Highways to become speedways!

#juan

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Aug 30, 2005
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120 kph is about 74 mph. People have been going faster than that on German Autobahns for years. People, , normally drive about ten kmh above the posted limit. If you are doing a lot of highway driving, you owe it to yourself and to your passengers to have V-rated tires on your car. A tire blowout should be the last thing you have to worry about..
 
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Kreskin

Doctor of Thinkology
Feb 23, 2006
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I also like the news of more enforcement of slow traffic staying right. The clueless doddlers are dangerous. I wish they would do what they do in Oregon. That's keep semis slower and out of the passing lanes.
 

#juan

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Another thing people don't understand is what happens to a vehicle's handling when you put huge tires on it.
 

#juan

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Here is a bit more info on tire ratings:

V-rated tires

Above 149 MPH/240 KPH

Should be all any sane person would need.
 
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taxslave

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Nov 25, 2008
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Before speed limits were lowered by bureaucrats in the name of energy conservation the limit on the freeway was 70 MPH. And that was before radial tires.
 

#juan

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Before speed limits were lowered by bureaucrats in the name of energy conservation the limit on the freeway was 70 MPH. And that was before radial tires.

And before most cars had respectable suspensions and brakes. The old bias ply tires were the worst. Radial tires were available but most people didn't use them. Back in the sixties and seventies I owned a whole procession of British sports cars. MGs, Triumphs, Austin Healys and at least one clapped out old Porche.
 

shadowshiv

Dark Overlord
May 29, 2007
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Speed limits on some B.C. highways to hit 120 km/h - British Columbia - CBC News


How many idiots are we going to meet on the highway now who will be doing 150 kmh.? Does the idiot have an inkling what happens if you blow a tire at that speed?

The same people that will be driving 150 km/h while the posted limit is 120 km/h are the same ones that drove 150 km/h when the posted limit was lower. They don't care about the speed limit is, they will drive at whatever speed they want to...they have places to be, after all.
 

JLM

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Nov 27, 2008
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And before most cars had respectable suspensions and brakes. The old bias ply tires were the worst. Radial tires were available but most people didn't use them. Back in the sixties and seventies I owned a whole procession of British sports cars. MGs, Triumphs, Austin Healys and at least one clapped out old Porche.


Most accidents have nothing to do with vehicle or tire abilities but driver stupidity and error- accidents happening at 80 kmh may just result in personal injury while the same accident at 120 kmh could well result in personal fatality!
 

relic

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Nov 29, 2009
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What I have to wonder about as I travel the TC, is why so many people seem to have trouble negotiating straight roads.Judging from the slide marks going off into the ditch.
 

Blackleaf

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Oct 9, 2004
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Speed limits on motorways should be got rid of entirely.

Speed limits on motorways serve no useful function whatsoever. They certainly don't perform a safety function.

Whilst speed limits on British motorways are a sluggish 70mph, there are, in general, no speed limits whatsoever on German autobahns. Again, the Germans are showing typical Teutonic common sense.

While parts of the autobahns and many other freeway-style highways have a posted limits up to 81 mph based on accident experience, congestion and other facts, many rural sections have NO general speed limit.

The German Highway Code (Straßenverkehrs-Ordnung) section on speed begins with the requirement which may be rendered in English:

Any person driving a vehicle may only drive so fast that the car is under control. Speeds must be adapted to the road, traffic, visibility and weather conditions as well as the personal skills and characteristics of the vehicle and load.

Some German autobahns have MINIMUM - not maximum, but MINIMUM - speed limits of 68mph on the left and 56mph on the centre lane. Vehicles which cannot sustain speeds of at least 37 mph on the flat are not allowed on the autobahn.

Despite the fact that autobahns generally don't have a speed limits, it doesn't mean that they are accident hotspots, with carnage on them every week.

In 2012, autobahns carried 31% of motorized road traffic while accounting for 11% of Germany's traffic deaths. On autobahns 22 people died per 1000 injury crashes; a lower rate than the 29 deaths per 1,000 injury accidents on rural roads, which in turn is five times higher than the risk on urban streets. Despite the lack of speed limits, autobahn deaths decreased from 945 to 430 deaths between 1970 and 2010.

Speed limits are just a nonsense piece of over-the-top 'Elf N Safety which serve no use whatsoever apart from making it longer to get from A to B.

120 kph is about 74 mph...

And, like I say, 70mph is the speed limit on British motorways. And it has been like that for years and yet Britain has less deaths on the roads than almost any other country.

On French autoroutes, the speed limit is 81mph (130kph, in funny money).

And yet here are some people complaining that Canada's roads are to increase to have a similar speed limit to what they have in Britian.

What do you lot drive over there? Horse and cart?
 
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JLM

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Nov 27, 2008
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What I have to wonder about as I travel the TC, is why so many people seem to have trouble negotiating straight roads.Judging from the slide marks going off into the ditch.


Easy answer.....................not paying attention.

Speed limits on motorways should be got rid of entirely.

Speed limits on motorways serve no useful function whatsoever. They certainly don't perform a safety function.


Before you go spouting off a bunch of utter f**king nonsense, Einstein, you may want to consider the topography in British Columbia is much different from what the Blighters have to contend with.
 

Blackleaf

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Oct 9, 2004
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you may want to consider the topography in British Columbia is much different from what the Blighters have to contend with.

Is it? Is it REALLY that much different? Do your motorways go up the side of snow-capped peaks, do they?

Just face it. Canada's current speed limits are laughably too slow, and it's time they were increased or done away with altogether.
 

Blackleaf

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Oct 9, 2004
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On clear, dry highways, I do 120 now I'll do 120 then.

When you consider that some European countries' motorways have 80mph speed limits; Britain has 70mph speed limits (but plans are underway to increase it to 80mph); and Germany doesn't have any speed limits on its autobahns, having to break the speed limit (which is just 62mph on most Canadian highways) just to go 74mph really does take the biscuit.

If Europeans were driving in Canada they'd all be ramming your back bumpers to tell you to get a bloody move on.