Seen a thing about it on one or other speed camera site too (perhaps the west mids cameras one - it keeps a log of stupid limit changes)
Apparently the official word is because there's no central barrier between the two sides of the dual carriageway? Despite it having quite a wide grass verge..... and totally undivided 2-lane roads having a limit 10 or 20mph higher!
(not to mention an earlier section where there is a central barrier having a 70 limit - despite a couple of distinctly crap junctions including an uphill exit from a petrol station, and a set of lights that change green - red altogether too quickly to safely brake for from that speed)
It's all BS really isnt it
They try intimidation tactics to try and get us to stay under the limit, which is all well and good if the limits are fairly sensible (even though the basic arguments themselves are deeply flawed) ...... then they take the p*ss by dropping said limits to silly depths, testing how far people can be pushed.
When all they'd REALLY need to do, if that argument was real, is to install a bloody crash barrier! how much are those per mile? doesnt matter does it - it's an amount that comes out of their coffers rather than feeding into them with speeding fines.
Never mind the vaporous and debatable safety concerns (including the safety aspect of bored / sleepy / frustrated drivers?) - what of all the time that is being wasted on journeys that now take an unneccessarily longer length of time if you wish to complete them legally?
A mile at 70mph = 51 seconds
A mile at 50mph = 72 seconds (+41%)
A mile at 40mph = 90 seconds (+76%)
Sure it's "only" 21 seconds extra to cover that same mile at 50 instead of 70 --- but start adding up! (and then think on the 40 one)
hell think of the LEGAL time saving that could be accomplished if we were able to do 80 (45sec mile) or 90 (40secs)... except that most of us do anyway.. This is possibly also why speeds in that sort of area, 120 up to about 150kph, are optimal - past that it's far too much extra fuel, stress, and risk for increasingly minimal time savings... the mile at 100mph is still 36 seconds, or a whopping saving of one minute for every fifteen miles vs 90mph (it's 1min every 12mi from 80-90, and 1min every 10mi for 70-80). Dropping from 75mph on downwards brings increasingly significant time costs for diminishing economy and risk benefits, on motorway class roads, and strikingly so below 50. And so on and etcetera for urban routes. 20mph is barely more economic than 30, if not actually worse, as your car is into idle-level fuel consumption but using lower gears.
It's possibly a rather bizarre economy drive, convincing people to take shorter and less journeys by making them prohibitively costly in terms of time rather than cash - as we live in more of a time poor, money rich society..?
*link to final bit of this - thought exercise on taking the base idea behind that, and maybe it's ineffective aim towards reducing approach speeds towards M1 / west notts and therefore softening traffic/tailback buildup... made into a more local example - to go here after i remember my geocities password and make it into a webpage*
*actually i'll make it a gif and imageshack it
once PSP stops being an arse about it*
aha here we go. forgive the colouration and indeed the entire concept, it's just a bit of experimentation. Imagine this was tacked onto the end of the text above before the stars.
http://img159.echo.cx/img159/9246/variableidea8zn.png
more speed vs time thoughts....
60mph vs 70mph - 1 minute EXTRA per every 6 miles! (or, 1 minute saved per every 7 miles). This also works for 35 vs 30, urban warriors.
50mph vs 60mph - 1 minute EXTRA per every 5 miles... (1mn saved per 6mi)
40 vs 50 - 1 min extra per 4mi (1mn saved per 5mi)
30 vs 40 - yup... 1 min extra per 3mi (1mn saved per 4mi)
50 vs 70 - 1 minute extra for every 2.5 miles (1mn saved per 3.5 miles)
40 vs 60 - 1 minute extra for every 2 miles (1mn saved per 3 mi)
40 vs 70 - 90 seconds extra for every 2 miles. (90 sec saved per 3.5 mi)
jesus christ on a lollipop stick when you put it that way its suddenly quite stark..... also makes me realise how much time i actually lose stuck behind some dope doing 30 when i actually want to be doing 45 (in a 40 zone), late to some destination (usually a station) even when its only a couple miles away.
Speed limit complaint pack, hmmm