Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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FosseWay
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

Post by FosseWay »

Stevie D wrote: Sun Nov 24, 2019 20:04 Stop—start traffic is impossible to ban. Reducing the maximum speed is a good way to go about it, though ... if roads suffer from congestion then lowering the speed limit can reduce differentials, which helps drivers to maintain a steady gap and so reduces bunching. That's why variable speed limits are used on an increasing number of motorways.
The key word there is "variable". Yes, variable speed limits as applied to smart motorways do work to reduce congestion, but they are applied at different limits at different times depending on a dynamic assessment of the situation. Simply having a blanket 100 limit on roads designed for 120 or more and where the latter seems entirely reasonable under good conditions to the average reasonable driver will in the long run just reduce people's faith in rules in general.
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A303Chris
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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I only went through Holland last month and very few motorways have a 130kph limit, most were 110kph or 120kph.

However through urban areas the 100 kph, 7am to 7pm restriction is already in place along the A4 between Rotterdam to Amsterdam, and on the approaches to the Rotterdam and Amsterdam rings.

I think it may be like the A331 Blackwater Relief Road 50mph which covers only 1 mile of the road, that rural motorways will keep limits at 120 / 130 kph but ones close to urban areas will drop.

However, I had my limiter at 110 kph on the A4 and was being passed by most vehicles
Last edited by A303Chris on Mon Nov 25, 2019 15:50, edited 1 time in total.
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fras
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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A303Chris wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 12:12 I only went through Holland last week and very few motorways have a 130kph limit, most were 110kph or 120kph.

However through urban areas the 100 kph, 7am to 7pm restriction is already in place along the A4 between Rotterdam to Amsterdam, and on the approaches to the Rotterdam and Amsterdam rings.

I think it may be like the A331 Blackwater Relief Road 50mph which covers only 1 mile of the road, that rural motorways will keep limits at 120 / 130 kph but ones close to urban areas will drop.

However, I had my limiter at 110 kph on the A4 and was being passed by most vehicles
Note that the UK motorway maximum speed limit equates to 112 kph, the lowest in the whole of Europe.
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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fras wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 14:43 Note that the UK motorway maximum speed limit equates to 112 kph, the lowest in the whole of Europe.
That is slightly misleading. The vast majority of the UK's motorway and HQDC network has a maximum speed limit of 70 mph. Permanent lower limits are not common. On the other hand, Sweden's notional maximum, while being a whole 8 km/h faster than the UK's, is applied to a far lower proportion of the total motorway mileage and to none at all of the non-motorway network. I have to drive about an hour north or south on the E6 to get to a 120 km/h stretch, and the parts in between can be as low as 70.
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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fras wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 14:43 Note that the UK motorway maximum speed limit equates to 112 kph, the lowest in the whole of Europe.
I've never encountered anything higher than 110km/h in Norway.
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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I wonder if Fras meant EU rather than Europe?
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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Big L wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2019 12:06 I wonder if Fras meant EU rather than Europe?
Norway is in Scandinavia, not Europe. Incidentally, Norway has the lowest motorway speed limits in the Western hemisphere, as far as I know. Is this because of their notorious binge drinking problem ?

https://www.sv.uio.no/iss/english/resea ... ge-norway/

https://www.thelocal.no/20160701/norway ... nk-anxiety

https://matadornetwork.com/abroad/7-unc ... ng-norway/
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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fras wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2019 12:16 Norway is in Scandinavia, not Europe.
Scandinavia is part of Europe. Or do you think it's part of one of other continents of the world ?
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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Alderpoint wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2019 12:23
fras wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2019 12:16 Norway is in Scandinavia, not Europe.
Scandinavia is part of Europe. Or do you think it's part of one of other continents of the world ?
So Russia is part of Europe then, as is China, India, and Mongolia ? They are on the same land mass as "Europe"
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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I stand corrected by this website !

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/how ... urope.html
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

Post by Kaasdrager »

A303Chris wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 12:12 I only went through Holland last month and very few motorways have a 130kph limit, most were 110kph or 120kph.
You'll find many more 130kph roads outside of the densely populated west (PDF link).
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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Kaasdrager wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 10:31
A303Chris wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 12:12 I only went through Holland last month and very few motorways have a 130kph limit, most were 110kph or 120kph.
You'll find many more 130kph roads outside of the densely populated west (PDF link).
That's a cracking source of information, thanks for sharing
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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fras wrote: Tue Nov 19, 2019 00:24 Yeah, lets go down to 20 kph everywhere then everybody will be fit and healthy, apart from those starving to death from lack of food.
Just love how people overreact :roll:

Certainly my last trip through the Netherlands was alternately 110/120 with an occasional 130 on the autoroutes miles from anywhere.

I highly doubt a peak hours restriction of 100km/h will make any difference whatsoever.
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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Arcuarius wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2019 12:25 I highly doubt a peak hours restriction of 100km/h will make any difference whatsoever.
Two points:

1. It's not just peak hours; it's 0600-1900 according to the OP.

2. I agree that if it were peak hours only, especially in the very crowded parts, it wouldn't make much difference. So what is the point of it?
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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fras wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2019 14:23
Alderpoint wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2019 12:23
fras wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2019 12:16 Norway is in Scandinavia, not Europe.
Scandinavia is part of Europe. Or do you think it's part of one of other continents of the world ?
So Russia is part of Europe then, as is China, India, and Mongolia ? They are on the same land mass as "Europe"
Part of Russia is in Europe - that part west of the Ural Mountains.

From the point of view of the Council for Europe (A UN organisation), a little bit of Turkey (west of the Bosporus) is in Europe, a little bit of Kazahkstan as is all of Iceland, Cyprus, Azerbijan, Georgia and Armenia while Greenland is part of North America and Iraq, Iran are part of Asia. (See Wikipedia). Thus the United Kingdom is part of Europe.
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

Post by Kaasdrager »

FosseWay wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2019 14:57
Arcuarius wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2019 12:25 I highly doubt a peak hours restriction of 100km/h will make any difference whatsoever.
Two points:

1. It's not just peak hours; it's 0600-1900 according to the OP.

2. I agree that if it were peak hours only, especially in the very crowded parts, it wouldn't make much difference. So what is the point of it?
From what I understand, weekends are included as well. To be fair if there is one thing the road system can use it's more uniform speeds. 130kph was only introduced quite recently and since then the motorways have been a mess of constantly changing speed limits every three kilometers. Only in the past couple of years has this been (mostly) straightened out. So one advantage is that every stretch of motorway will now have one uniform speed limit between 6am and 7pm.
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

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Kaasdrager wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:50
FosseWay wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2019 14:57
Arcuarius wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2019 12:25 I highly doubt a peak hours restriction of 100km/h will make any difference whatsoever.
Two points:

1. It's not just peak hours; it's 0600-1900 according to the OP.

2. I agree that if it were peak hours only, especially in the very crowded parts, it wouldn't make much difference. So what is the point of it?
From what I understand, weekends are included as well. To be fair if there is one thing the road system can use it's more uniform speeds. 130kph was only introduced quite recently and since then the motorways have been a mess of constantly changing speed limits every three kilometers. Only in the past couple of years has this been (mostly) straightened out. So one advantage is that every stretch of motorway will now have one uniform speed limit between 6am and 7pm.
I agree on the principle that simpler is better. I also think that it helps driver competence overall if static speed limits are applied as a broad guide to what is likely to be an acceptable speed in good conditions rather than being micromanaged from one kilometer to the next.* The danger with the latter is that people will see the number in the roundel more as "the speed they should be doing" rather than "the maximum permitted speed where conditions allow", with a consequent reduction in likelihood that they reduce their speed to below the posted limit when necessary. But there remains a problem if the uniform speed limit is set well below either the design speed of the road or the evident potential reasonable speed to a standardly competent driver at any given time and place. The same issue has historically affected fairly wide, straight town streets which clearly invite much higher speeds than most countries' legal limits in such surroundings (30 mph/50 km/h). In this latter case, the answer is to engineer the road differently because it is clearly desirable to reduce speeds to protect other road users. In the case of motorways, we actively want to encourage people to use them in preference to other less suitable roads, and therefore it makes more sense to make use of the superior design of such roads as much as possible.

* NB I specifically mean static speed limits here. Variable speed limits are a different matter, because they are set dynamically according to current conditions.
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

Post by Debaser »

I don't think this has been posted before - some of the reasoning behind the lowering of the limit.

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/stories/artic ... antageous/
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

Post by Vierwielen »

Debaser wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 16:28 I don't think this has been posted before - some of the reasoning behind the lowering of the limit.

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/stories/artic ... antageous/
Makes good reading. I recommend it.
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Re: Dutch 100 km/h speed limit

Post by Kaasdrager »

This measure is coming into effect on the 16th of March - there is a page here with an update (in Dutch). 4000 signs are being changed/replaced during the weekend before the 16th.
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