Increase Motorway Speed Limits at Night?

Nuttzz

I drive a lot on the M1 south from dundalk and the M7 from Port Laoise late at night or in the early morning and there is rarely a car or a truck to be seen. Does anybody else think that it would be safe to increase the limit on the motorway from 70 to 100 mph from Midnight to 5.30am? If it was enforced by the cops (i.e. to stop muppets racing) would it be as safe? Opinions please

Our man in Havana

one word for you boyo! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

elexes

Bond-007 wrote:

one word for you boyo! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

ye id have to agree .. letting any person drive late at night above the current speed limit is very bad ida .

i know the route ur talking about done it many a time myself and do fully agree there is almost no one on the roads a. it would just be crying out for somone to fall asleep at the wheel and fly into a ditch at 100 mph . but i have seen that a lot of truckers are pulling into the side there and using the hard shoulder to sleep on . that i dont agree with also .

puntosporting

No is my answer too!
But!
It would be feasable for the gardai to relax there speed traps on certain immaculate stretches of road on offpeak times.
Maybe show a little bit of leeway for motorists who may have been a little bit above the speed limits in relation to the general condition of traffic,weather and so on.

unkel

I don't see why not. It works fine in Germany and the speedlimit has just been increased in Italy to more than 93mph. Driving at about these speeds in France does not seem to attract the attention of the police although it is not legal. I've driven for many, many hours on continental motorways at these kind of speeds and believe me, it works and it's safe

Indeed strict enforcement would be required as 100mph would only be safe on a near empty latest European standard motorway in a suitable vehicle under suitable circumstances and I probably forgot a few more restrictions

Any attempt to drive faster than is safe should be considered dangerous driving. This should apply to all roads at all speedlimits anyway

It probably won't be safe in Ireland until 1 or 2 generations after a proper driver education / training / testing will have been established. Doesn't look like that's even gonna start over the next few years. So maybe in about 50 - 60 years time? I probably won't be around anymore if it ever happens here

Nuttzz

I do both of these trips at least 5 times a month, people on the m7 especially just take off once they hit port laoise, its happening at the moment, there are funk all RTC's on motorways as we all know and i have yet to see a cop on a speed check on either motorway at 3am so why not make it legal?

it would just be crying out for somone to fall asleep at the wheel and fly into a ditch at 100 mph

hit a ditch at 70 or hit it at 100 its much of a muchness imo

is_that_so

Would say I have met you on the M1 , sigh . What do you do if you hit one of those shredded tires or have a blowout or aquaplane or even nod off ? And it's dark. Imagine your insurance costs 85% of drivers believe they are better drivers than they are

mackerski

100mph? Sure, why not? "Me too" to the comparison with Germany. But I don't go for the night-time connection. Firstly, you are always obliged to drive at a safe speed for the prevailing road conditions, even if that safe speed is below the posted limit. Secondly, night time is actually a more dangerous time on the road - you can't see as well and the risk of ice is higher.

Far better, IMHO, to set a 24-hour limit (or lack thereof) and either supplement by variable limits based on traffic flow or just plain clamp down on dangerous driving. You don't want to lure folks into thinking that night time is safer.

As for nodding off at the wheel - You don't want to see the aftermath of that at any speed. But I can tell you that motorway driving at 100mph requires sufficiently more concentration as to make nodding off much less likely - conversely, on occasions when I've caught myself feeling drowsy at the wheel, I've also noticed a voluntary drop in speed. Setting a speed limit too low does lead to poorer driver attention to the road ahead.

Dermot

chewy

its not the worst idea for night time but if no matter how quiet the roads are theres only got to be limited stretches of road where 100mph spped limit would be safe

Capt'n Midnight

Depth perception is worse at night.
There were two dozen crashes on the M50 on christmas day, black ice was one reason..
If you get dazzled how far would you cover before you stop ??
Muppets doing 45 in the overtaking lane.
The kenetic enegry of a car travelling at 100mph is over twice that travelling at 70mph.
They won't be doubling the width of the barriers.

And what makes you think the Guards have the resources to police this ?
out of the promised 2000 we got 58, just imagine the cost of overtime !

spockety

unkel wrote:

It probably won't be safe in Ireland until 1 or 2 generations after a proper driver education / training / testing will have been established. Doesn't look like that's even gonna start over the next few years. So maybe in about 50 - 60 years time? I probably won't be around anymore if it ever happens here

I'm glad you added this bit in. There is absolutely no point in comparing Irish road infrastructure with that of France, or Germany. It is a redundant comparison to make, while there continues to be no comparison between their respective road users and driver education systems.

Maybe when our people catch up to them, we can start to look at similar traffic laws.

Rabies

100mph is a bit too much. Maybe 80-90mph would be a little safer. I usually stay about 80mph on the motorway anyway, no real need to go any faster than that.

Nuttzz

is_that_so wrote:

Would say I have met you on the M1 , sigh .

Probably I'm in the red dublin reg'ed laguna plodding along at 70-75 in the "slow" lane, wave as you pass please....

Eoin

85% of drivers believe they are better drivers than they are

How do they know that 85% of drivers are not as good as they think they are?!

is_that_so

Nuttzz wrote:

Probably I'm in the red dublin reg'ed laguna plodding along at 70-75 in the "slow" lane, wave as you pass please....

Probably right behind you so. Original post gave me the impression you were not keen on speed limit observation so my comment is unfair.

d22ontour

france, germany, italy what have they got in common with the driving culture in ireland nothing most of our roads are disgraceful in peak hours, to say drive faster at night when most people seem to die on our roads at off peak sounds quite dumb, oh lets hit a ton here theres never any traffic oh whats the blackspot for,we dont have an autobahn and never will

Seth Brundle

d22ontour wrote:

france, germany, italy what have they got in common with the driving culture in ireland nothing most of our roads are disgraceful in peak hours, to say drive faster at night when most people seem to die on our roads at off peak sounds quite dumb, oh lets hit a ton here theres never any traffic oh whats the blackspot for,we dont have an autobahn and never will

the high night-time fatality rate is predominantly on non-dual carriageway type roads (presumably many involving alcohol) if Im not mistaken so doesn't really apply

mackerski

Rabies wrote:

100mph is a bit too much. Maybe 80-90mph would be a little safer. I usually stay about 80mph on the motorway anyway, no real need to go any faster than that.

"640kB should be enough for anyone"

Dermot

lomb

the high death rate here is due to a serious drink culture cops on roads enforcing 62mph in a 60 is fuvking nuts. they should be waiting outside pubs

Imposter

My normal speed on the motorways over here (when they are pretty empty) is about 150kph. The limit is 130 which is quite a bit more than in Ireland. 130 is perfectly safe for pretty busy motorways which have proper barriers on both sides of the road and are cleaned properly.

To even suggest that such as speed is safe in Ireland is ridiculous. The barriers are inadequate, the dirt on the roads is unreal (blow-outs and just general muck). In general people's driving standards are not up to that speed and (this is probably more important than any of the previous points) a lot of cars in ireland are not fit for those speeds (micras etc with small engines and limited safety features for a high speed crash). In saying this though the M4 should be perhaps 130kph (about 80mph) but the M50 should not as the volumes on that road, even late at night, are way too heavy for such a speed to be safe.