Unfit for 80

In October 2011, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced that it would consult on raising the motorway speed limit to 80 mph for light vehicles on suitably engineered motorways. The headline arguments advanced by DfT for change were that:• Half of motorists already exceeded the 70 mph limit and the moral legitimacy of the system would be restored;
• Vehicles had become safer;
• There would be resulting economic benefits;
• Other EU countries had higher limits.

This paper assesses the past and current safety of England’s motorways. Central to this assessment is the Foundation’s own unique data sets. The Road Safety Foundation has tracked the rate of death and serious injury, section by section, on British motorways for the last decade. It has also physically inspected the entire English motorway system recording key safety engineering features, such as crash protection, at 100 metre intervals.

In addition, because the data for England has been collected and analysed to European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP) protocols, the Foundation can compare British results with other countries such as France and Germany.

This paper also examines what speeds we drive at on English motorways and the crash protection standards of both roads and vehicles on motorways today. It looks at our attitudes to the speed limit and assesses the risks and rewards from raising the limit to 80 mph.

Main findings
The report finds that currently motorways do not provide enough protection to drivers and car occupants to consider raising the speed limit. In new research, it shows widespread faults in run-off protection which are doubling the rate of death and serious injury where there is missing protection.

It shows shunt crashes rise exponentially with increased traffic flow, yet only a handful of motorway sections (like the M25 and M42) have the electronic controls with hazard warning and variable speed limits that are needed to manage the intense flows common across England’s motorways.

The paper concludes with what can and should be done to increase motorway safety and deliver increased economic benefits.