Speed limits
Sir,
I am writing in response to Mr Peter Minshall’s letter in the Argyllshire Advertiser of November 29 concerning speed limits in the area.
Peter is someone I know and respect, but I do find myself looking at the situation in a very different way and I’m not too sure about some of his facts.
The speed limits in the Netherlands which are being lowered on some roads next year are to 100kph (62mph) not 50 mph and this reduction is generally during daytime between 6am and 7pm on the affected roads; outside those hours they will remain at their present level. Speed limits in the USA were reduced in the 1970s to 55mph during the oil crisis but upper limits are now generally in the range of 70-80mph with a highest figure of 85mph. They vary between states.
Car speedometers are allowed an over-readFor
ing error of 10 per cent (there is no under-reading allowance) so cars apparently being driven just under a 50mph limit might well be doing less than 45mph. (Anyone who uses motorways regularly will have seen frustrated truck drivers in 50mph road works trying to drive at 50mph – according to their officially-checked speedometers – and being impeded by cars doing much less because their drivers don’t know that their speedos over-read.)
I have a number of cars with automatic transmissions and none of them will shift into top gear at a steady 50mph; all of them will do so at 60mph. Driving in an intermediate gear at 50mph won’t save wear or fuel in any of these vehicles.
This year, apart from thousands of miles around the rest of Scotland, I have made about 80 journeys which included both directions on the A83 and A82 between Whitehouse and Glasgow; most were for business and many had final destinations farther afield, sometimes much farther afield. I, and I believe many others who make frequent journeys such as this as part of their business or employment, would regard a change in the speed limit as both unnecessary and inefficient.
Disagreeing with someone I believe to be sincere and well-meaning is difficult but I think that on this occasion it is necessary.
David Bridge, Skipness