Interesting thread. I have had 2 speeding tickets in 34 years of driving. The first was for doing 38 in a 30 limit on an open road. The police just pulled everyone over - that was the speed the traffic was moving at. I was driving a 1958 Austin A35 at the time and never lived down the fact that it was capable of speeding! 
The second ticket was driving back from a day spent with Naz where I was caught doing 71 in a 60 limit on the Ilminster bypass on a dry road with not a car in sight in front or behind.
Most current speed limits were set in the 1960's when very few cars were capable of cruising at 70mph. These were the days of leaf-spring suspension and crossply tyres and drum brakes all round. Most modern cars with ABS, radial ply tyres and discs all round can stop in a shorter distance and under more control from 90mph than most cars in the 1960s could from 60mph. Rigid imposition of 70mph on an open dry motorway leads to bunching. I would like to see the limit on motorways lifted to 85mph, but enforced at this level.
The case for lower speeds in crowded shopping centres and near schools at chucking out time has been well made elsewhere and are sentiments I agree with.
With the proposed "road pricing" scam, what I really object to is that at the moment, if I go on a journey I know in advance pretty well how much it will cost me. A 500 mile journey is a tankful of diesel - about £50. Under this proposed scheme, in addition to the diesel (which won't be free) it could be anything between £10 and £670, and I won't know until I get my bill. How can anyone budget on that basis? Who is going to pay for 17 million GPS units and the licences to use them? Visitors bringing their cars into the country will get VERY cheap motoring. Some people just won't pay. Some will run up a bill they are unable to pay. Some nerds will find a way to bypass the system. And pensioners in rural villages who have been struggling to keep their 40 mpg 1.0 Fiesta on the road will be priced off them leaving the roads clear for the well heeled in the gas guzzling, ozone gobbling 6mpg Humvees and Rangerovers, and deputy PMs in their Jags. A 60 mpg Smartcar will pay the same as the 6 mpg Humvee - what an environmental catastrophe!
The second ticket was driving back from a day spent with Naz where I was caught doing 71 in a 60 limit on the Ilminster bypass on a dry road with not a car in sight in front or behind. Most current speed limits were set in the 1960's when very few cars were capable of cruising at 70mph. These were the days of leaf-spring suspension and crossply tyres and drum brakes all round. Most modern cars with ABS, radial ply tyres and discs all round can stop in a shorter distance and under more control from 90mph than most cars in the 1960s could from 60mph. Rigid imposition of 70mph on an open dry motorway leads to bunching. I would like to see the limit on motorways lifted to 85mph, but enforced at this level.
The case for lower speeds in crowded shopping centres and near schools at chucking out time has been well made elsewhere and are sentiments I agree with.
With the proposed "road pricing" scam, what I really object to is that at the moment, if I go on a journey I know in advance pretty well how much it will cost me. A 500 mile journey is a tankful of diesel - about £50. Under this proposed scheme, in addition to the diesel (which won't be free) it could be anything between £10 and £670, and I won't know until I get my bill. How can anyone budget on that basis? Who is going to pay for 17 million GPS units and the licences to use them? Visitors bringing their cars into the country will get VERY cheap motoring. Some people just won't pay. Some will run up a bill they are unable to pay. Some nerds will find a way to bypass the system. And pensioners in rural villages who have been struggling to keep their 40 mpg 1.0 Fiesta on the road will be priced off them leaving the roads clear for the well heeled in the gas guzzling, ozone gobbling 6mpg Humvees and Rangerovers, and deputy PMs in their Jags. A 60 mpg Smartcar will pay the same as the 6 mpg Humvee - what an environmental catastrophe!
