[carwatcher]

Thanks for sharing the real world experience.

As you have mentioned in the below mentioned para, can you put a date as to when we can see this happening in our country, my conservative guess is say 100 years minimum.
We also had same sentiments flowing when cars like Opel Astra being launched that where are the roads but yet cars like that and much more expensive & fast were launched.

Originally Posted by pankajn1702

Regarding the speed limits, I feel it should not be revised/increased unless:

• road conditions improve. Don't wish to even talk about the condition of MPEH.
• people start driving more sanely. No tailgating, over-speeding, over-taking from wrong side to name a few.

[sonic_boom]

I believe the driving abilities of Indian drivers are at par with global counterparts as no scientific study has yet proven otherwise. What I find missing sorely though is sensitivity to other road users. Blinding high beams, driving into oncoming traffic , aggressive overtaking are some examples.

Though I cannot control the behavior of others on the road, I welcome this move and pledge to drive safe whether at 40 or 140kmph.

[pranxter]

No, this is not a garage. These are cars undergoing Govt. Mandated checks for road worthiness certificate that needs to be renewed every year. Location: Dubai
Sharing it in the context of freeway speed being raised & car/tyre readiness .

Used to commute Dubai-AbuDhabi everyday for close to 8 months and max legal speed there was 140kmph (radars used to flash at 143 kmph)

[Saint_Kabir]

This is just another proposal that will never see the light of the day.

Moreover, increasing the speed limit doesn't mean one needs to drive at that speed, it is the maximum limit. :-)

The first step for safer and faster roads in India is, to educate people to drive properly and safely. This second step is to improve infrastructure, which means better roads, proper signage, fencing on both sides of the roads, etc. The third step is to ensure car manufactures meet basic safety guidelines for every vehicle that comes out on the road.

[jagzrk]

Did not read through the entire 10 pages being at work.

But did see some discussions about smaller cars and with the high number of small cars if the occupants will be safe. Frankly, if we do the mathematics, the physics of a high speed crash above 120 kmph has a probability of near to 1 for fatalities, let alone the word "safe". More the mass, higher this probability goes, so I don't think high-end germans are that safe either at such speeds. The chances of survivability highly increase only when the speed at point of impact is less than 100 kph, courtesy early braking.

Personally, questionable should be the maintenance of these vehicles being driven at that speeds as well as the attention level / patience of the drivers. Add to this our nation's very favorite tail-gating and we have a recipe for disaster - pile-ups.

I would like the speed limits to be enhanced to 140, but at the same time I would also like the traffic police take a pro-active role by ticketing all kinds of offenders - bad tyres, tail-gating, lane-cutting etc. At least this should instill a fear among expressway users that its not a playground for their 1.3MJD's or 2.0L+ TDI gifted / land-to-dollars high-ends, pardon me for the sarcasm.

[printh]

Actually the crash impact physics is not that simple with just mass & braking capability as the only contributing factors. So, under ideal conditions, low end cars are definitely less safer than the high end Germans. After all, safe is just a relative term,not an absolute one.
Also, your view is contradicting your own mate. Having said anything above 100 Kmph a disaster, how can we acknowledge raising the limit to 140 Kmph as positive one, even if all pro active role are improved?

[jagzrk]

Agree, it's not that simple. But with simple equations we can arrive at an agreement that it's far from safe - high-end germans or not. I don't think anyone can survive in a high-end german either if the "speed at time of impact" is 120+ kmph. (Since we're taking about just high speeds. At speeds up to 100 kmph, of course the small cars dont stand a chance since they already scored a "nope" at 64kmph)

Contradictory, yes. Assumptions about barricading expressway, legal right of way to vehicles on expressways, pro-active role of enforcement, yes. But since I'm a believer in "Necessity is the mother of invention", I'm pretty sure these speeds should not be a distant dream. It's not like the Rajdhani is unsafe just because it can do 160 kmph. (Bad comparison, I know) The contributing factors are different, the speed is not.