Brake: Speed increase means casualty and carbon increase
A rise in motorway speeds to 80mph could result in a 5-10% increase in motorway casualties warn the charity Brake who feel the move would prove detrimental to any previous progress made in reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured on UK roads.
They also warn that it would increase UK fuel consumption by 14 per cent and carbon emissions could rise by as much as 25% if the increased speed limit is made law, which the Daily Mail newspaper have reported could be passed by MPs as soon as July of this year.
Increasing motorway speeds may not even reduce average journey times. The Transport Committee Report on Road Traffic Speed found that an 80mph limit might well increase congestion and therefore journey times because it would create an uneven flow.
Ellen Booth, Brake’s campaigns officer, said: “It would be simply immoral to raise motorway speech limits when research indicates it would lead to more deaths and serious injuries, which cause devastating trauma to families, and which are a considerable economic burden. It would also fly in the face of this Government’s commitment to lower carbon emissions. In short, a decision to raise the motorway limit would go against safety, environmental and financial sense.”
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