130kmph instead of 120kmph on motorway

Government would be better applying resources to getting middle lane and right lane hoggers into the correct lanes IMO. And organising a proper education campaign on motorway driving and etiquette. Something they should have done 20 years ago at the latest.

Apart from that, yeah there's a lot of stretches where 130kmh wouldn't be an issue. Rarely hear anyone mention it though.

120 is cool, it's a km every 30seconds, so easy to guess journey time

First off, to get the bullshit bit put in its box: the relaxation of the USA's federal 55 mph limit had a direct and pretty shocking effect on road fatalities in that country. Overview here: https://freakonomics.com/2010/04/life-and-death-in-the-fast-lane/

... but there's no shortage of peer-reviewed studies on this if you just care to look.

The actual question is worth considering, but look at what else the Netherlands has already: all single carriageway roads are 80 km/h. 100 is only allowed on divided roads, and 130 for motorways.

And that sound you can just about hear is Dutch readers laughing at the idea of reaching 130 km/h for any length of time on a Dutch motorway... you think Ireland is bad? In NL, sometimes the whole length of the country jams up.

I'm not going to look up the specification for a Dutch motorway, but maximum speed depends a lot on lane width. If you had 3.75 m lanes, maybe, but most of our motoways are 3.65 m lanes. (M50 is narrower)

…or would increasing limits, simply mean, some just increase their overall speed even more…..

don’t really see a need but I am not exactly opposed to it either.

That said I don’t envision the government having any sort of notion about increasing speed limits.

Those 10 kph will make little to no difference to your travel time OP.

Who says the rest of Europe is correct?

If you drive 15,000 km on these motorways per annum, an increase in (average) speed from 120kmph to 130kmph would save you 9 hours or a working day

100%. Increase the speed limit for EV drivers to 130, it'll not impact the environment.

There's quite a few EV's out there now that can charge the battery from 20 to 80% in less than 15 or so minutes and those using motorways usually only top up what they need to get home.

As someone who does 1000km per week (in an ICE car) the biggest issues to road safety is slow coaches hogging the overtaking lane and farm machinery tootling along on motorways. The latter is an absolute disgrace, the law needs to change here.

Motorway limits are theoretically already 130 here, due to allowances for calibrations in speedos and detection equipment. Increasing the limit would bring it up over 140 in reality, so it's not going to happen.

I regularly spin the M4 and 125-130 would be pretty standard for the majority of traffic in my view.

130 is by no means the rule in Europe: the UK is 70 mph (112 kph), Spain 120, Porugal 120, Netherlands 110 between 0600 and 1900, France 110 whan raining.

Enforcement of rules on middle-lane dawdling would be a great help. Also is there a ban on HGVs using the outer lane (no 3) on three-lane motorway sections and on roads such as the N7?