Speed limiters on new build cars

[Bletchleyite]

It's been widely reported today that Liz Truss would consider making speed limits advisory on motorways - which seems to fly in the face of safety and the environment.

I think there's a few things that could mean.

One would be making the motorway NSL advisory. De-facto it already is away from smart motorways, as there's near enough no enforcement at all since most of the Police functions on motorways were moved to the non-enforcing Traffic Officers instead, so this would have close to no effect at all. The M40 de-facto operates in this sort of way already and the general prevailing speed is about 80-90mph most of the time like it used to be (with the odd nutter doing 100 or so but very rare to see German style driving, it's just not in our culture*), whereas it's 70 on smart motorways due to the cameras.

The other would be that she is proposing to apply that to smart motorways, i.e. remove the red circle and the cameras, and make the "flashing" limits advisory as they are on non-smart motorways, but leave the 70mph NSL in place and technically enforceable. If she's proposing abolition of smart motorways then this could well be a clever thing to say - placate "BMW man" by letting him think he'll be able to do 120mph legally when in fact he potentially won't.

I do wonder which, or both, was meant. If indeed she thought at all!

* It was mentioned by Nick Ferrari this morning that German style "super fast" motorway driving isn't the sort of thing you'd often see - for a long time "10 above the limit" has been the culture in the UK - very few people actually want or would want to do 100+, and the cost of fuel would keep this under control to a fair extent. If the motorway limit was increased to 130km/h (80mph) per most European countries, say, I think many would stick to about 75 because of that, just like not everyone on the M40 does 90 despite the lack of enforcement.

 

[cactustwirly]

I think there's a few things that could mean.

One would be making the motorway NSL advisory. De-facto it already is away from smart motorways, as there's near enough no enforcement at all since most of the Police functions on motorways were moved to the non-enforcing Traffic Officers instead, so this would have close to no effect at all. The M40 de-facto operates in this sort of way already and the general prevailing speed is about 80-90mph most of the time like it used to be (with the odd nutter doing 100 or so but very rare to see German style driving, it's just not in our culture*), whereas it's 70 on smart motorways due to the cameras.

The other would be that she is proposing to apply that to smart motorways, i.e. remove the red circle and the cameras, and make the "flashing" limits advisory as they are on non-smart motorways, but leave the 70mph NSL in place and technically enforceable. If she's proposing abolition of smart motorways then this could well be a clever thing to say - placate "BMW man" by letting him think he'll be able to do 120mph legally when in fact he potentially won't.

I do wonder which, or both, was meant. If indeed she thought at all!

* It was mentioned by Nick Ferrari this morning that German style "super fast" motorway driving isn't the sort of thing you'd often see - for a long time "10 above the limit" has been the culture in the UK - very few people actually want or would want to do 100+, and the cost of fuel would keep this under control to a fair extent. If the motorway limit was increased to 130km/h (80mph) per most European countries, say, I think many would stick to about 75 because of that, just like not everyone on the M40 does 90 despite the lack of enforcement.

The M40 is actually one of the nicest motorways to drive on.

The M1 however is awful, full of middle lane morons and undertaker's.
Very difficult to overtake as everyone is doing the same speed.

 

[StKeverne1497]

I've had that too. I will not pull in until I am a safe stopping distance ahead of the car I am overtaking on a motorway or dual carriageway, and I will not pull in at all if the gap between two vehicles on the left does not allow for a safe stopping distance both behind and ahead of me, rather I will overtake both then pull in after. It would be unnecessary risk for both me and the driver I'm overtaking in order to placate the impatience of the idiot behind. I also hate it when others do that to me thinking they're doing the right thing - they're not.

I drive along a 30-ish mile stretch of the M4 to and from work three days a week. Barely a week goes by without some evidence of yet another accident on that short section, ranging from tyre marks left by someone not concentrating, to swirly skid marks probably from out-of-control trailers to new sections of central or edge barrier where someone has obviously destroyed it fairly recently, and newly-felled trees and shrubbery where someone has decided to test their car in "landscape gardening" mode. In general I find the standard of motorway driving pretty poor, and as someone who was doing this trip almost all the way through lockdown, my own experience is that during lockdown some drivers took the quieter roads as an excuse to test the top speed of their vehicles, but once lockdown was lifted and traffic started returning, there were obviously a lot of out-of-practice people on the road who were a real danger to other users.

As for overtaking and leaving a gap before pulling in - obviously I do the same thing, particularly where the speed differential isn't great, and I have experienced all the in-the-boot, flashing headlights (sometimes while also in-the-boot meaning that the headlights are hidden from direct view!), undertaking, undertaking then slowing down in front of me etc. etc. I try not to let it get to me.

One of my pet peeves is on 3-lane motorways. I often find myself in lane 3 overtaking a car which is overtaking a lorry. If said car decides to pull in in front of the lorry I will not return to lane 2 until I am out of the blind spots of both the lorry and the car, particularly if there is more slow traffic just ahead in lane 1. On far too many occasions I have seen people move in to these blind spots only to have to take rapid action to avoid being sideswiped by the lorry - or the car which has just pulled in - as they pull out to overtake the slower traffic. As expected, leaving lane 2 "empty" in this way is also guaranteed to rile anyone who doesn't see the need to stick to 70mph and wants to get past me as soon as possible...

Oh, and as for those people who pass me at 75mph, often requiring that I slow down because I can't pull out to overtake something slower in my lane, then slow down themselves to 65mph, forcing me to pass them!

 

[Bletchleyite]

One of my pet peeves is on 3-lane motorways. I often find myself in lane 3 overtaking a car which is overtaking a lorry. If said car decides to pull in in front of the lorry I will not return to lane 2 until I am out of the blind spots of both the lorry and the car, particularly if there is more slow traffic just ahead in lane 1. On far too many occasions I have seen people move in to these blind spots only to have to take rapid action to avoid being sideswiped by the lorry - or the car which has just pulled in - as they pull out to overtake the slower traffic. As expected, leaving lane 2 "empty" in this way is also guaranteed to rile anyone who doesn't see the need to stick to 70mph and wants to get past me as soon as possible...

I have a similar rule - never change lane directly alongside another vehicle, always do it in between them. They can't see you doing it and they might pull out. Similarly on non-spiralling roundabouts don't be directly alongside another vehicle unless totally unavoidable.

 

[cactustwirly]

I have a similar rule - never change lane directly alongside another vehicle, always do it in between them. They can't see you doing it and they might pull out. Similarly on non-spiralling roundabouts don't be directly alongside another vehicle unless totally unavoidable.

If you are being cut up on a roundabout then you are clearly in the wrong lane

 

[hoagy_ytfc]

If you are being cut up on a roundabout then you are clearly in the wrong lane

Interesting logic.

What's the source of the assumption that one driver is doing lanes wrong, as opposed to the other one? I could point you to hundreds of YT videos where someone is doing the right thing yet are cut up by someone who isn't.

Hence the sensible defensive approach suggested int he message you replied to.

 

[cactustwirly]

Interesting logic.

What's the source of the assumption that one driver is doing lanes wrong, as opposed to the other one? I could point you to hundreds of YT videos where someone is doing the right thing yet are cut up by someone who isn't.

Hence the sensible defensive approach suggested int he message you replied to.

Because if you're being cut up on a roundabout it's because you're in the left lane going right.

If you're turning right then it's always the right hand lane

 

[AM9]

Because if you're being cut up on a roundabout it's because you're in the left lane going right.

If you're turning right then it's always the right hand lane

On that basis, everybody on a multi-lane roundabout will use just the outermost lane, otherwise they will stay on it forever.

 

[cactustwirly]

On that basis, everybody on a multi-lane roundabout will use just the outermost lane, otherwise they will stay on it forever.

That's how you use roundabouts? Right hand lane then drift across the left when you exit

 

[AM9]

That's how you use roundabouts? Right hand lane then drift across the left when you exit

So everybody drifts across when they feel that it's right?

 

[Tetchytyke]

Because if you're being cut up on a roundabout it's because you're in the left lane going right.

Or in the left hand lane going straight on whilst someone is in the right lane turning left.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Because if you're being cut up on a roundabout it's because you're in the left lane going right.

Not necessarily.

If you're turning right then it's always the right hand lane

If you have an unmarked 4 exit roundabout it is. Markings can override it, and this sort of thing mostly happens on multilane ones with a spiral layout.

 

[hoagy_ytfc]

Because if you're being cut up on a roundabout it's because you're in the left lane going right.

Except that, most often when I'm cut up, or have to brake to stop being cut up, it's because I'm following the correct lanes as marked out and someone else isn't. Yet you claim I'm in the wrong. Very strange stance to take.

 

[PeterC]

Except that, most often when I'm cut up, or have to brake to stop being cut up, it's because I'm following the correct lanes as marked out and someone else isn't. Yet you claim I'm in the wrong. Very strange stance to take.

Same here. Particularly the A40 westbound at Wolvercote. One lane signed in on lane on exit yet people regularly follow the signs for the A44 (right turn) to try and cut in ahead on the A40

Also any roundabout with 2 lanes in and 2 out where somebody will try and enter on lane 2 and exit in lane 1 ignoring the car on their left