When part of the M62 in West Yorkshire was made into a ‘managed motorway’, with variable
speed limits enforced by speed cameras on over-head gantries, I suspected it wouldn't be long before the 50mph limit in place during the conversion works was made
permanent.
Now I read that the Highways
Agency, currently converting a stretch of the M1 south of Barnsley into another
‘managed motorway’ is ‘consulting’ on establishing a permanent 60mph limit when
the conversion is completed, again enforced with over-head mounted speed
cameras.
They, the Highways Agency, claim
that this is to comply with EU directives on pollution.
As a frequent visitor, as a
driver, to our European neighbours I can’t help but remark that such ‘directives’
if indeed they exist at all except in the mind of the Highways Agency, don’t
seem to apply in Germany, where the autobahns have no speed limit at all, or in
France where their motorways have a limit of 130 kph, or about 80mph.
Perhaps cars in France Germany
Another somewhat worrying aspect of this ‘consultation’ is that Parliament
set the national motorway speed limit at 70mph, not the Highways Agency, and
speed cameras were only supposed to be erected in locations with an established
record of fatal or near-fatal accidents, and not as a blanket coverage.
The use of speed cameras on ‘managed motorways’ seems to be a direct
contravention of this principle and the proposed near-permanent 60mph limit an usurpation
of Parliamentary democracy.
It’s nothing to do with either pollution or safety of course, it’s all
about control!
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