Sorry guys not in the UK...... Portugal along with other European countries now consider 80 mph a safe limit make the national motorway limit, they also go on to say that up to 92 mph is not considered worth enforced with only drivers going over 92 mph will be checked, still not till 2015 but at least a move in the right direction.

 

Now with every anti car, anti speed freak, anti petrol heads arguments about speed killing drivers and the environment no one can argue that since the present 70 mph limit was set (1960`s) cars have so much better brakes, suspension, tyre`s, etc, etc.

 

How long before the UK catch up and implement a more realistic speed limit on our motorways? the motorway system is the safest road movement method there is with no side junctions with the local village idiot ready to pull out on you, yes foreign lorry drivers pose a danger but at least your all travelling the same direction ( normally) sure it will be an advantage as long as they also implement a minimum speed also like in the US.

 

 

Portugal News weekly

 

Germany, France, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and Spain could be joined by Portugal in upping the maximum speed limit as national lobbies grow more vociferous in their support of a revision to traffic legislation.

However, Portuguese associations are also willing to accept that the speed limit be reduced down to 110km/h (slightly under the maximum limit in Britain of 112km/h) whenever wet weather conditions prevail.

The chairman of the Portuguese Road Collision Prevention Unit (PRP) was the first to express support for raising the speed limit after the decision was made official in Madrid.

“There are certain stretches on Portuguese motorways that can accommodate speeds in excess of 120 km/h while there are others where the top speed should be lowered”, José Manuel Trigoso told Expresso newspaper.

“Currently, control of speeds on our motorways is only done at 150km/h, a speed at which a driver is considered to be committing a serious offence and which usually results in the temporary loss of a driver’s licence”, the PRP chief added, though he stressed that raising the speed limit should be done without increasing the limit at which drivers would face stricter sanctions.

Carlos Barbosa, President of the Automobile Club of Portugal (ACP), meanwhile added his support to the move. He revealed his association had been calling for the limit to be increased since 2010, and that a change in legislation has been proposed in the 2015 Road Safety Strategy which is in its final stages of being drawn up.

They were planning to up the limit to 80mph but scrapped it because people already do 80 so if they upped it people would do 90. I think it's about time it should be upped!

I agree that it should be raised... Most novice drivers stay off them anyway

Not only should they up the speed limit but they should scrap the bus lanes and change them to Zed lanes :lol:

It's nice driving on French motorways at 80. I personally think that a higher speed limit in the UK would be OK in certain circumstances. The trouble with the UK is the congestion.

keep things as they are because as clarkson said if they put the speed limit up they will no doubt be more policing on the roads so if things stay as they are we will be able to continue doing a hundred everywhere. (ps in the north east we have very few speed cameras and police cars on the road because they dont care if we kill ourselves off) and i'm reaping the awards.:sneaky2:

I do agree, however bear in mind what's been in the uk press this week. 20% of serious accidents involve the under 25s and they therefore wish to implement a higher age restriction on the test as well as curfews. As the as spokes man said you cannot blame them, if they passed the criterior for your test, your test is not adequate. Personally I think it's likely a gross misuse of statistics. I see ALOT of accidents and I mostly just see people, no perticular age range or sex. However and this is where it's topical the amount if stupid accidents is unbelievable. This does, as with the other things I see suggest to me that the average British driver is ifs poor standard. Our road network is in thirty very safe. One theory is maybe our roads are a bit too safe, which breeds complacency and stupidity. Think how often you see someone do something and go, you shouldn't be driving!

It's nice driving on French motorways at 80.

 

Agree, and they also seem to be able to make their motorways billiard table smooth. Something we seem unable do

in this country.

 

-Andrew

Agree, and they also seem to be able to make their motorways billiard table smooth. Something we seem unable do

in this country.

 

-Andrew

 

They can afford to with the amount of UK plated cars they pull over.

i'd love to see it raised really, but it does raise the question - won't the traffic just bottleneck more at all the choke points? with traffic arriving faster it could make things worse... our roads need a total overhaul, wider junctions, bigger roundabouts, more bypasses.

I do agree, however bear in mind what's been in the uk press this week. 20% of serious accidents involve the under 25s and they therefore wish to implement a higher age restriction on the test as well as curfews. As the as spokes man said you cannot blame them, if they passed the criterior for your test, your test is not adequate. Personally I think it's likely a gross misuse of statistics. I see ALOT of accidents and I mostly just see people, no perticular age range or sex. However and this is where it's topical the amount if stupid accidents is unbelievable. This does, as with the other things I see suggest to me that the average British driver is ifs poor standard. Our road network is in thirty very safe. One theory is maybe our roads are a bit too safe, which breeds complacency and stupidity. Think how often you see someone do something and go, you shouldn't be driving!

 

Our driving tests are far too easy to pass. Hence the reason there's a lot of shitty drivers about! I also believe on the other end of the spectrum that older people need a stringent test aswel as new drivers. I get a headache trying to work out why the country is so useless at everything :lol: everyone is in debt, the roads are trashed, they can't fix them properly, they fix the wrong ones and don't prioritise, aaaarrrrhhhhgggggg fed up with it all :lol:

Why can't they cut fuel duty and make motorways toll roads with a 100 mph limit instead......... At least then we could go fast legally if we choose and afford the fuel to drive our Z's......

I agree on old people being re-tested...... my dad is a nightmare for hitting inanimate objects and then blaming them..... his cars last about 4 years from new and look like a stock car by the time he sells them......

I did a police skid pan course and that made me more aware of ice and wet conditions and to take nothing for granted..... They should make advanced driving compulsory within 3 years of passing the basic test you need to pass it, Or they make you start all over again from provisional........ Teach these 4x4 driving yuppy mums how not to stop on crossings or zigzag lines, not to put on makeup whilst driving and that a rear view mirror isn't for doing your hair......

See them every day dropping my boy's at school.......grrrrrrrrrrr

Rant over.....lol

keep things as they are because as clarkson said if they put the speed limit up they will no doubt be more policing on the roads so if things stay as they are we will be able to continue doing a hundred everywhere. ..................

 

This does raise a very good point! Generally our motorways work because you have people travelling at a range of speeds between 56mph and (usually) about 90-95mph; and for the most part, the two extremes do not come into conflict. If the limit was raised to 80, there is indeed a fair chance it will be more stringently enforced - thus the large number who currently travel safely at 95mph will actually have to slow down to nearer 80!! That is counter-productive!!

 

Furthermore, it has been said that if the legal limit is raised to 80, then those who drive at 80 already will simply do 90+ instead. Again I believe this is largely nonsense - as from experience, most people travel at either the legal limit; or the speed at which they feel most comfortable driving. For example, Mr Law-abiding in his diesel MPV sits there mile upon mile at 70mph "because it's the speed limit." He might therefore increase his speed to 80 because that would be the new limit.... But Mr (let's say) 300zx travels at 95mph because that is where he feels safe and comfortable driving at. If the limit is raised to 80, he was already doing above the new limit anyway; and will most likely continue to drive at 95mph - rather than increasing his speed to 105mph!!

 

Personally, I quite like the variable speed limits we have on the M25, M42 and M1 - where the maximum speed is lowered in accordance with traffic conditions. This, when operated properly, really does work - so why not have them variable in an upward direction when there is absolutely no traffic? Where is the harm travelling at (say) 100mph+ on a clear, dry, empty motorway in good visibility? Let's not forget it is legal to exceed even that on parts of the German Autobahn network. Although they are much stricter in enforcing lower limits in inclement weather...:wink:

 

With all the talk of revising the driving test etc, we should take the opportunity to educate drivers more in maintaining the necessary high standards to drive at high speed on our motorways. And educate people in the ways of being aware of other motorists around them - reduce lane hogging and improve lane discipline. One should be more aware of the speeds others are travelling at before making a manoeuvre; accepting that the Audi coming up behind might be travelling at 95, before pulling into lane 3 in front of him at 71mph!! And Staying in lane 3 at 71mph for 2 miles because there is nothing else but a caravan in lane 2 some 1.75 miles ahead and you "might" want to overtake that a few minutes later....:nono:

 

Richard:flowers:

Agree, and they also seem to be able to make their motorways billiard table smooth. Something we seem unable do

in this country.

 

-Andrew

 

Absolutely. UK roads are truly dreadful. I curse the roads over here all the time. I have a new car too, not just the Z. It's a well screwed together VW and even that gets bashed by the roads here, let alone a lowered 22 year old sports car. I don't know why they are in such a poor state; actually I do, they're over-used, but the counter argument for underused roads are 'they're not key routes and therefore don't require resurfacing'.

 

All the UK councils seem to be happy in doing is throwing tar and stone chippings down....are we still in the middle ages!?

Absolutely. UK roads are truly dreadful. I curse the roads over here all the time. I have a new car too, not just the Z. It's a well screwed together VW and even that gets bashed by the roads here, let alone a lowered 22 year old sports car. I don't know why they are in such a poor state; actually I do, they're over-used, but the counter argument for underused roads are 'they're not key routes and therefore don't require resurfacing'.

 

All the UK councils seem to be happy in doing is throwing tar and stone chippings down....are we still in the middle ages!?

 

You probably are down in Zummerzet mate....:tongue:

 

But you're right Si, the roads all over the UK are terrible and under-maintained. And when the councils do get round to repairs, they often do a half arsed job... Only this morning I was pootling along one of Buckinghamshire's lovely side roads and upon spotting a pot-hole, I was even more flabbergasted to see that some dozy twonk had actually painted the white line INSIDE of the pot-hole!!! Why - at least fill it in before painting the lines.....:mad:

 

Richard:no:

I know! They have one turning to drive along and mark them, they stay marked for about 6 months and then another one comes along and dumps a load of tar in it and in another 6 months it's a trench!

 

It's the gravel and tar that really gets on my wick....and they seem to do it to roads that didn't need doing in the first place! Just insanity!

I know! They have one turning to drive along and mark them, they stay marked for about 6 months and then another one comes along and dumps a load of tar in it and in another 6 months it's a trench!

 

It's the gravel and tar that really gets on my wick....and they seem to do it to roads that didn't need doing in the first place! Just insanity!

 

Yup - my own road was resurfaced by what can only be described as a gang of pikeys (the council must have got them on the cheap). They did such a poor job, although to the council's credit, they did get them back to re-do it FOC a couple of weeks later, but it still is not right. After a month, the front of my Merc was peppered with stone chips; and there was not a mark on it before despite me having it for nearly 3 years:mad:

I remember at my old house, they did the road into the main estate....a road that has really light traffic, a road that hadn't been dug up in years and a road that had a really nice surface.....the to$$ers sprayed the entire road with tar and threw chippings down it. It took weeks and weeks for them to disappear....this was in the summer and my Z stayed firmly in the garage. I phoned and moaned at them, so they sent a road sweeper out to collect the excess chippings, but it only marginally helped. I just don't understand why they do this on such insignificant roads where there's little traffic and the road surface is good. Just defies belief. It's an awful practice anyway as it wrecks cars. Also, the council couldn't even give me a reasonable answer as to why they did it.

I remember at my old house, they did the road into the main estate....a road that has really light traffic, a road that hadn't been dug up in years and a road that had a really nice surface.....the to$$ers sprayed the entire road with tar and threw chippings down it. It took weeks and weeks for them to disappear....this was in the summer and my Z stayed firmly in the garage. I phoned and moaned at them, so they sent a road sweeper out to collect the excess chippings, but it only marginally helped. I just don't understand why they do this on such insignificant roads where there's little traffic and the road surface is good. Just defies belief. It's an awful practice anyway as it wrecks cars. Also, the council couldn't even give me a reasonable answer as to why they did it.

 

For a council to recieve next years budget in terms of hard cash they need to show what they have spent this year and this is how its based..Now this saxon habit of road repairs based on granite chippings thrown over road tar is the cheapest form of road re-surfacing and to the suits down in central Goverment counting houses they just think the moneys being spent on re-surfacing and keep dishing out the dosh to the councils who for every £1000 recieved for road repairs only use a tenth of it on a cheap job as above and pocket the rest.For every mile they resurface using chippings then they would only get 100 meters using the traditional tarmacadam.

You gotta bear in mind simon the government themselves couldn't give s rats arse about the south and South west. Out of sight out of mind. Look at the motorway network, everything facilitates London and the middle north. There's no motorways in Dorset, not one. Bristol takes me twice the time to reach as London. This isn't a coincidence. As long as Johnny fat cat can get from his head office in London to his offices up north, full of civil servants, he doesn't give a damn that your hick ass gets stuck in traffic on a poorly maintained road. After all as one wealthy chap explained to me a while back, "no one lives in the countryside, everyone lives and works here in London." Even the m4 and m5 that tickle these areas, the soca (English FBI) head quarters are in Exeter and think what's in Swansea...

You gotta bear in mind simon the government themselves couldn't give s rats arse about the south and South west. Out of sight out of mind.

 

I cover vast swathes of the country, this is NOT confined to the south west. Pretty much the entire road network of the UK is in a poor state.

For a council to recieve next years budget in terms of hard cash they need to show what they have spent this year and this is how its based..Now this saxon habit of road repairs based on granite chippings thrown over road tar is the cheapest form of road re-surfacing and to the suits down in central Goverment counting houses they just think the moneys being spent on re-surfacing and keep dishing out the dosh to the councils who for every £1000 recieved for road repairs only use a tenth of it on a cheap job as above and pocket the rest.For every mile they resurface using chippings then they would only get 100 meters using the traditional tarmacadam.

 

Exactly right. They do like to line their own pockets first. Bournemouth whilst larger than its neighbouring City Southampton has been denied it's city status. The reason for this? Some archaic thing about cathedrals? Nope, it's to do with dual constituencies. Many of them would earn less money as they wouldn't be able to take there current two payslips. The fact that the "city" would far better off financially isn't in their radar. They would rather spend £70k on a blue Las Vegas style welcome to bmth sign, over the top of the over stretched pot holed dual carriageway, nice one dickeads.

I cover vast swathes of the country, this is NOT confined to the south west. Pretty much the entire road network of the UK is in a poor state.

 

Oh that's a given, but at least the road is actually there in the first place.