Question of the week: Should motorway speed limits be raised to 80mph?
Fri, 14 Mar 2025
Dear Honest John,
"Isn't it about time motorway speed limits were raised to 80mph? So many drivers are either doing 60mph or 80mph plus anyway. And aren't modern cars a lot safer? So much of the network seems to have the smart system with limits in place, so it would be nice to be able to travel more quickly when traffic has cleared. Lots of European countries seem to have higher limits without any problems."
- VE
Dear VE,
Motorway speed limits have been a discussion topic for decades. The current 70mph motorway limit was permanently implemented in 1967 and despite improvements in vehicle technology there has been little appetite for it to be changed from respective governments.
It could be argued that modern cars are more than capable of travelling at 80mph safely. Several European countries such as Denmark, France, Italy and Greece have a posted limit of 130km/h (80.8mph) while some sections of the German autobahn have only a recommended limit of 130km/h in certain conditions.
Motorways are also the safest type of road judged by the number of fatalities. According to RoSPA, only 5% of fatal collisions happen on motorways despite them carrying 20% of traffic, but the speeds involved mean that when collisions do occur they can be more severe.
Anecdotal evidence would also suggest that many drivers regularly exceed the motorway speed limit. Set your cruise control at 70mph, count the number of times you get overtaken in the space of five minutes and you'll get a pretty good idea.
However, if an 80mph limit were to be introduced, a potential outcome of that could be a call for more strict enforcement of the limit. That would require an investment in police resources which would have to come from somewhere - most likely taxation.
There's also an environmental argument against an increase. The AA says that travelling at 80mph uses 25% more fuel than 70mph and while that figure won't apply to every car it's hard to argue that higher speeds mean more fuel use.
Arguably the current situation is something of a sweet spot. It seems 70mph is a speed that pretty much any car on the road can comfortably cruise at, and should you decide you want to travel more quickly, the chances of being caught by a motorway patrol or a speed camera are potentially quite low.
If we could just get more people to keep left when not overtaking, we might really be on to something...
