Daniel Scharf on the case for a 50mph maximum, Neill Fozard on the dangers during motorway upgrading, and Chris Hughes on a scary near-miss
The case for reducing the national speed limit from 70mph to 50mph was made by Stephen Plowden and Mayer Hillman in 1996 and reinforced many times, including by the environmental audit committee in 2006. The prime reason has been reducing carbon emissions from petrol and diesel, but your article (‘If there’d been a hard shoulder, I’d still have my mum’: are smart motorways safe?, 22 May) sets out the safety case: reducing speeds on conventional motorways is saving more lives than are being lost on “all lane running” smart motorways.
The case for a lower national speed limit has become even more compelling with the need to transition to electric cars, the range of which is about 30% greater at 50mph than at 70mph.
