Why can cars go over 70mph?

In my opinion it isnt speed that is the factor. It is the differential between the slowest and the quickest venicles.
So on motorways, lorries are restricted to 56/60 mph on our motorways especially in the summer when it is full of drivers who are unaccustomed to motorway driving anything over 70 gives them too little reaction time.
I am sure professional drivers are much better and can handle greater speeds, but it is those who are inexperienced that are the issue.
In the country you need to factor in cyclists, horse riders, tractors and wildlife. I am also a biker, who probably goes above the limit occaisionaly, I wouldnt want my speed limited as I want to minimise the time exposed to danger if I overtake, but top speed should be reduced to 100 mph.
If the future of motoring is going to be affected by governers and restictors, i will keep on buying older cars and bikes as they are much more fun.
 
ThePrisoner said:
We can't be far away from constant real-time monitoring of every vehicle so you can be fined for every minute you exceed any speed limit.
Or maybe, if ever autonomous vehicles become a thing (I doubt it), their speed can be automatically limited to the prevailing limit. Or give the driver a mild electric shock. The possibilities are endless.
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My car has an adaptive speed limiter that works off the sat nav and road sign recognition cameras.
I had it switched on and was driving into Stokesley. I was driving along at 30 on the limiter when suddenly the car braked down to 20 over a few yards. It was a bit of a shock, I thought something was amiss and then realised I'd forgotten about the 20 limit outside the school.
 
chickenrunner said:
My car has an adaptive speed limiter that works off the sat nav and road sign recognition cameras.
I had it switched on and was driving into Stokesley. I was driving along at 30 on the limiter when suddenly the car braked down to 20 over a few yards. It was a bit of a shock, I thought something was amiss and then realised I'd forgotten about the 20 limit outside the school.
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Someone told me about a hire car they had that picked up a 40 limit sign on an A19 sliproad in roadworks by Testo's roundabout. They were in the inside lane still on the A19 and the car braked rapidly from 70 to 40.
 
Boro in Devon said:
In my opinion it isnt speed that is the factor. It is the differential between the slowest and the quickest venicles.
So on motorways, lorries are restricted to 56/60 mph on our motorways especially in the summer when it is full of drivers who are unaccustomed to motorway driving anything over 70 gives them too little reaction time.
I am sure professional drivers are much better and can handle greater speeds, but it is those who are inexperienced that are the issue.
In the country you need to factor in cyclists, horse riders, tractors and wildlife. I am also a biker, who probably goes above the limit occaisionaly, I wouldnt want my speed limited as I want to minimise the time exposed to danger if I overtake, but top speed should be reduced to 100 mph.
If the future of motoring is going to be affected by governers and restictors, i will keep on buying older cars and bikes as they are much more fun.
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but everybody thinks they're an expert/professional driver when in fact most are wassocks!
 
SmallTown said:
Not necessarily, what if you need to accelerate out of a dangerous situation on the motorway and you can't because you're limited to 70?

Also we live on a small, very drivable continent with differing speed levels. I want on a road trip to Germany recently. I could legally do twice that, and did. If I had to stick at 70 it would have been both dangerous and far too slow
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The tiny percentage of times you might have to accelerate out of a dangerous position will no way compare to the amount killed or injured every year by speeding drivers
 
Juninhoburger said:
The question should be

"Why is the national speed limit 70mph?"

It's a completely arbitrary number and at the end of the day, speed doesn't kill - driving dangerously at speed does.
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Look at the state of the driving we all see every day. Would you trust some of these drivers to be legally driving over 70?

Feel like driving tests should be made significantly more difficult before raising a speed limit is considered, as well as immediate lengthy bans for anyone not driving correctly. That would make the roads far safer to increase a speed limit
 
the biggest reduction in accidental death from speed reduction would be to reduce the limit in urban areas to 20mph. Basically if you are a pedestrian and you are struck by a car at 40mph you will probably die, at 30 it is 50/50 but at 20mph you will probably survive because the human body is designed to take that sort of impact. It's our practical Vmax.

For some reason drivers think this is a bad idea. I'd rather we were limited to 20 in town and make it more on the mway.
 
RedAsABeetroot said:
Someone told me about a hire car they had that picked up a 40 limit sign on an A19 sliproad in roadworks by Testo's roundabout. They were in the inside lane still on the A19 and the car braked rapidly from 70 to 40.
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Although only an indicator and doesn't reduce my speed,as I drive from Eston to Redcar leaving the 174 roundabout in to a 50 limit ,if i am on the nearside lane my sensor picks up the 30mph sign for the turn off in to Lazenby, if it did control my speed I would be dropping to 30 with cars coming up behind me at 50.
 
15 years time most people wont be driving themselves automated driving would bring an end bad habbits such as lane hogging tail gaiting and all sorts of other reckless behaviour behind the wheel. We might even see a situation where theres a human speed limit and faster limit for automated driving
 
Legal limiting was considered a few years ago. The argument against was acceleration to match motorway speeds could be 70+
 
For me it’s a bit like having a flare at the match.
70mph is alright for some, but the atmosphere is class at 150. 👍
 
The minibus I used to drive had a limiter @ 63mph which was helpful as I was used to driving at 70 to 75mph on motorways in my car. Quite a few commercial vehicles have them.
 
It's never made any sense why vehicles have the capability to go much faster than 70mph. But this is even more puzzling in the modern day with so many vehicles on the road that are unsuited to speed. These mainly compromise of SUVs and EVs. Both by their nature are not suited to speed. SUVs are heavy and handle poorly and EVs carry big heavy batteries. The aerodynamics and weight at play is suited to steady and slow - not going fast.

When you consider 100mph is automatic disqualification, there's no real convincing argument that would justify that sort of speed is needed. In reality you're talking a max capability of around 85mph. But in reality, you'd want to lock SUVs and EVs above a certain weight to 70mph max.
 
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