On Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:53:13 +0100, Neil Williams
wrote:

The joys of Milton Keynes...long may the national speed limit prevail.
While 60/70mph is a bit fast for a good part of the grid, it is nice
to be able to drive at your chosen safe speed without having to pay
religious attention to the speedometer in preference to the road. And
you find, generally speaking, that people do not act dangerously
(though the prevailing high speeds are perhaps unsettling to those
unfamiliar with the area) and that because there are few or no
unnecessary lower limits people tend to respect them.


The single biggest contribution Milton Keynes could make to reducing
its CO2 emissions would be to impose blanket speed limits within MK of
50 mph on dual carriageways and 40 mph on single carriageway roads,
with lower local limits as they are now. The idea of allowing people
to drive at 60 or 70 mph through the city makes no sense at all - the
roundabouts are so close together that hard acceleration and braking
are the order of the day. This is extremely wasteful of fuel and this
style of driving produces excessive CO2.

An exception could be made for the A5 which is grade separated dual
carriageway throughout between Brickhill in the south and Old
Stratford in the north and could stay at 70 mph.

Given the frequency of roundabouts throughout Milton Keynes, which
reduce average speeds a long way below the posted speed limits, most
of the point-to-point journey timings would be hardly affected.

To those who think this is a case of "do as I say, not as I do", I
would point out that I do not exceed 50 mph on dual carriageways and
40 mph on single carriageway roads when driving through Milton Keynes,
as I very often do.