TripleS wrote:

That's good news then. Even with the aid of suitable technology I feel
that what you are trying to do is too complicated and many of the
resultant speed limits will still end up being wrong. I appreciate that
you're gearing this to variable road conditions, but there are also wide
variations in the quality of various vehicle/driver combinations.

Well yes, there may still be lower limits for some classes of drivers
but one might assume that lorry drivers are better trained anyway.

The aim was to (1) assess a speed based on conditions and (2) have a
clear gap between a target speed and an absolute maximum speed.
Automatic controls on the cars to put some kind of limiting device
(with an override if available) would enable drivers to watch the road
rather than the speedometers as well.

In built up areas we need not have much of a problem; 30 or 40 mph
limits are reasonably appropriate for the majority of situations, and I
think they should be respected.

I don't think they are though. I think that sometimes 20mph, 25mph and
35mph are appropriate speeds, and sometimes it may vary according to
conditions, for example on a high street it may be that 25mph is the
limit during busy times but 35mph is safe late at night when pretty
much everything is closed and there are far fewer vehicles on the road.

Outside of towns and villages, open road situations, NSL areas - get rid
of limits and let us have it clearly understood that drivers are
responsible for adopting safe speeds. If that responsibility were to be
given to them we might find that it works quite well.

I guess for the little windy country roads that is pretty much what
happens as nobody in reality can surely think 60mph is a safe speed on
them. I find it laughable that these roads carry a higher speed limit
than, say, the North Circular (which has a maximum speed of 50mph)
which is near motorway standard in sections (albeit that it has far
more frequent junctions than a motorway).

At any rate I would like to see this tried out as an experiment on selected parts of
our road network. No doubt some will fear that such areas would be a
magnet for the speed freaks, or whatever you like to call them, but I
think this could be overcome.

On some sections of motorway maybe. I do think it will encourage those
who want to speed to go there. I have had this temptation to go to
Germany so I can legally go fast on the autobahns, and I'm sure there
are quite a few who have made a special effort to enjoy that experience
too. Not sure exactly how safely they were driving.

What we really need are thinking drivers, capable drivers, safe reliable
drivers - not speed limited drivers who are switched off from the driving task.

With the automatic controls I have suggested the drivers can
concentrate on doing just that.