Remove speed limit from Motorways:

Big Nasty

Are you nuts OP? In this country?

The Autobhan is one thing in a country with an excellent transport network where people are properly trained how to drive but in this country where the most difficult thing in a drivers test is a three point turn and our first motorway is only open 15 years it's is a complete no-no.

Unfortunately a strong percentage of people in this country have no idea of proper lane discipline so any rise in speed limits would only add to the disaster of driving on motorways in Ireland.

Markcheese

And there's plenty of drivers more than capable of driving safely at 160kph on back roads, never mind motorways. It's the ones that aren't capable of even driving at current limits safely that are the issue.


There's plenty of lads think that .... Plenty ended up in ditches... If they were the only cars on that road (no pedestrians, animals,tractors ect) grand but they're not... And same on our two lane motorways, trucks going 80 kph, cars doing 100 , me doing 120/125 , and some spanner trying to do 160 /180 ... na...

I honestly think half of the back roads with a limit of 80 kph should be dropped to 60 ... And tend to drive them at 60

Eric Cartman

its a lovely concept , but most irish drivers cant even handle the 100km target they get on the m50.

If we had decent driver education then id be all for it, until then its a torrent of people driving slowly in poorly maintained cars on dirt cheap tyres going slowly and thats how it should stay.

Colonel Sanders

All things being equal I'd be in favour of a rise to 140. However all things aren't equal. No way would I raise speed limits when standards are so poor

As an aside I remember someone from the NRA on the radio not long ago saying legislation was there already to raise motorway limits to 130 if the powers that be decided to. Is that true?

GE90

Any body can drive at 160km/h + on the motor way in a decent car its easy. But if someting goes wrong you need split second reactions in order to avoid a serious crash. The average irish driver just isnt up to the standard to drive at these speeds.

Also the condition of some peoples cars are just terriable. Can you imagine the typical irish driver driving along a wet motorway doing 160 Km/h with bald tyres !:-o

I remember reading that the irish motorways where build to take cars traveling at 160 km/h. If this is so then whoever designed these so called compact junctions with a sharp 90 degree bend straight after leaving lane 1 and less then 100m to build up speed to merge should be shot. They are dangerous at 120km/h never mind 160km/h.

pred racer

Id like to see the limit on the outside lane increased. For 2 reasons.

1i could call it the fast lane without pedantic cnuts getting their panties in a wad:D

2. No more "im doing the speed limit, so I can drive in this lane and sure why would I move i'm policing your speed" I doubt these **** would drive at 160

I reckon 150 -160 would be about right.

Not gonna happen though, dont people know that speed kills:eek::pac:

Btw I have driven on the autobahn, and I would agree that 140km seemed about average on the unrestricted sections.

awec

This post has been deleted.

Big Nasty

GE90 wrote: »

I remember reading that the irish motorways where build to take cars traveling at 160 km/h. If this is so then whoever designed these so called compact junctions with a sharp 90 degree bend straight after leaving lane 1 and less then 100m to build up speed to merge should be shot. They are dangerous at 120km/h never mind 160km/h.

The condition of Irish motorways is very good if not excellent seeing as most of them have only been constructed in the last ten years. I have driven all over Europe and the US and you would want to see some of the tight curves on exits, especially in Belgium and Germany if you think Irish exits are sharp.

Spiritual

Thank Goodness I have nothing in my life that is that important that I need to drive at 160kmh.
I am sure the important people in my life would also prefer I didn't drive at that speed.

Blazer

I often travel at 160kph on the motorway but it's extremely rare now.
Even have done 200kph once or twice but only to push the car now and then.
Nowadays I just put the cc on for about 125kph and settle in.
As much as I speed it would be ridiculous to introduce no speed limits on the motorways.
I was talking to a mate from Germany and he was saying the autobahn is all well and good...but when there's a crash..you're talking multiple cars and a lot of fatalies at those speeds.
There's an average of 850 people killed each year on the autobahn...remember that.

catchup

challengemaster wrote: »

I haven't yet been to germany / driven on the autobahn, but from what I've heard (even on here), Irish motorways are probably of better standards than some of the unrestricted parts of the autobahn.

And there's plenty of drivers more than capable of driving safely at 160kph on back roads, never mind motorways. It's the ones that aren't capable of even driving at current limits safely that are the issue.

I think the option of a driving lane with limit, and outermost overtaking lane being unrestricted or having a higher limit makes the most sense. It would just need proper enforcement to work right. And better education.

I drive on the autobahns regularly and believe me when I say that Irish motorway habits if replicated in Germany would result in carnage. German drivers obey the basic rules of motorway driving. You can be doing 100kph or 200 kph and feel perfectly safe because you know what every other driver on the motorway in front of you will do as you approach them. They keep to the inside except when overtaking and when a faster car approached they move over. Simple.

GE90

awec wrote: »

I don't think that's true.

In any decent car it is easy. Their isnt much difference in driving at 160km/h than 120km/h in the fathers 2.0 diesel mondeo and thats not exactly the best car in the world.
I said it was easy i never said it was safe.

carefull now!

I don't think the roads are good enough to raise the limit, too many loose surfaces, pot holes, bad drainage.... Even without driver error a car could still veer off or burst a tyre. Has any1 seen the video of a ford focus crash at 100mph, its not pretty

Stheno

GE90 wrote: »

In any decent car it is easy. Their isnt much difference in driving at 160km/h than 120km/h in the fathers 2.0 diesel mondeo and thats not exactly the best car in the world.
I said it was easy i never said it was safe.

In terms of concentration though I find it takes a lot more effort to drive at 150/160 than it does at 120.

Your reaction time is reduced, so you really need to be focused on the road and everything going on around, more so than at 120. You are driving a third faster.

It's not so bad if the motorway is quiet but if you hit any sort of traffic you really need to concentrate.

I think going up to 130 would be ok to be honest, wouldn't want to see no speed limits.

bijapos

awec wrote: »

I also don't get the obsession with the autobahn. Only some of the Autobahn network has no speed limit. It's not the free-for-all that people think.

I've driven well over 150,000 km on German Autobahns having worked there for a good few years and IMO they are totally overrated. You rarely hit top speed, and even doing 160 km/h for a sustained time is possible on a couple of sections of 3 lane AB. Most of the AB network is two lanes or else so clogged up that you'll be happy to be doing an average speed of 120 km/h. To boot the road surface on AB's is generally poor and it's full of little green men (Polizei) who do actually give a sh1t that you are breaking the law and will fine you heavily accordingly.

Germans can be clueless drivers too, or else at the other end of the spectrum extraordinarily aggressive. Oh yeah, they are notorious for clogging up the overtaking lanes on two laned AB's as well.

Unlimited speeds on the AB are dangerous, more than once I've been doing over 220 km/h and 500m ahead a truck doing 88km/h decides to overtake another, which is a bit hairy to say the least.

I would support a move to 140 km/h here but only after a sustained campaign to improve motorway manners, in conjunction with proper policing of motorway driving, something which I don't see hapening anytime in the near future.

By the way, if you have an accident on a German AB and it can be proven that you were travelling in excess of 130 km/h when the incident started you are legally liable to an extent that a court will set out, even if you are not responsible yourself for the acccident.

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Just as a matter of interest, are there any data regarding the average/85th Percentile/top speeds on the non speed limited sections of Autobahn?

Long distances of 300 km plus, you will be doing well to average 140 km/h during the day. Best I ever did was Hamburg-Munich (800 km) in 4 hrs 40 mins at night. 10 km traffic jams on the motorway are common enough, 3-5 km jams are very common, average speed in a jam is about 10 km/h. Every major intersection and near every large town/city is limited to 120 km/h, they also have "smog prevention" days when it's reduced in some states to 90 or 100 km/h.

From working in France the average speed on a long distance journey there was a lot higher in my experience as the cops there tend to turn a blind eye up to 160 km/h.

Chris_Heilong

awec wrote: »

Why is that the safest manner to overtake?

Its safer because you are putting distance between yourself and the car on the left before moving left, common sense really. Imagine driving alone side a car doing 110 and you could only move at 120, then you would be side by side for far too long which is a dangerous situation to be in.

GE90

Stheno wrote: »

In terms of concentration though I find it takes a lot more effort to drive at 150/160 than it does at 120.

Your reaction time is reduced, so you really need to be focused on the road and everything going on around, more so than at 120. You are driving a third faster.

It's not so bad if the motorway is quiet but if you hit any sort of traffic you really need to concentrate.

I think going up to 130 would be ok to be honest, wouldn't want to see no speed limits.

i agree with every thing above.
What i ment was any decent car can easly do 160 km/h.

650Ginge

I am sick of these threads. 'I wanna drive as fast as I like and I have no concern if that isn't what you want to do'

Grow up!

Stheno

GE90 wrote: »

i agree with every thing above.
What i ment was any decent car can easly do 160 km/h.

define a decent car though? I know plenty of cars that are shaky enough at 120, can't imagine them hitting 160

Matt Simis

Id probably be happy with 140kph on at national level (and maybe some roads with higher limits), like the UK and Poland are bringing in. Realistically people do need targets, but I think the majority of people will continue to drive 100 to 110kph for fuel efficiency and general laziness reasons no matter the limit.

Its pretty clear that many drivers on our underused motorways are doing over 80mph anyhow, if so many people break the limit (with no negatives, statistically) then the limit should be revised. This was one of the reasons behind the UKs move (the other was slowness of travel has a national cost on business).


I think some of the posters in this thread are visualise the M50 or Naas national road route which have heavy traffic nearly always... the M3, the Galway interconnecting motorway and the M1 are virtually skeleton motorways. Freakishly quiet, you could easily do 160kph there no issues at all. And people do. The M3 is a toll road and if enough people dont use it then the government has to pay to make up the difference. Increasing the limit to 160 there off peak might make it more attractive over the 24hr period. Which would save everyone time and money.

Stheno wrote: »

define a decent car though? I know plenty of cars that are shaky enough at 120, can't imagine them hitting 160

Why ask him to define, just post a list of these rubbish at 120kph cars and you do one better! Any German car is spec'ed for Autobahn speeds and comes with Autobahn capable brakes. This is the major difference between "Euro" and US/ROW spec BMWs and Audi's, Euro brakes and lights are common upgrades in the US. The cars that can do these speeds safely have existed for 20years.

The 560SEC has a cool sticker on the fuel cap, it shows the PSI for the tyres at approx 120kph and it shows another PSI figure for above 160Kph travel. This is a 1987 car.

Stheno

Matt Simis wrote: »

Id probably be happy with 140kph on at national level (and maybe some roads with higher limits), like the UK and Poland are bringing in. Realistically people do need targets, but I think the majority of people will continue to drive 100 to 110kph for fuel efficiency and general laziness reasons no matter the limit.

Its pretty clear that many drivers on our underused motorways are doing over 80mph anyhow, if so many people break the limit (with no negatives, statistically) then the limit should be revised. This was one of the reasons behind the UKs move (the other was slowness of travel has a national cost on business).


I think some of the posters in this thread are visualise the M50 or Naas national road route which have heavy traffic nearly always... the M3, the Galway interconnecting motorway and the M1 are virtually skeleton motorways. Freakishly quiet, you could easily do 160kph there no issues at all. And people do. The M3 is a toll road and if enough people dont use it then the government has to pay to make up the difference. Increasing the limit to 160 there off peak might make it more attractive over the 24hr period. Which would save everyone time and money.

Good points Matt Taking the fatality rates as a measure is a decent yardstick

To add to the skeletons, the M9 once you go past Carlow is a virtual ghost town too. I always get a shock coming off the M9 onto the M7 the difference in traffic volume is shocking.

As for the M1, 160 would be slow going by some of the drivers who've passed me out on more than one occasion

FridaysWell

bijapos wrote: »

I would support a move to 140 km/h here but only after a sustained campaign to improve motorway manners, in conjunction with proper policing of motorway driving, something which I don't see hapening anytime in the near future.

Best I ever did was Hamburg-Munich (800 km) in 4 hrs 40 mins at night.

+1 on this. Up the speed limit but improve education first. Motorway and proper night driving to be taught as part of the EDT yoke.

Have been driving in Germany the past 2 months and its quite different to back home. True they aren't angels but overall people do drive better here, and the road system I find is better. The no speed limit system is kind of limited here and as bijapos said, you can't always reach your top speed on German motorways, to me the average was around 140-160KM/ph, I just find the higher speed limits means your journey is shorter and less stressful. People do have better road manners though as a whole, I find.

I just think its all got to do with education and attitudes. Sure look at the seatbelt thread that was up here a while ago, alot of younger people pointed out that it is in their second nature to just put it on, that it feels weird to drive without it. With a proper education system in place the same could happen with other driving habits and behaviour.

And how did you manage that? Huge distance covered you pass most of Germany that way!

nct tester

a lot of irish drivers cant manage to negotiate roundabouts properly, dont know the proper over taking procedures , dont know how to use indicators, fog lights , dipped lights etc i dont think increasing the speed limit is the way forward just yet. the difference between a 120km journey at 120km per hour and 160km per hour is only 15 minutes i think. not a massive time gain imo.

GE90

Stheno wrote: »

define a decent car though? I know plenty of cars that are shaky enough at 120, can't imagine them hitting 160

Any modern car with a 2.0 petrol or diesel with a 6 speed box will cruse at 160 km/h fairly easly. A bmw 530d which is still a mainstream car wont even break a sweat at 160km/h

Wilberto

Matt Simis wrote: »

Its pretty clear that many drivers on our underused motorways are doing over 80mph anyhow, if so many people break the limit (with no negatives, statistically) then the limit should be revised. This was one of the reasons behind the UKs move (the other was slowness of travel has a national cost on business).

I would look upon this as a reason not to increase the limits. If people are breaking the current speed limit, chances are they're gonna break the newer increased limit too. If you ask me the speed limit is already at 130km/hr, at least.

Raising it to 160km/h will just encourage people to break that speed limit. ((EDIT: I know you didn't mention 160 to be fair! ))





Personally I'm not really bothered either way. I love driving so I don't get the whole point of speeding as it means I'll get to my destination faster, meaning I'll spend less time driving and why would I want that if I love driving??!!

bijapos

FridaysWell wrote: »

And how did you manage that? Huge distance covered you pass most of Germany that way!

Did it about 15 years ago. Left Hamburg at 1.30 am. Good AB to well beyond Hannover and from after Gottingen to near Fulda. Wurzburg to Nurnburg is OK, 3 lanes very straight from there to Munich. Car I drove was a Nissan 300ZX, I stopped once for fuel, but I was getting tired near Munich from all the concentration. No trucks on a Sunday morning helps too and there was no holiday traffic either.

I know the road very well, I drove it return 2-3 times a month for 3 years for work. But it just goes to show you that a high average speed over 150 km/h is the absolute exception. The journey almost always took me 5.5-6 hours, and over 7 if I did it during the day on a workday. Took over 10 hours a few times as well.

Jordan5372

The Isle of Man mountain road has no speed limit.

RustyNut

In 10 or 15 years this might be a possability when the effects of compulsory driver training kick in leading to the majority of drivers on the road understand the rules and enforcement involves all the rules not just speeding. It all boiles down to discipline both on behalf of the speeders and non speeders

The lads you see most often taking advantage of the unlimited German AB's are not the young lads in hot hatches that you might think but middle aged blokes in big engined super saloons. Allways made me smile when doing 85 or 90 K's in a fully laden artic and an A8 or 7 serious would cause the whole thing to rattle they would be going so fast when they would pass you.

Mint Sauce

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

I think the driving lane should remain the same but the over taking lane should have no limit, it makes sense to over take as fast as possible and return to the driving lane as this would be the safest manner, I already use this system.

Will never work whilst people dont know how to use the overtaking lane properly.

Our man in Havana

Poll now private.