Vehicle Speeds in Great Britain: 2006

[empip]

There are no UNRESTRICTED or DE-RESTRICTED roads in the UK. The maximum National speed limit is 70mph for Roads governed by Motorway Regulations and a few dual carriageways where it is deemed safe.

Otherwise all A roads should be used in accordance with the Highway Code or otherwise posted speed restictions.

The sign posted above, often called the National Speed limit, is a red herring, it only applies to the maximum speed that can be legally driven on that type of road.

For single carriageway A roads that can be from 20mph to a maximum of 60mph. However the 60mph limit is only applicable on roads that have safety barriers. If no barrier exists, or the road passes through a residential area that has reduced Lamp height, then the limit is 50mph. If the A road is a dual carriagway for more than 1 mile, then the limit is 60mph for unbarriered carriageways, or 70mph for unlit but barriered carriageways.

National Speed limit for unclassified roads is not 70mph as some seem to think, it is 40mph if unlit, but 30mph if illuminated, unless it is more than one carriageway wide (but these are usually classified then)

Car Derived Vans are required to abide by the same limits as Cars, Panel Vans, and all LGV's up to a GVW of 5.5T are limited to 10mph below the Car/CDV limit or a maximum 60mph depending on which is applicable to the road.

LGV's are restricted to 30mph, 40mph and a maximum of 56 mph depending on the road.

All that information I have just copied from a Handbook for Traffic Police that my friend has in his car..He's a traffic cop for his sins

A traffic cop - you are joking? I do not think all of that lot is current ... If it ever was... In England anyway.

We actually mean 'National speed limits apply' with regard to the 'de-restriction' sign ..as in cancelling the previous speed restriction and not by numerical visual signage imposing another speed rate.

Find more than you ever want to know here (see diag. 671):-
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/20023113.htm#5

Get the deal on current speed limits and the CORRECT weights, plain and simple here (para.103):-
http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/09.htm#103

Some interesting stuff here :-
http://www.abd.org.uk/speed_limit_signs.htm

Moves are, or have been afoot to further restrict on minor / unclassifieds... You will of course note that the limits are currently as per the Highway code. Hansard

 

[gcol]

How is it that you know that they don't know what the sign means? Maybe they don't want to travel at 60mph (or 70 on a dual carriageway).

Women in small cars . . . I figured it out for myself

I like your logic.

 

[Softus]

All that information I have just copied from a Handbook for Traffic Police that my friend has in his car..He's a traffic cop for his sins

There are people who seem to think that what the Police think, or write, or say, is law.

It isn't.

 

[namsag]

So is this speed limit thing a new thing for vans i thought the limit was how fast the van could go .

 

[esra_ptrap]

The sign posted above, often called the National Speed limit, is a red herring, it only applies to the maximum speed that can be legally driven on that type of road.

For single carriageway A roads that can be from 20mph to a maximum of 60mph. However the 60mph limit is only applicable on roads that have safety barriers. If no barrier exists, or the road passes through a residential area that has reduced Lamp height, then the limit is 50mph. If the A road is a dual carriagway for more than 1 mile, then the limit is 60mph for unbarriered carriageways, or 70mph for unlit but barriered carriageways.

As Stulz joined the forum on the 1st of April do we assume that all his posts are nonsense like the above?

 

[Softus]

As Stulz joined the forum on the 1st of April do we assume that all his posts are nonsense like the above?

No. It wasn't nonsense; it was just wrong.

 

[Steve]

So is this speed limit thing a new thing for vans i thought the limit was how fast the van could go .

Thats true, its the white van version of the highway code, its half the pages.