Jayne Dowle: Higher speed limits will be a road to disaster

I DRIVE too fast. So I am happy for the motorway speed limit to stay at 70mph. Contradictory perhaps, but it’s human nature, well mine at least, to push it. And it’s common practice, my driving instructor told me, to go 10 per cent over the limit.

Therefore, I don’t care how the Transport Secretary Philip Hammond spins it, but being able to drive at 80mph will mean chancing it at almost 90mph. It will lead to more accidents. And accidents at that speed pretty much always involve death. “Irresponsible government minister” doesn’t even start to cover it.

I hear you veteran boy-racers. You think I don’t know what I’m talking about. But I’ve been there in the passenger seat beside you. And I’ve been there behind the wheel too.

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BC (before children) and BSC (before speed cameras) I drove a Golf GTI. Up and down the A1 from London to Yorkshire to visit my parents, I regularly topped a ton in an effort to beat my personal best. I think I got the journey time down to two hours and 35 minutes. “Irresponsible motorist” doesn’t even start to cover it.

But I was younger then, with quick reactions, 20/20 vision – those were the days – and no chattering distractions. I wouldn’t dream of doing it now. Two kids, six points and a few scary moments on unlit stretches gave me some seriously-needed perspective.

I try to abide by the law these days. But I still love the power of putting my foot down. So, I don’t want any encouragement to go faster, or to deal with other drivers going faster than they do already.

I clock up thousands of motorway miles a year, and there is nothing more annoying than a tail-gater constantly at your heels. It is highly dangerous, especially with your babies in the back. I don’t want that added pressure, and I don’t want to spend my life in the slow lane stuck behind a truck either. My own inner boy-racer and my maternal instincts are already rehearsing a battle in my head.

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But hey, why should I worry? Modern cars, Mr Hammond assures us, are safer than ever. Okay. So my airbag might save me from going through the windscreen, but it won’t stop one of my children from catapulting through the air and crushing me to death. Sorry to be blunt, but that’s what happens at speed.

And hasn’t Mr Hammond noticed that not all cars on the motorway are shiny and new. We can’t all afford them for a start, or hasn’t he noticed that either? There are plenty of old bangers still trolling up and down, ready to either explode or crumple like sardine cans on impact.

Really, I have to ask, do you think he ever actually uses the motorway or understands cars and driving? Because I can’t see how he can truly justify this plan, except perhaps to those who blindly applaud any attempt to “cut red tape”.

I’d hazard a guess that many of these individuals are, shall we say, in their advanced years. Many of them are also proud to keep on driving well into their 80s. The last thing they would welcome are selfish idiots with extended permission to bully them off the road. And soon there won’t be any police officers free to stop those idiots, because they will have all been sent out on the beat to prove they need paying.

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Oh yes. The economy. Mr Hammond mentioned something about this being fantastic for the economy. He reckons that upping the speed limit will get us everywhere faster, and we will all make more money. By my calculation, the faster you drive, the more petrol you use. So the money you could – potentially – make, will be lost. That’s assuming you can afford the petrol for a heavy motorway journey in the first place. It’s not only trains that have become a “rich man’s toy”, as this very same Transport Secretary admitted only the other week.

It will, of course, be good for the economy in that oil companies will rake in even bigger profits. But I can’t help but wonder how the inevitable increase in carbon emissions squares with David Cameron’s pledge to make this the greenest government ever.

We consumers are being asked to pay higher domestic fuel bills in order to fund his obsession with wind turbines, which we will then be zooming past at high speed, burning up the environment as we go. Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne, no stranger to speeding controversies himself, must be furrowing his brow over that one.

Car insurance companies will simply love it, though. All those accidents will send the cost of policies for nice safe drivers rocketing even higher than the average £1,000 a year recently noted by the AA. And ambulance drivers and firemen. They will get loads of overtime. Tow trucks. The companies that come along and scoop up the bits of twisted metal and rubber after a collision. And funeral directors. They will be busy. If this is boosting the economy, I think we would be better off with quantitative easing.