[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

It's also very important to have minimum speed limits.

+ 1

I think that is the biggest problem on our roads. There is simply too much variation in speed.

And this can be seen across vehicles - maybe motorcycles and autos do it a bit more. The general belief is that if they are slow, they are driving safe.

And it doesn't mean those drivers have incredible patience. No, they try to wiggle into each and every gap or crowd the opposite lane at every red signal, free left or a railway crossing and also never yield. But will revert back to the glacial pace when the road is free holding everyone behind in frustration. It's like they are governed by the laws of fluid dynamics. And no, there is no concept of a rear view mirror for these fellas.

I have seen these slow drivers to be extremely distracted as well. The attention is not on the road or other vehicles but its like jaywalking on the road. And there is simply no anticipation. If a vehicle in front slows down or stops for some reason, they simply swerve. Add honking to the mix and you are all set. Its like the slow speed is the license to mask the bad driving.

I am much more comfortable with drivers/ riders who are a little fast but attentive. I like speed limits if it helps everyone to move together. Meaning the folks who don't keep up should also be penalized.

And the public works department should get rid of many u-turns. There are simply too many which chokes lanes and bring down the speed of the traffic. Its like every big business wants a u-turn in front of their shop and Kerala got a lot of them when the road is divided. Let people make that turn only where there is space to do that and let them get conditioned to go around the block to get to something.

[wildsdi5530]

I think if safety is the Govt's concern, the easiest way would be to fine fender benders heavily, a la Gulf. No one maintains a safe distance as fender benders are insignificant. Thus very short distances are maintained especially by tough built vehicles or scrap vehicles. This even on highways. Even I'm guilty of this, in my alto, I squeeze through gaps that I would never dare in my Mobilio.
Once people are scared to come close to other vehicles, accidents will automatically reduce.
One important caveat should be the driver should be punished, not the owner. Otherwise BMTC will continue to leave just an inch gap next to your ORVM.

[rocksterraghu]

The easiest thing to do is crib. About low speed limits or high. Every last reference is to the western world and how everything is perfect there. I have travelled and driven enough across US and Europe and I can tell you, they are in general much better than us when it comes to roads and governance. But.

Let us give some credit to our people who are working on improving road standards in India. Whether it is a 500 KM stretch between Bangalore and Kanyakumari/Pondicherry/Hyderabad etc, I do like the national highways in India. If you have driven in NJ/NYC you will know patch work and undulations are a part of busy highways.

If they increase the speed limit, they give us the OPTION to go faster and not force us to - so we can continue our 60 KM/hr pursuit or choose to drive faster if we understand our cars and their capabilities. As far as people being "educated" and evaluated before they are given driving licenses, that is a different topic altogether. They could overspeed and cause disasters even today - why penalise the efficient driver with a capable car? What is wrong in increasing speed limits?

[Avalanche2409]

When was the last time you were actually worried about a certain speed limit set up in a city/highway?
What I have observed is that, we Indians are generally not guided by the law itself but our own sheer conscience. If people are driving within set speed limits they are doing it due to their own will/ trying to be in a comfort zone and not because they fear the law. The same applies to vehicles going slower or faster.

I personally like to stick to the EXACT speed limits within the cities and it's always been the slower moving vehicles which annoy me the most as compared to their fast moving (idiot) counterparts.

About the highways, well, we all (most of us) are driven by the same sentiment. Limits set are ridiculously slower and makes people break it rather than follow it. The law needs to be tightened and that's the only solution. Fine/punish offenders heavily according to the rule violated. You cannot make people toe the line here just by putting up a signboard with a random number on it, you also need to whip people to understand its relevance, but ofcourse, only after putting up a logically correct number.

[giri1.8]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Absolutely!

On another new thread about speed governers on bikes- just the exact opposite reaction is happening.

I totally welcome this move. Doesn't mean I'll do 120 kmph everywhere because our roads dont allow it - but when it does - I'm glad 120 is a good legal cruising speed in India.

This shows why government is not bothered to make any changes Keep it as it is, people are not happy, make some drastic changes, again people are not happy.

But then again, it's human nature to have their views, I am totally in support of this move, realistic rules only means more people will adhere to it.

[pkulkarni.2106]

While this is good news, I also remember reading another news few months back, wherein government was trying to make it mandatory for all cars be fitted with speed alert system which will alert the driver when he crosses 80 kmph and will go louder when he/she crosses 100 kmph and there will be a non-stop alert at speeds excess of 120 kmph.

Link to the news: https://www.team-bhp.com/news/airbag...must-july-2019

Isn't this self contradictory?

[GKMahajan]

Wow! What a discussion!!

I would like to add my 2 cents!

In my opinion, no speed limit is 'right' for everyone. So, I expect someone to say that it should be lowered and someone to say that it should be increased!!

I think - until further notice - these limits seem okay.

However, I feel this cannot be done in isolation. Some of the things which should be done concurrently:

• Put steel barriers in the fast lanes for all 3+ lane roads every 1 km or 0.5 km
• The speed limit boards should include minimum speeds for the lanes too.
• Remove speedbreakers - ALL!
• If a vehicle has a 'breakdown' on a highway, its registration should be cancelled. That way - hopefully - vehicles will get preventive maintenance
• People should be allowed to do the equivalent of the US 'Citizen's arrest'
• All commercial vehicles should have mandatory monitoring by owners using GPS and other trackers
• Speed guns and cameras next to each speed limit board
• I will add more points (and I am sure many of you will too)

[akshay4587]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

Although it sounds nice, I still don't understand why there should be varying speed limits. Why can't they just fix speed limits for lanes instead of vehicles, say 80kmph for the left lane and 100kmph for the right lane? Won't this improve traffic flow and safety?

How do you expect them to implement this?
A wiser and a supposedly more effective system is already in place, which limits the speed on the type of vehicle being driven on the road.
But how many follow it, is anyone's guess.

The Major issue on our highway's right now is Lane discipline.
How do you expect the traffic to flow freely, even if speed limit is increased to 120km/hr, when 3 out of 4 lanes are occupied by heavy vehicles doing 40-50km/hr; and that includes the right most lane, which is supposedly for overtaking.

Bumping up the speed limit from current 90/100 to 120 on our roads,
without fixing the licensing system and road network, will only increase the number of fatalities caused by road accidents, and nothing else.

[Turbohead]

Originally Posted by akshay4587

How do you expect them to implement this?
A wiser and a supposedly more effective system is already in place, which limits the speed on the type of vehicle being driven on the road.
But how many follow it, is anyone's guess.

The Major issue on our highway's right now is Lane discipline.
How do you expect the traffic to flow freely, even if speed limit is increased to 120km/hr, when 3 out of 4 lanes are occupied by heavy vehicles doing 40-50km/hr; and that includes the right most lane, which is supposedly for overtaking.

Bumping up the speed limit from current 90/100 to 120 on our roads,
without fixing the licensing system and road network, will only increase the number of fatalities caused by road accidents, and nothing else.

That brings us to the topic of minimum speed on the fastest lane.

With the current system, if the speed limit for trucks is 60 kmph, 3 trucks could travel side by side at 60kmph without breaking the law. The rest of the vehicles will be stuck behind. The trucks can't go any faster and they'll argue that they have every right to hog the lane.

Let's say if the speed limits are different for different lanes, the slower vehicles will be forced to stick on the slower lane while the faster vehicles will go in the faster lane, assuming minimum speed is 5 Kmph higher than the slower lane. While this improves traffic flow a bit, accidents due to lane changeing could occur.

I agree with you on the last point though- proper driver training and licensing is the only way forward.

[akshay4587]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

That brings us to the topic of minimum speed on the fastest lane.

With the current system, if the speed limit for trucks is 60 kmph, 3 trucks could travel side by side at 60kmph without breaking the law. The rest of the vehicles will be stuck behind. The trucks can't go any faster and they'll argue that they have every right to hog the lane.

Let's say if the speed limits are different for different lanes, the slower vehicles will be forced to stick on the slower lane while the faster vehicles will go in the faster lane, assuming minimum speed is 5 Kmph higher than the slower lane. While this improves traffic flow a bit, accidents due to lane changeing could occur.

I agree with you on the last point though- proper driver training and licensing is the only way forward.

Yeah, that can happen, but in theory, practically we all know how that is going to be.

We are a long way off from a 120km/hr speed limit.

I cant even maintain 90km/hr continuously for 5 kms on a highway, forget about 120. YEW being the only exception right now, where such speeds might be possible, but even there you have trucks and tractors doing 20-50Km/hr

[Sameer 26]

Does speed limits really matter on Indian roads?
How many vehicles you see plying on earlier speed limits? Although limit has been increased, does it had made difference if it would have been reduced?
You can see many people stretching their cars to limit to attain maximum speed. Then there are people going zigzag at high speeds.
At few places, your speed gets decided based on time taken to travel from toll booth A to toll booth B. This juggad method has flaws off course.
Unless you have body governing speed limits across city or highway, increase or decrease in speed limits doesn't really matter.

[Hawkeye269]

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has revised the speed limits for motor vehicles (M1, M2 and M3 categories), goods carriers (N category), motor cycles, quads and three-wheeled vehicles.



As is evident from the above table, revised speed limits have been notified across the following categories of roads: access-controlled expressways, 4-lane dual carriageways, roads within municipal limits, and other roads.

Here’s a copy of the official gazette notification:
revised speed limits.pdf

I’d like to hear from forum members if they think the prescribed speed limits are appropriate, especially in the context of Indian roads, the vehicles that ply on them, and (perhaps most importantly) Indian driving habits.

[earthian]

There was a small mention in the newspapers about a week back. Apart from that there has been no publicity (yet-hopefully) about these limits. The only place where i see speed limits mentioned ( and that which catches the eye) are on the expressway NE1. However, in the past 15 years, i have yet to see anyone getting pulled up for over speeding, driving on the shoulder, stopping without valid, acceptable reason, overtaking dangerously, over loading.....the list goes on.
There have been many accidents, especially during the rainy season, when the tail lights and reflectors of trucks get covered with dirt and muck- and when these vehicles stop on the expressway during the night, tail ending accidents are common.
Unless the Government allocates resources and develops systems and more importantly, the resolve, to enforce rules; i am afraid that this would remain just another piece of paper.
On a side note, when there are no speed limits specified in most roads and when such rules are not given adequate publicity, do the judges take a lenient view on over speeding cases? i guess not, if i remember my college days in Delhi.

ps: It is irritating to see that proof reading is sloppy in an important document such as the Gazette of India.

[hemanth.anand]

This is more practical than the previous limits I feel. But what is more logical is the statement after the table that no cognizance of the violation shall be taken if the speed detected is within 5 per cent of the maximum speed specified.



I had once paid a fine for driving at 63Kmph in a 60Kmph zone. If this gazette notification had come before that, I would've escaped that fine

[blackwasp]

I think the notification just raises the maximum allowable speed limit. It doesn't mean that you can go zipping down the Mum-Pune expressway at 120 km/h now. I think this notification would allow future roads to be designed with higher speeds and allowing these speed limits on the newer roads.

I'm not sure where the existing roads will come under this. It's highly possible that the since the limits back when it was constructed were 80 km/h, it would have been probably designed for 100 km/h accounting for the speeding vehicles. After his notification, the new roads would probably be designed for 150 km/h speeds with limits of 120 km/h (just as an example).