Motorway speeds: Get used to driving at 40mph

[doodab]

Reduces overall journey time taken as an average over all the cars. It doesn't mean that an individual driver gets there faster; obviously for an individual driver the slower they go the longer it takes.

The whole raison d'etre of motorways is high speed travel. If you're going to start reducing them to 40mph, then what's the point? May as well take the train if you want to waste half your day travelling.

Moving at 70mph or even 10mph isn't actually an option when your stuck in a stationary queue of traffic is it though. It's not like half the people are stationary while the rest are doing 70 so the average is 35 and getting everyone moving at 40 represents an improvement. The whole traffic flow stops moving. It affects everyone.

[VectraMan]

Moving at 70mph or even 10mph isn't actually an option when your stuck in a stationary queue of traffic is it though. It's not like half the people are stationary while the rest are doing 70 so the average is 35 and getting everyone moving at 40 represents an improvement. The whole traffic flow stops moving. It affects everyone.

Somebody has to be first. Just get up earlier.

It's very annoying on the M25 or M42 when the road in front of you is clear and the signs are telling you "40". I used to spend a lot of time accelerating up to 70/80 between the gantries, and then braking to 40 for the speed camera, then accelerating up to 70/80 again... But that's inevitably what people will do.

The question is, would even the most hardened Clarkson'esque petrolhead really want the country to start making 6 lane motorways to ease congestion, with all the extra congestion and roadworks that would cause? The real problem with congestion is that everybody tries to go to the same places at the same time, not lack of overall capacity.

[doodab]

Somebody has to be first. Just get up earlier.

Yes that's great but most people don't, so while I'll get where I'm going the problem doesn't actually go away. Like you say you need to reduce demand at peak times but I don't see a practical way of doing that. So people need to accept longer journey times if we travel in the rush hour as a fact of life.

[BrilloPad]

The question is, would even the most hardened Clarkson'esque petrolhead really want the country to start making 6 lane motorways to ease congestion, with all the extra congestion and roadworks that would cause?

Can't we build new motorways alonside or above the existing ones?

[doodab]

Can't we build new motorways alonside or above the existing ones?

Will it actually help? What level of capacity do we require to support a doubling of the speed? Does it scale linearly or follow a power law?

[doodab]

It's very annoying on the M25 or M42 when the road in front of you is clear and the signs are telling you "40". I used to spend a lot of time accelerating up to 70/80 between the gantries, and then braking to 40 for the speed camera, then accelerating up to 70/80 again... But that's inevitably what people will do.

Yes and when the road is busy further up that low density stream of 80mph traffic hits back of the high density 40mph one, and brakes suddenly causing a shockwave and rolling traffic jam. Hence people end up stationary instead of doing 40mph they were asked to do.

[original PM]

Can't we build new motorways alonside or above the existing ones?

why when apart from say 2 hours per day during the week there is plenty of capacity

I never do 9-5 any more - no point as I hit rush hour

Either 8-4 or 10-6 (or WFH!) and rarely queue on the motorway.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

why when apart from say 2 hours per day during the week there is plenty of capacity

I never do 9-5 any more - no point as I hit rush hour

Either 8-4 or 10-6 (or WFH!) and rarely queue on the motorway.

It's a different ball game in South East and London. Unless you do 11-7 or 12 - 8 then you will hit serious traffic.

[doodab]

why when apart from say 2 hours per day during the week there is plenty of capacity

That's not actually true on some stretches though. On parts of the network it's more like 8-12 hours a day of congestion.

[original PM]

It's a different ball game in South East and London. Unless you do 11-7 or 12 - 8 then you will hit serious traffic.

That's not actually true on some stretches though. On parts of the network it's more like 8-12 hours a day of congestion.

Yeah I know - the M6 stretch from end of the toll road to Preston could do with an extra few lanes - it is stupid most days and just nuts on a Friday.