Reversing the trend

As speed limits through motorway roadworks look set to increase, what are the implications for general limits on other types of road?

IF YOU’VE EVER FELT CAUGHT BETWEEN THE SCYLLA OF AN HGV looming in your rear-view mirror and the Charybdis of average speed cameras in a set of motorway roadworks, help may be at hand. The results of the final phase of a Department for Transport trial on roadworks speed limits are in. And, for once, they make encouraging reading. It looks as though limits in some motorway roadworks may be on the way up.

Back in 2016, Highways England’s National Road User Satisfaction Survey revealed that ‘customers wanted to see less [sic] speed restrictions during roadworks if no road workers are working’. One imagines earwigging a conversation in almost any service station since Watford Gap opened in 1959 would have yielded the same results, but perhaps the massive increase in speeding fines from average speed cameras in roadworks and growing anger from the driving public might have been something of a spur.

Either way, in response, Highways England commissioned a series of trials and looked at three options: 1) having a 55mph or 60mph ‘lead in’ and ‘lead out’ speed limit either side of roadworks, 2) increasing the speed limit on ‘smart’ motorway roadworks when they’re tested, and 3) increasing the limit when there were no road workers working.

Quite rightly, given the safety of road workers and road users was at stake, they risk-assessed, monitored, checked and double-checked before they even thought about putting up a new limit sign on the roadside. The team actually started by testing the new limit options in the Transport Research Laboratory’s Digicar driving simulator. This – as near as dammit – replicates driving in realworld road conditions.

‘THE TRIALS CONTRADICT THE DOGMA THAT THE SAFEST ANSWER IS ALWAYS A LOWER SPEED LIMIT’

Once they’d finished simulator trials, three stretches of motorway roadworks were picked, limits temporarily raised, traffic speeds monitored and drivers interviewed. On the M5 trial section (the others were on the M1 and A1), the survey team also used biometrics to test how the change in limits affected drivers’ stress levels.

The results from the three sections make interesting reading. First, they debunk the myth that drivers will always drive at around 10mph more than any given limit. In fact, in the new 60 limits, drivers tended to run at around 58mph, with the number sticking to the limits going up from 57 per cent to 85 per cent. Those tailgating HGV moments reduced too, with close following falling from 50 per cent to 35 per cent. Not only that, but increasing the speed limit to 60mph reduced 60 per cent of drivers’ heart rates as their stress levels fell. Journey times were a little shorter too.

Critically, the trials also found that ‘There was no indication that a 60mph speed limit through roadworks had a negative impact on the safety of road users.’ And that included road workers as much as drivers.

In the current limit-obsessed road safety climate, that’s huge news. For a start, it contradicts the dogma that, almost no matter what the question, the safest answer is a lower speed limit. Yet while Highways England is raising limits in motorway roadworks, local authorities are rushing to lower them on A- and B-roads. Clearly, motorways are unique in the way they operate, but human beings behave the same way whether they’re on a motorway or a B-road, and there are plenty of parallels in the way drivers are affected by each environment.

If you’ve driven through motorway roadworks you’ll have experienced to some degree the narrowed focus and increased stress caused by the combination of ultra-low limits and average speed cameras. The more stressed someone is, the less able they are to concentrate and focus. Even Brake, the campaign group for lower speed limits, admits ‘Heightened emotions, such as stress or anger, are a form of cognitive distraction and can significantly impede drivers’ ability to spot and respond to hazards.’

Lower a limit to well below the natural speed for a road and you create an almost perfect environment for stress. Yet this is what so many local authorities are currently doing. It’s now quite normal to see a clear road that used to be 60mph posted at 50mph, 40 or even 30. In contrast with Highways England’s risk assessment, studies and data, these ultra-low limits are often politically influenced, blanket, imposed against police advice and with no evidence of speed-related incidents.

Try to stick to the limit on such roads and there’s an increased chance of you being the victim of tailgating as you’re put under pressure to drive faster. Not only does this further increase stress for drivers trying to obey the law, it actively encourages following drivers to go for risky, anger-induced frustration overtakes. Hardly an ideal road safety environment on any road.