RAISING SPEED LIMITS IS SAFE, US STUDY PROVES

biggus

Since 2008, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has been allowed to raise posted limits to 80mph from 75mph, but because motorists were already driving at speeds greater than the original limit the effect has been simply to bring drivers within the law, rather than worsen highway safety.



http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=20890

AugustusMaximus

This has already been proved with the survey that showed sections of Autobahn with a speed limit had the same accident / death rate as those without speed limits.

95% of people will drive at a speed they feel comfortable at and increasing the speed limit generally will not increase speed for those 95%.


IMO, the biggest risk factor on a motorway in terms of speed is not all out speed, but speed differential between the slowest and fastest cars. Reducing this is much more important than reducing the top speed.

In fact, it appears from reading the article, that this is the case as the 85 percentile speed is now found between 83 to 85 mph where it used to be between 81 and 85 mph.

KTRIC

On the subject of the Autobahn. The majority of accidents on the Autobahn are fatal due to the speeds. I've personally seen the a couple of aftermaths and they're not pretty.

Mr. Presentable

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

IMO, the biggest risk factor on a motorway in terms of speed is not all out speed, but speed differential between the slowest and fastest cars. Reducing this is much more important than reducing the top speed.

Surely that is the effect of reducing the top speed! :pac:

SV

Of course it's safe but they sheep will have you believe the sole reason anyone crashes is due to speeding.
I think they've said it so much they actually believe it themselves now.

AugustusMaximus

nipplenuts wrote: »

Surely that is the effect of reducing the top speed! :pac:

What is safer.

1. A situation where the speed limit is 75mph and half the people will drive at 85mph due to them ignoring the speed limit or

2. A situation where the speed limit is 85mph and all of the people will drive at 85mph.

Personally I would think that situation 2 would be much safer due to the fact that there would be far less overtaking. (even on a dual carriageway) and the chance of rear ending another car would be far far less.

peasant

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

IMO, the biggest risk factor on a motorway in terms of speed is not all out speed, but speed differential between the slowest and fastest cars.

Not to forget trucks which are electronically limited to 88km/h.

In an Irish context, where a large percentage of motorway users is incapable of using a motorway correctly (lane discipline!) and has no trainning on motorway usage (minimum safety distances, entry and exit on/off motorway, proper lane changing procedures) raising the speed limit is a dangerous prospect.

Little old granny in her micra pulling out without looking at 90 km/h to overtake a 88 km/h truck while beemer man comes flying along at 160 km/h ...recipe for desaster.

Unless you can manage to bring the slower and insecure drivers up to speed (literally), IMO raising the speed limit is not a good idea

unkel

What peasant said ^^^

I have no problem overtaking on continental motorways doing 100km/h more than the cars I am overtaking. Over here half of that speed differential has me on the edge.

I.S.T.

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

What is safer.

1. A situation where the speed limit is 75mph and half the people will drive at 85mph due to them ignoring the speed limit or

2. A situation where the speed limit is 85mph and all of the people will drive at 85mph.

Personally I would think that situation 2 would be much safer due to the fact that there would be far less overtaking. (even on a dual carriageway) and the chance of rear ending another car would be far far less.

I think in situation 2 people will drive at 95mph, people will always push it.

What they should be concentrating on is enforcing speed limits on roads with high accident rates, not tinkering about with limits.

Mr. Presentable

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

What is safer.

1. A situation where the speed limit is 75mph and half the people will drive at 85mph due to them ignoring the speed limit or

2. A situation where the speed limit is 85mph and all of the people will drive at 85mph.

Personally I would think that situation 2 would be much safer due to the fact that there would be far less overtaking. (even on a dual carriageway) and the chance of rear ending another car would be far far less.

Ah, we both know the limit will be ignored whatever it is. Raising the limit to decriminalise in mad.

However, as you say, if everyone drove at the same speed it'd be safer. But that ain't gonna happen. Somebody always wants to be in front

It BeeMee

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

What is safer.

1. A situation where the speed limit is 75mph and half the people will drive at 85mph due to them ignoring the speed limit or

2. A situation where the speed limit is 85mph and all of the people will drive at 85mph.

Your logic is flawed : there is no way everyone will drive at 85mph. Look how many that can barely reach 60!


Aside: was on the Carlow by-pass last night heading towards Dublin when I met a car going the other way in the outside lane. Both myself and the truck I had just passed (thankfully I had time to get back to the inside lane) flashed, but they carried on regardless...

Tragedy

nipplenuts wrote: »

Ah, we both know the limit will be ignored whatever it is. Raising the limit to decriminalise in mad.

However, as you say, if everyone drove at the same speed it'd be safer. But that ain't gonna happen. Somebody always wants to be in front

"As we both know"?

If the speed limit on Motorways were 160, I'd still do 120-130.
It's the speed I'm comfortable with.

I.S.T.

Tragedy wrote: »

"As we both know"?

If the speed limit on Motorways were 160, I'd still do 120-130.
It's the speed I'm comfortable with.

Not everyone drives the way you do. His point is that people will always exceed it no matter what it is.

Tragedy

Most people drive that way. Just watch the people who'll do 80km/h on an N road, and do 80km/h through the middle of a village.

Nipplenuts is implying that if you raise the speed limits, people will raise their speed to stay over the new limits.
There's nothing to support that opinion.

Tipp Man

Not sure about raising any other limits but i think the irish motorway network is more than capable of having a limit of 150, i think 120 is too slow which is leading to agressive overtaking, tailgating etc. I'd be very happy with a 150 limit

Having said that Peasent has a very good point about how ridiculously stupid the vast majority of Irish people are on the motorway and actually have no clue how to drive on it, this needs to be addressed whether the limits are raised or not

I.S.T.

Tipp Man wrote: »

Not sure about raising any other limits but i think the irish motorway network is more than capable of having a limit of 150, i think 120 is too slow which is leading to agressive overtaking, tailgating etc. I'd be very happy with a 150 limit

Having said that Peasent has a very good point about how ridiculously stupid the vast majority of Irish people are on the motorway and actually have no clue how to drive on it, this needs to be addressed whether the limits are raised or not

I would not support any increase in the limit until they start to enforce the rules of motorway driving (i.e. driving on left, learner drivers, etc)

JHMEG

I would not support any increase in the limit until they start to teach the rules of motorway driving (i.e. driving on left, learner drivers, etc)[/QUOTE]

It BeeMee

Tipp Man wrote: »

Not sure about raising any other limits but i think the irish motorway network is more than capable of having a limit of 150

I think the motorway design is to 160?
But the trouble is, that no matter what the speed limit is set at, there are people that believe it doesn't apply to them and will break it regardless. Set the limit to 150, you can be sure it will still be broken on a regular basis.

Tipp Man wrote: »

i think 120 is too slow which is leading to agressive overtaking, tailgating etc.

No it's the muppets that don't keep to the left that cause these things.

netwhizkid

as has been said by others Irish drivers in general do not know a whole lot about driving on Motorway, the amount I come across doing 80 to 100km/h in unbelievable and very dangerous when you take a curve and come right up on them doing 150Km/h.

Alot of People in Ireland are afraid to drive faster than 110Km/h (70mph) and this is a pain in the neck on motorways, also we have the problem where people here drive absolute pieces of junk vehicles like Nissan Micras where the top speed would be about 150km/h and that would involve really thrashing the engine, I can imagine the noise inside one of them with the tiny engine gunned to the last!!

Similiary across the board of Irish vehicles our cars are not fast and taking them to nice comfortable speeds 150km/h+ really is a battle in sub 1.6 cars and involves giving it all the cars got. Typical good cars for Motorways are BMWs, Audis, TDI Volkswagens and anything over 1.6 will get there ideally a 1.8 to 2.0litre for a bit of acceleration also. Our cars are too slow and our drivers to afraid to drive them to the limits of their limited capacity.

People love to complain about BMWs and Audis but in reality these cars are at home on the motorway and the faster you drive them the less they consume in terms of fuel. So next time you are puttering along in your small engined car doing 100km/h stay to the left hand lane and allow us drivers with decent cars to overtake you!!

TestTransmission

netwhizkid wrote: »

a
BMWs, Audis, TDI Volkswagens

Rocket ships they are

Drummerboy08

netwhizkid wrote: »

Similiary across the board of Irish vehicles our cars are not fast and taking them to nice comfortable speeds 150km/h+ really is a battle in sub 1.6 cars and involves giving it all the cars got. Typical good cars for Motorways are BMWs, Audis, TDI Volkswagens and anything over 1.6 will get there ideally a 1.8 to 2.0litre for a bit of acceleration also. Our cars are too slow and our drivers to afraid to drive them to the limits of their limited capacity.

People love to complain about BMWs and Audis but in reality these cars are at home on the motorway and the faster you drive them the less they consume in terms of fuel. So next time you are puttering along in your small engined car doing 100km/h stay to the left hand lane and allow us drivers with decent cars to overtake you!!

Also happen to be the most pre-judged cars on the road. What would be wrong with a Diesel Mondeo/Focus/Insignia/ etc etc.


Not much of the above is relevant. The speed limit on a motorway is 120kmph in Ireland, not 150kmph. We dont have any autobahns here, so there's not a real need to do this speed. 130kmph is the most I'll do on a motorway, usually in the overtaking lane going by a few cars.

peasant

netwhizkid wrote: »

these cars are at home on the motorway and the faster you drive them the less they consume in terms of fuel.

speed is the new green



post of the day

fleet

netwhizkid wrote: »

People love to complain about BMWs and Audis but in reality these cars are at home on the motorway and the faster you drive them the less they consume in terms of fuel.

Have to pull you up here.

"The power to overcome air resistance increases roughly with the cube of the speed, and thus the energy required per unit distance is roughly proportional to the square of speed...

Increasing speed to 90 mph (145 km/h) from 65 mph (105 km/h) increases the power requirement by 2.6 times, the energy by 1.9 times, and decreases fuel economy."

See wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_automobiles#Physics

Sesshoumaru

JHMEG wrote: »

I would not support any increase in the limit until they start to teach the rules of motorway driving (i.e. driving on left, learner drivers, etc)

Most car drivers in Ireland are completely ignorant when it comes to driving on motorways. From Lucan to Liffey Valley we now have 3 lanes and every morning I see 75% of cars in the overtaking lane and only a few stragglers in the middle and inside lane. These people must have some sort of mental deficiency or retardation. Everyone gets held up and everyone has to drive slower because thick Oirish drivers have to stay in the "fast lane" :rolleyes:

Rovi

I've had reason a few times over the last couple of weeks to drive ye olde 1987 2.5 diseasel naturally asphyxiated Land-Rover 110 pickup on the M7, a noble vehicle which does well to hold 105-110 km/h (as verified by VERY sophisticated GPS equipment) when well warmed up and with the wellington welded to the floor, and it's been an eye-opening experience; the amount of vehicles I've overtaken is staggering.

I'm not talking about trucks limited to 80km/h, but what appear to be perfectly serviceable modern cars, whose drivers seem to be utterly content to pootle along at well below the current posted limit; in perfect driving conditions, I hasten to add.

That, in and of itself, would be fine and of no more concern than overtaking any other slower moving vehicle, but the majority of them appear to be fitted with neither indicators or mirrors, going by their random and unpredictable behaviour.

While I'd love to see the general motorway limit raised to something more realistic, it unfortunately probably wouldn't be a good idea until a lot more Irish motorists know how to use them properly.

Top Dog

Sesshoumaru wrote: »

Most car drivers in Ireland are completely ignorant when it comes to driving on motorways.

And on every other road in the country. May as well throw roundabouts into that equation too.

Sadly ignorance on the motorways is just another example of the greater problem of the level of ignorance most Irish drivers display.