[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by noopster

Speed limits in the West are set scientifically.

In UK, speed limits and road design used to depend on science and engineering; now it is just as dependent on politics. There has been a huge backlash against cars and car owners, especially in cities, for over twenty years. The last piece of London traffic engineering that had the principle of keeping traffic moving was red routes. Even thinking about stopping on red line, during peak hours, meant instant penalty. Shortly after that, everything changed, and roads were narrowed for un-needed wider pavements and bus lanes, and blocked by building bus stops out into roads. Etc etc. Lower speed limits became fashionable and speed cameras made revenue sources out of those who wanted to drive at even normal speeds. Science was left behind, and, with people brainwashed to the new norm, as far as know, it still is.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Hayek

If you have idiot truckers driving at 40 kph while occupying two lanes, or Padminis driving at 50 kph, this will increase accidents. It's high time we ensured that only vehicles fit for highway use are allowed on highways - and access controlled expressways are probably the place to start.

Originally Posted by tilt

However, for all that to happen, we also need a network of normal surface roads that can be used by such people; and the highway itself has to be "access controlled". That, unfortunately, has not been catered for.

That is the crux of the matter. The normal, existing national highways have been taken over, more lanes added and converted in to toll roads, conveniently embezzling the life time road tax we have already paid. How can the people, whatever their vehicle, be barred from those roads? What is their alternative? They can not be barred from using these roads, unless the government is ready to face a riot.

That is the reason for sops like people living along the road as well as two wheelers being exempted from tolls. They have no other alternative roads to take.

[Skyline_GT]

Originally Posted by Hayek

If you have idiot truckers driving at 40 kph while occupying two lanes, or Padminis driving at 50 kph, this will increase accidents. It's high time we ensured that only vehicles fit for highway use are allowed on highways - and access controlled expressways are probably the place to start.

While I do agree on the fact that varying speeds are on of the most common reasons for accidents. But blaming the poor truck/lorry drivers each time isn't fair too. From what i had read in an interview/blog (sorry can't remember exactly) the primary reason most truck/lorry drivers prefer keeping themselves in the extreme right lane or the fast lane is because of the constant presence of slow moving rickshaws and unruly bike/scooty riders. Bearing the expressways almost all other two/four lane national highways have a high presence of local commuter rickshaws and bike/scooty riders. They almost always plague the middle and the left most lanes some bikers even hogging the fast lanes at speeds as low as 40! While technically and legally the trucks/containers do belong to the slower left and middle lanes but the menance caused by these two/three wheelers forces these truck drivers to avoid using the slower lanes. With these smaller and slower local two/three wheelers driving unruly stopping and slowing down without warnings the truckers have a hard time keeping up with the traffic as well as their dead lines. With their overloaded cargos and underpowered engines they need to keep their trucks in momentum and just can't afford to have stops/starts every few kilometres.

P.s- While the frequent breakdowns of these ill maintained trucks do cause a lot of traffic jams. But other than that i have always found these truck drivers to be very helpful/co operative drivers on roads.

On a lighter note the poor Padminis/Fiats/Armadas are just trying to keep themselves in pace with today's rat race

[shankar.balan]

I think some of the points of view here are quite "elitist".
Our state of mind and state of life here in India cannot currently handle higher speeds though our machines may be capable of these.
I would not want the speed limits increased arbitrarily at all.
In fact other than speed limits, we have many other things to do in ref road safety and would be better off focussing on these!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Well said Anoop. Insanely low speed limits that no one respects are a cause of accidents.

That would be a bullock cart, a horse, or a bicycle. Accordingly, such vehicles/animals are banned on British motorways. It would not be a motor vehicle travelling at 40/50.

If you have idiot truckers driving at 40 kph while occupying two lanes, or Padminis driving at 50 kph, this will increase accidents. It's high time we ensured that only vehicles fit for highway use are allowed on highways - and access controlled expressways are probably the place to start.

It is not the slow speed that causes the accidents, it is the high speed. Run into the back of someone going slower than you, and it is not their fault. On the other hand, if a private car is only capable of doing 50kph, then I think, yes,, there is a case to say that it is not fit for the road. Any road.

Trucks that drive, effectively, side by side, with neither succeeding in overtaking the other, is certainly a problem, but a different problem.

[Rajeevraj]

We always say that the ideal speed to drive at should be decided based on 3 things.

• The Road conditions
  
• The capability of the car (Not what you think you can do with it, what the manufacturer intends it to be used for)
  
• Your ability as a driver (Again, not what you think you can do as a driver, but what you are actually skilled/trained to do)

IMO, the 140 kmph proposal would fail all these points. 90% of our roads are not suitable for this kind of speeds, majority of our mass market cars are not built to safely run at 140 kmph and most importantly, majority of the drivers out there are not skilled enough to handle a vehicle at such speeds. You need supreme reflexes to respond to an emergency. When speed doubles, your braking distance quadruples.

Having said that, this is all a theoretical discussion. We don't really get the concept of speed limits, neither do the authorities that fix the limits (like the 10kmph board noopster mentioned). People will drive at the speed they want to.

[bluevolt]

I am not sure on how many of our roads/highways/e-ways one can drive around 140 kmph!

Along with poor driving sense in India, the tyre's of cars will take the toll especially in summers. Considering the fact not many take care of their car's tires, 140 kmph is bit way higher for Indian standards.

And mind you, when 100 kmph is the limit, most people push till 120 easily. If you will increase the bar to 140, people will even tempt to push 150ish and further.

100-120 is okay for our roads.

[Diesel_convert]

German autobahns have trucks at 80 and cars at 300+, the only thing that makes this possible is the stay right rule (left hand drive country).


If we can slowly start to drill that into people avg speeds can increase. You should not have any reason to be on the right lane if you are not overtaking.

As the country develops we should be aiming to increase speed limits all the time, not lower it.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by noopster

Speed limits in the West are set scientifically.t.

I'm not so sure, or at least it depends at what you look at. In my home country the speed limits on motorway's are typically set based on emission regulations!

Nothing to do with what a safe or appropiate speed could be.


Jeroen

[carwatcher]

This news could have been a happier and exciting one if the speed limit was fixed at 110-120, but with 140 it's rightly been greeted with caution and concern.

I remember reading on T-Bhp that the braking distance increases very hugely even though the difference in speed is of 10 kms.

IMHO the real reason for concern is that most of us including myself has not experienced speeds in excess of 100 or 110, so 140 is kind of unchartered territory and not only I feel jittery about travelling in a car doing in excess of 110, I am getting even more jittery by thinking of getting hit by one.

[mayankk]

Our cars: 90% not maintained for consistent 100+ speeds.
Our Roads : 99% not maintained enough for 100+ speeds.
Our Traffic : 99.9% not sensible enough to follow lanes.
Our jaywalkers : 100% blind, or most of them of the four legged variety.

Allowing a 140kmph is one thing. Whats being done to ensure that one will be safe at these speeds from external factors?

There's only one public road I can think of where 140 will be safe in optimal conditions.

[Swapnil4585]

Was the earlier speed limit of 80 or 90 kph strictly enforced? There was and there is no machinery to enforce this limiting law, on all the National Highways / State Highways. A better idea would have been to first gather the requisite machinery to enforce the limit of 80 kph, make the road users aware that there is such a limiting law, and that it is being strictly enforced, and after auditing the proper enforcement, the Government could've had increased the limit to 100 kph.

The other question that comes on my mind is, is it advisable to drive at the minimum most 3 digit speed on a cement concrete road, even after having worthy tyres and nitrogen in it? I have driven on the Mumbai Pune Expressway once and felt very uncomfortable at only 75 kph. Could've done 100 kph easily had it been a tar road.

Apropos to the debate of highway speed, accidents and law, I'd opine that the Government better mandate car makers to sell vehicles with speeds limited to 120 kph.

[Thad E Ginathom]

... Yes, you are right: what does it matter changing a law which is not obeyed and not much enforced anyway. My point of view is that if the law makers are looking at traffic laws, this is the last, not the first, thing they should look at.

Originally Posted by mayankk

Our cars: ... ... ...
Our Roads : ... ... ...
Our Traffic : ... ... ...
Our jaywalkers : ... ... ...

Our Drivers: almost none of whom are properly trained and tested.

worse...

Our Professional Drivers: none of whom are taught to drive professionally.

[GRAND23]

Existing highways can still support 140kph. There are people who are driving at 140kph. But the percentage is less.
The reason why the remaining people don't try 140, because simply they don't have trust on roads. You never know what is going to be waiting for you.
Broken roads, waviness on roads, surprising humps, pedestrians crossing and stray dogs. Anything may intervene. Accidents can be fatal at such speeds.

Firstly, strengthen the car structure for the max. speed.
Secondly, secure our highways. Maintain top quality so that drivers get trust on the roads after several drives.

[Chetan_Rao]

I was out shopping at the local Big Bazaar yesterday, and there was a huge traffic jam in the basement parking lot. The culprit? A car - won't mention the brand but suffices to say it was one of those capable of well over the speeds being discussed here - being driven by a mid-30s looking gentleman who was having trouble backing his car up into a spot twice as wide as his machine and plenty of space to maneuver it. Given the length of the jam and the flared tempers around, I'd guess he'd been at it for a while.

Now you may scoff at the idea as to what has parking a car got to do with highway speeds, but how are we supposed to trust people like him to drive safely @ 3-digit speeds on our highways when they can't even park a car at single-digit speeds without struggling for 15 mins?