from wherever they are getting their own way far too much. Look on these pages for the posts on tailgaters, poor lane discipline, inebriated fools and the rest for corroboration. Then the multi-vehicle pile-ups usually with a lorry in the middle, or the back, or both. No, life is very pleasant when taken at leisure.


Then there is the alternative of pretty towns and villages where I wish I could afford to live. The King's Heads, the Dun Cows and Barley Mows are a joy to stop at instead of curly sandwich joyless commercial deserts.

[The Rovering Member]

I agree that the A & B roads are by far the pleasanter way to travel.
But only while the motorways are open & more attractive to the majority of drivers......or at night.

[reworht]

Bearing in mind that I'm already restricted to 60mph whilst towing the caravan on motorways and other 70mph limited roads - are they going to knock 10mph off that limit?

[AndyN01]

Originally Posted by reworht

Bearing in mind that I'm already restricted to 60mph whilst towing the caravan on motorways and other 70mph limited roads - are they going to knock 10mph off that limit?

Now, to me, this is a very important point.

If everyone is doing 60, cars, vans, motorcycles, delivery folks, trucks, folks towing and HGV's then we're set for the most dangerous positioning of all - alongside something doing effectively the same speed. The one thing you always need is an escape route. And there isn't going to be one.

Maybe they're doing 59.5mph and you're doing 59.7mph then it's going to take an eternity to overtake them.

And during that time if anything happens - someone sneezes and moves the wheel, heaven forbid uses a mobile phone or something a bit more dramatic like a blow out or mechanical failure etc. then all of a sudden there's all sorts of vehicles being caught up in what might have been just a bit of a bit of a drift across a lane or a dive to the hard shoulder (if there is one!).

Look at what happens in the 50's when there's roadworks etc. The traffic bunches and ends up as (generally) two lanes of solid traffic moving at pretty much the same speed.

And yes, I know all about space (two wheels teaches that very, very quickly!) and stopping distances but how often do you see that in normal traffic flows?

And that's before we get someone doing 53mph in Lane 3.....

It's one of the reasons I'd like the limit increased so that there isn't this "crawling past" overtaking scenario.

I'm looking forward to reading the before and after air quality reports.

Andy.