The future for urban speed limits

The study of British and Irish roads - their construction, numbering, history, mapping, past and future official roads proposals and general roads musings.

There is a separate forum for Street Furniture (traffic lights, street lights, road signs etc).

Registered users get access to other forums including discussions about other forms of transport, driving, fantasy roads and wishlists, and roads quizzes.

Moderator: Site Management Team

User avatar
Helvellyn
Member
Posts: 24664
Joined: Tue Apr 04, 2006 22:31
Location: High Peak

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by Helvellyn »

Micro The Maniac wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:10 A roads in urban areas need to be considered separately from B or C roads, which in turn should be considered separately from U (and similar "unclassified" roads) - if determination is such a problem then a plate with the road number should be affixed under the limit sign.

I can fully sympathise with urban residential roads being 20mph... but through-roads and distributor-roads should not be so blanketed.
Fixing a plate underneath it shouldn't matter. What the road is actually classified as is really beside the point, it's the conditions on the road itself rather than its classification that determine an appropriate speed.

Get speed limits mostly right, with little variation outside the blanket limits, and people will generally follow any different to the norm limits on the assumption that the difference must be there for a good reason. Have them changing all the time and they'll often forget what it is, decide it's most likely there for political reasons anyway, and generally lose respect for them. If you've got an exceptional spot that needs an exceptional (lower) limit it needs to be something unusual to be effective (all IMO).
User avatar
Helvellyn
Member
Posts: 24664
Joined: Tue Apr 04, 2006 22:31
Location: High Peak

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by Helvellyn »

Micro The Maniac wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:26 Every speed limit sign should have a plate explaining the limit - and "Party Politics" should have no place.
No, for the reasons given above, plus no more sign clutter and distractions please! It'll inevitably boil down to (non party) politics in most occasions anyway, if they're at all common. I'm always reminded of Derbyshire's stupid 50 mph A515 limits with "It's 50 for a reason!" plastered alongside for several years - the reason being for various unflattering things about whoever set them AFAICT (so there's another suggestion - don't patronise drivers!)
User avatar
Barkstar
Member
Posts: 2604
Joined: Sun Jul 14, 2013 16:32

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by Barkstar »

Helvellyn wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 14:46
Micro The Maniac wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:26 Every speed limit sign should have a plate explaining the limit - and "Party Politics" should have no place.
No, for the reasons given above, plus no more sign clutter and distractions please! It'll inevitably boil down to (non party) politics in most occasions anyway, if they're at all common. I'm always reminded of Derbyshire's stupid 50 mph A515 limits with "It's 50 for a reason!" plastered alongside for several years - the reason being for various unflattering things about whoever set them AFAICT (so there's another suggestion - don't patronise drivers!)
I always felt that the 'It's 50 for a reason' signs actually invited discussion with the possibility you could prove their reasoning was at fault - which wasn't what they meant at all, it really meant was 'We know why. We don't have to explain or justify to you. You wouldn't understand anyway'. And in the case of the A515 the police didn't understand either but hey what do they know about roads.
User avatar
Chris Bertram
Member
Posts: 15744
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2001 12:30
Location: Birmingham, England

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by Chris Bertram »

"It's XX for a reason" usually prompts me to retort "Yeah, just not a very good one".
“The quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead.” - Douglas Adams.

Did you know there's more to SABRE than just the Forums?
Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Try getting involved!
User avatar
solocle
Member
Posts: 806
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2016 18:27

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by solocle »

Using my local conurbation as an example:
Capture4_1.JPG
Keeping the current speed limit on all A roads, and some B roads, you get quite a network put together (red=30 mph, blue = 40/50 mph, fuscia = 60/70 mph).

It wouldn't take so much signage for an urban default of 20 mph, with certain routes being signed at higher speed limits.

20 mph is just more pleasant as a non-motorised user and/or resident - if it's obeyed, that is.
User avatar
trickstat
Member
Posts: 8738
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 14:06
Location: Letchworth Gdn City, Herts

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by trickstat »

Barkstar wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 16:07
Helvellyn wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 14:46
Micro The Maniac wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:26 Every speed limit sign should have a plate explaining the limit - and "Party Politics" should have no place.
No, for the reasons given above, plus no more sign clutter and distractions please! It'll inevitably boil down to (non party) politics in most occasions anyway, if they're at all common. I'm always reminded of Derbyshire's stupid 50 mph A515 limits with "It's 50 for a reason!" plastered alongside for several years - the reason being for various unflattering things about whoever set them AFAICT (so there's another suggestion - don't patronise drivers!)
I always felt that the 'It's 50 for a reason' signs actually invited discussion with the possibility you could prove their reasoning was at fault - which wasn't what they meant at all, it really meant was 'We know why. We don't have to explain or justify to you. You wouldn't understand anyway'. And in the case of the A515 the police didn't understand either but hey what do they know about roads.
I don't know but they don't set the speed limits nor do they erect the signs.
JRN
Member
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 20:11

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by JRN »

fras wrote: Tue Jun 08, 2021 21:38
Bryn666 wrote: Tue Jun 08, 2021 18:28 The current system is shambolic - it would be easier to fix speed limits in this country by embarking down the road of metrication and starting over than to try and make sense of the inter-authority disparities everywhere.

And as I've said elsewhere I'd have a default 40km/h limit in urban areas then, this is a reasonable halfway house between 30mph and 20mph, and would be a lot easier to enforce than working out whether you're on a classified road or not or whatever other dubious "look at our logical setting" plans overpaid and under-skilled designers and their political masters come up with.
Almost exactly halfway according to my calculations, being 25mph give or take.
Yep. And the 25 mph speed limit is widely used in cities and residential areas in the US too.
I'm not sure how widely 40 km/h is used in Europe, they seem to be favouring more and more 30 km/h (18.5 mph) zones in cities in many countries.
25 mph is a far more comfortable speed to drive for any extended period than 20, which has very poor compliance.

It's just a shame that either metrifying or introducing 5 mph increments to speed limits would be such a huge shake-up to our existing system, would be very hard to implement.
We must be just about the only country in the world to use MPH in only 10 MPH increments.
User avatar
FosseWay
Assistant Site Manager
Posts: 19621
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 22:26
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by FosseWay »

JRN wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 08:24 Yep. And the 25 mph speed limit is widely used in cities and residential areas in the US too.
I'm not sure how widely 40 km/h is used in Europe, they seem to be favouring more and more 30 km/h (18.5 mph) zones in cities in many countries.
25 mph is a far more comfortable speed to drive for any extended period than 20, which has very poor compliance.

It's just a shame that either metrifying or introducing 5 mph increments to speed limits would be such a huge shake-up to our existing system, would be very hard to implement.
We must be just about the only country in the world to use MPH in only 10 MPH increments.
Why would you want greater precision than 10 mph / 20 km/h increments? Once you get into the 5 mph / 10 km/h increment range, you're approaching the margins of error inherent in your measuring device and your visual ability to accurately read your speed from the dial (I appreciate that isn't relevant if you have a HUD that tells you your precise speed in figures).

More importantly, you are encouraging drivers to place too much emphasis on obeying the speed limit for its own sake, and not enough on driving at a suitable speed for the conditions.

I can only speak for my corner of metric Europe, but here 40 km/h is the commonest urban speed limit these days, at least round me (i.e. in the hinterland of a big city). To all intents and purposes, Sweden no longer really has default speed limits in any context and you have to read the roundels. If you look on "how to drive in country X" lists provided by insurers, the AA etc., they'll tell you that the motorway limit is 120, NSL on single carriageways is 70 and urban is 50. But round me at least, I have to drive about an hour in any direction to get a motorway with more than 100 (the E6 through Tingstadstunneln is as low as 70). NSL on country lanes is indeed 70, but unless you want to rip your sump off I don't advise it. Main roads in the countryside tend to be up-limited to 80 or 90, and signed 70s are not so much the default as a conscious decision to lower the limit for junctions etc. 50s in towns are a dying breed, and 40 is the norm, with 30 on residential streets.

As to increment size - the only other Western country to use mph at all is the US, and while speed limits there *may* end in a 0 or a 5, I don't think most places use both, at least not in such a way that you will go from 25 to 30 or similar. What you might get is, say, 25 in towns, 55 on rural S2s and 80 on freeways, but that's not really the same thing.
Did you know there's more to SABRE than just the Forums?
Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Try getting involved!
User avatar
Chris Bertram
Member
Posts: 15744
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2001 12:30
Location: Birmingham, England

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by Chris Bertram »

JRN wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 08:24We must be just about the only country in the world to use MPH in only 10 MPH increments.
Well, how many countries are still using mph at all? It's not such an issue where km/h are in use, as 10km/h is a smaller increment.
“The quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead.” - Douglas Adams.

Did you know there's more to SABRE than just the Forums?
Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Try getting involved!
User avatar
Chris Bertram
Member
Posts: 15744
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2001 12:30
Location: Birmingham, England

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by Chris Bertram »

solocle wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 19:3020 mph is just more pleasant as a non-motorised user and/or resident - if it's obeyed, that is.
In fairness, that's a subjective view. My road, a fairly busy one used as a through route though not numbered, used to be a 30mph limit, is now a 20 limit and frankly that has made no difference to my experience of it (average traffic speed and the 85th %ile are little changed). I don't feel "intimidated" by the traffic, never have, I know when the busy times of day will be, I don't have problems crossing the road or walking along it or crossing the side roads.

30mph was chosen as the limit for restricted (i.e. mostly urban) roads for a good reason - it is a limit that commands a very high level of compliance, with the ******** who exceed it greatly standing out from the crowd. In a 20mph limit, the ones who stand out are the people who obey it to the letter and create convoys of traffic behind them that make the road hard to cross. That, I put to you, is not an intended consequence of changing the limit.
“The quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead.” - Douglas Adams.

Did you know there's more to SABRE than just the Forums?
Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Try getting involved!
User avatar
FosseWay
Assistant Site Manager
Posts: 19621
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 22:26
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by FosseWay »

Chris Bertram wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:43 In a 20mph limit, the ones who stand out are the people who obey it to the letter and create convoys of traffic behind them that make the road hard to cross. That, I put to you, is not an intended consequence of changing the limit.
That phenomenon certainly exists, but I see it as a symptom of a wrongly applied 20 limit rather than evidence that 20 limits are fundamentally flawed.

If a road habitually has so much traffic that the kind of convoys you describe develop, it isn't a suitable candidate for a 20 limit, as it isn't a predominantly residential access road. You either have to accept that the balance of usability needs to swing away from NMUs and towards road traffic there, or you have to take other steps to reduce the through traffic flow, after which imposing a 20 limit on the remaining traffic is entirely reasonable. On a through route where you keep the limit at 30 and emphasise enabling maximum reasonable throughput of traffic, you provide light-controlled or zebra crossings where they are needed, so that hard-to-cross convoys cease to be a problem. On a residential road with a 20 limit, you have much less traffic and it's going more slowly, but also I'd hope that there'd be some give and take, so drivers sometimes yield to pedestrians who seem to be having trouble crossing. You can't really get that interaction when people are blatting along, but equally you don't really want that interaction in a busy traffic environment, where one apparently courteous act by a driver can result in a pedestrian walking straight into the path of someone else who's less observant.
Did you know there's more to SABRE than just the Forums?
Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Try getting involved!
User avatar
Bryn666
Elected Committee Member
Posts: 35755
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 20:54
Contact:

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by Bryn666 »

Chris Bertram wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:43
solocle wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 19:3020 mph is just more pleasant as a non-motorised user and/or resident - if it's obeyed, that is.
In fairness, that's a subjective view. My road, a fairly busy one used as a through route though not numbered, used to be a 30mph limit, is now a 20 limit and frankly that has made no difference to my experience of it (average traffic speed and the 85th %ile are little changed). I don't feel "intimidated" by the traffic, never have, I know when the busy times of day will be, I don't have problems crossing the road or walking along it or crossing the side roads.

30mph was chosen as the limit for restricted (i.e. mostly urban) roads for a good reason - it is a limit that commands a very high level of compliance, with the ******** who exceed it greatly standing out from the crowd. In a 20mph limit, the ones who stand out are the people who obey it to the letter and create convoys of traffic behind them that make the road hard to cross. That, I put to you, is not an intended consequence of changing the limit.
You are a confident, able bodied man. If you were an 87 year old woman with poor mobility, vehicles doing 30 past you would be a lot more intimidating. Or if you were a small child with no perception of speed it would be a lot more intimidating.

This is called "empathy". Just because something doesn't bother you doesn't mean it doesn't bother anybody else.
Bryn
Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already.
She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.

Blog - https://showmeasign.online/
X - https://twitter.com/ShowMeASignBryn
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@BrynBuck
User avatar
Chris Bertram
Member
Posts: 15744
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2001 12:30
Location: Birmingham, England

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by Chris Bertram »

Bryn666 wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:28You are a confident, able bodied man. If you were an 87 year old woman with poor mobility, vehicles doing 30 past you would be a lot more intimidating. Or if you were a small child with no perception of speed it would be a lot more intimidating.
Small children should be accompanied by their parents, who should also be educating them in the risks of the road, where the message should be a bit less simplistic than "big fast cars bad". Your old woman would also find traffic at 20 pretty intimidating too. In the end, we cannot cater for every single edge case, or society would end up grinding to a halt.
“The quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead.” - Douglas Adams.

Did you know there's more to SABRE than just the Forums?
Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Try getting involved!
User avatar
Bryn666
Elected Committee Member
Posts: 35755
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 20:54
Contact:

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by Bryn666 »

Chris Bertram wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:51
Bryn666 wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:28You are a confident, able bodied man. If you were an 87 year old woman with poor mobility, vehicles doing 30 past you would be a lot more intimidating. Or if you were a small child with no perception of speed it would be a lot more intimidating.
Small children should be accompanied by their parents, who should also be educating them in the risks of the road, where the message should be a bit less simplistic than "big fast cars bad". Your old woman would also find traffic at 20 pretty intimidating too. In the end, we cannot cater for every single edge case, or society would end up grinding to a halt.
Very dismissive of the real world beyond "my right to drive trumps all else", that. We have an increasingly aging population who are increasingly suffering social exclusion because of people bleating about their "right" to drive.

When I was 8 I walked to school unaccompanied. This was normal. It isn't now, because of people wanting their SUVs and their "right to drive trumps all else".

Frankly, society would be a lot better if we stopped listening to that edge case of society and paid more attention to those who have to live with the consequences of it.
Bryn
Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already.
She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.

Blog - https://showmeasign.online/
X - https://twitter.com/ShowMeASignBryn
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@BrynBuck
User avatar
Chris Bertram
Member
Posts: 15744
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2001 12:30
Location: Birmingham, England

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by Chris Bertram »

Bryn666 wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 12:05
Chris Bertram wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:51
Bryn666 wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:28You are a confident, able bodied man. If you were an 87 year old woman with poor mobility, vehicles doing 30 past you would be a lot more intimidating. Or if you were a small child with no perception of speed it would be a lot more intimidating.
Small children should be accompanied by their parents, who should also be educating them in the risks of the road, where the message should be a bit less simplistic than "big fast cars bad". Your old woman would also find traffic at 20 pretty intimidating too. In the end, we cannot cater for every single edge case, or society would end up grinding to a halt.
Very dismissive of the real world beyond "my right to drive trumps all else", that. We have an increasingly aging population who are increasingly suffering social exclusion because of people bleating about their "right" to drive.

When I was 8 I walked to school unaccompanied. This was normal. It isn't now, because of people wanting their SUVs and their "right to drive trumps all else".

Frankly, society would be a lot better if we stopped listening to that edge case of society and paid more attention to those who have to live with the consequences of it.
No, my right to drive does not trump all else. And I don't drive an SUV. But restrictions need to be properly debated as to their benefits and disadvantages, and frankly that debate is not happening because anyone who objects to a limit cut, even with well-prepared arguments, gets shouted down as a child-killer or worse. It's not a healthy situation at all.
“The quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead.” - Douglas Adams.

Did you know there's more to SABRE than just the Forums?
Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Try getting involved!
JRN
Member
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 20:11

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by JRN »

Chris Bertram wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:02
JRN wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 08:24We must be just about the only country in the world to use MPH in only 10 MPH increments.
Well, how many countries are still using mph at all? It's not such an issue where km/h are in use, as 10km/h is a smaller increment.
Sorry what I meant was, other countries either use 10 km/h (~6 mph) increments, whilst the only other major country to use miles, the USA, uses 5 mph increments.
However a few other countries in the world use miles, Belize, Liberia and a few islands in the Carribean and Pacific, not sure if they use 5's though, countries influenced by America might.
User avatar
Bryn666
Elected Committee Member
Posts: 35755
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 20:54
Contact:

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by Bryn666 »

JRN wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 14:00
Chris Bertram wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:02
JRN wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 08:24We must be just about the only country in the world to use MPH in only 10 MPH increments.
Well, how many countries are still using mph at all? It's not such an issue where km/h are in use, as 10km/h is a smaller increment.
Sorry what I meant was, other countries either use 10 km/h (~6 mph) increments, whilst the only other major country to use miles, the USA, uses 5 mph increments.
However a few other countries in the world use miles, Belize, Liberia and a few islands in the Carribean and Pacific, not sure if they use 5's though, countries influenced by America might.
Speed limit setting in the USA is down to individual states - some use increments of 5, others 10. There is no federal speed limit these days.
Bryn
Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already.
She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.

Blog - https://showmeasign.online/
X - https://twitter.com/ShowMeASignBryn
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@BrynBuck
ais523
Member
Posts: 1139
Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2015 19:52
Location: Birmingham

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by ais523 »

My main concern related to urban speed limits is the safety disbenefits of posting a speed limit that's too low for the apparent standard of the road. If I'm a pedestrian (I usually am), and the road is meant to be 20mph but most drivers are actually doing 28mph, it's much more dangerous than a 30mph limit that everyone is respecting. Sometimes, having drivers act predictably is more important than having some of them drive more slowly. (Additionally, it's much harder to find a gap to safely cross the road if different cars are moving at different speeds, because instead of moving towards you at a predictable rate, the gaps in the traffic form for brief periods at random locations based on how the 20mph and 30mph streams of cars happen to overlap with each other, and it can be very hard to determine where they'll be in sufficient time to actually use them to cross the road.)

In some areas of Birmingham, there are now no usable through routes above 20mph (e.g. some stretches of the A441 have had their speed limit reduced to 20mph, disconnecting the usually 30mph through route). This limit tends to be widely ignored, for obvious reasons, and thus is almost certainly hurting rather than helping from a safety point of view.
JRN
Member
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 20:11

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by JRN »

FosseWay wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 09:53
JRN wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 08:24 Yep. And the 25 mph speed limit is widely used in cities and residential areas in the US too.
I'm not sure how widely 40 km/h is used in Europe, they seem to be favouring more and more 30 km/h (18.5 mph) zones in cities in many countries.
25 mph is a far more comfortable speed to drive for any extended period than 20, which has very poor compliance.

It's just a shame that either metrifying or introducing 5 mph increments to speed limits would be such a huge shake-up to our existing system, would be very hard to implement.
We must be just about the only country in the world to use MPH in only 10 MPH increments.
Why would you want greater precision than 10 mph / 20 km/h increments? Once you get into the 5 mph / 10 km/h increment range, you're approaching the margins of error inherent in your measuring device and your visual ability to accurately read your speed from the dial (I appreciate that isn't relevant if you have a HUD that tells you your precise speed in figures).

More importantly, you are encouraging drivers to place too much emphasis on obeying the speed limit for its own sake, and not enough on driving at a suitable speed for the conditions.

I can only speak for my corner of metric Europe, but here 40 km/h is the commonest urban speed limit these days, at least round me (i.e. in the hinterland of a big city). To all intents and purposes, Sweden no longer really has default speed limits in any context and you have to read the roundels. If you look on "how to drive in country X" lists provided by insurers, the AA etc., they'll tell you that the motorway limit is 120, NSL on single carriageways is 70 and urban is 50. But round me at least, I have to drive about an hour in any direction to get a motorway with more than 100 (the E6 through Tingstadstunneln is as low as 70). NSL on country lanes is indeed 70, but unless you want to rip your sump off I don't advise it. Main roads in the countryside tend to be up-limited to 80 or 90, and signed 70s are not so much the default as a conscious decision to lower the limit for junctions etc. 50s in towns are a dying breed, and 40 is the norm, with 30 on residential streets.

As to increment size - the only other Western country to use mph at all is the US, and while speed limits there *may* end in a 0 or a 5, I don't think most places use both, at least not in such a way that you will go from 25 to 30 or similar. What you might get is, say, 25 in towns, 55 on rural S2s and 80 on freeways, but that's not really the same thing.
I don't think you would want increments as small as 5 mph or 10 km/h at higher speeds, but at lower speeds the gap can be large with our current system. The difference between 20 mph and 30 mph feels like a gulf, and while I feel 30 mph is a suitable urban speed limit generally speaking, clearly a lot of people want lower speed limits, and the only thing it can be lowered to is 20.

Interesting information about Sweden. I didn't know 40 km/h was so widely used there. But it seems like quite a suitable speed limit for city centres etc.
JRN
Member
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 20:11

Re: The future for urban speed limits

Post by JRN »

Bryn666 wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 14:07
JRN wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 14:00
Chris Bertram wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:02 Well, how many countries are still using mph at all? It's not such an issue where km/h are in use, as 10km/h is a smaller increment.
Sorry what I meant was, other countries either use 10 km/h (~6 mph) increments, whilst the only other major country to use miles, the USA, uses 5 mph increments.
However a few other countries in the world use miles, Belize, Liberia and a few islands in the Carribean and Pacific, not sure if they use 5's though, countries influenced by America might.
Speed limit setting in the USA is down to individual states - some use increments of 5, others 10. There is no federal speed limit these days.
Yeah- I meant by using increments of 5's in the US that any jurisdiction can use speed limits ending 0 or 5. Sometimes it's not even States, I think sometimes counties or even cities set their own speed limits.
Post Reply