5 motorway sections have speed limits reduced

[FROSTYBALLS]

Five UK motorway sections have had their speed limits reduced to 60mph in an effort to cut NOx emissions.

These motorways include:

• M6 between junctions 6 and 7 (near Birmingham).
• M1 between junctions 33 and 34 (at Rotherham, South Yorkshire).
• M602 between junctions 1 and 3 (near Eccles, Greater Manchester).
• M5 between junctions 1 and 2 (at Oldbury, West Midlands).
• M4 Harlington junctions 3 to 4 west bound.

This initiative aims to address air quality challenges caused by nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions from car exhausts. The impact of the new 60mph limit will be reviewed in a year’s time, while the ultimate solution lies in changes made by vehicle manufacturers and shifts in vehicle use

[Haliotis]

Are these sections of motorways in built-up areas where people “on foot” are working/moving about?  Positioned randomly in open countryside there would not be much point  measuring emissions. 

In any case, cleaning the DPF is recommended at a constant minimum of 40 mph for at least (I think) 20 miles, and M-ways are the ideal place to do this.  Therefore, this cleaning can occur anywhere along a M-way, so a speed limit of 60 mph will not necessarily give any useful data.

[Roy124]

Great Idea. Create a 60mph bottle neck that you fill at 70mph.

I think the graduated variable speeds on M25 work, in my admittedly limited and reluctant experience.

Make it 60mph for 30 miles or more earlier.   It would affect trucks not at all and take cars an extra 4-5 minutes on their journey. 

[Mjolinor]

60 MPH on the M6 at Birmingham is a luxury no one has seen for 20 years. Anything over 25 MPH is rare.

 

[flash22]

let's be honest a lot of drivers do 75-80 in a 70 so in a 60 people will be sitting at 65-70 anyway

1 minute ago, Mjolinor said:

60 MPH on the M6 at Birmingham is a luxury no one has seen for 20 years. Anything over 25 MPH is rare.

 

same goes for M4 Harlington junctions 3 to 4 west bound. Heathrow!!!

[skidlid]

14 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Five UK motorway sections have had their speed limits reduced to 60mph in an effort to cut NOx emissions.

These motorways include:

• M1 between junctions 33 and 34 (at Rotherham, South Yorkshire).

This initiative aims to address air quality challenges caused by nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions from car exhausts. The impact of the new 60mph limit will be reviewed in a year’s time, while the ultimate solution lies in changes made by vehicle manufacturers and shifts in vehicle use

That section has been 60 for many years, probably about 2018.

At present (and since 2023) it's 50 mph because of works building refuges and the work continues until 2025.

[Big_D]

22 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

M4 Harlington junctions 3 to 4 west bound.

Why only Westbound? Is there an invisible wall between the Eastbound and Westbound carriageway that prevents NOx emissions from moving across?  

[Mjolinor]

7 minutes ago, Big_D said:

Why only Westbound? Is there an invisible wall between the Eastbound and Westbound carriageway that prevents NOx emissions from moving across?  

Trying to keep people in London. Without things like that it would become an empty desert.

 

[Paul john]

Beware A 20 westbound at the chiselhurst entrance westbound. As the limit is reduced to 40 from 50 and there are no signed limits 100 yrds from a camera. 
eastbound on same section is 50. 
tomtom and rsa say both sides are 50

[Big_D]

Just now, Mjolinor said:

Trying to keep people in London. Without things like that it would become an empty desert.

 

If they're anything like me, I can't wait to get out of London. I only go there because I have to, for work.

[AndyN01]

11 hours ago, Paul john said:

Beware A 20 westbound at the chiselhurst entrance westbound. As the limit is reduced to 40 from 50 and there are no signed limits 100 yrds from a camera. 
eastbound on same section is 50. 
tomtom and rsa say both sides are 50

Standard on the M1 & A1 going up to the North East. Speed Limit change..... camera.

Typically on overhead gantries..... traffic running well at 70 then there's a 60, (so the traffic bunches up) another 60 and a 50. Guess which one has the camera. 😉

Andy.

[Mjolinor]

Glad they are keeping us safe and not doing it for fundraising at all.

Liverpool airport is a real brain baker, limit is up and down between 30 and 50 for no reason in very short stretches, all dual carriageway.

[Parts-King]

In Wrexham they have reduced the A483 to 50 MPH to reduce NOX, turns out they never enforced it, so now have cameras on it...........which they never enforced, but now have decided to turn the cameras on and enforce the limit. Remember the reason for reducing the speed limit from 70 to 50? That's right, to reduce NOX, so what have they done to enrich peoples lives? That's right, built a massive housing estate along said A483, you couldn't make it up 🙄

[Roy124]

Same in many places.   Our new estate being built is in the green buffer zone.  Noise attenuation and fumes by a high earth berm, topped by  tall wooden acoustic fence, with a further attenuation with low cost housing in front of the more expensive homes.

If these trends continue, driving on our main roads will be in boarded cuttings divorced from our former green and pleasant land.

[APS]

They did these kinds of experiments in Scandinavia back in the 90s and 00s. The result was that it made very little difference to emissions and annoyed drivers. 

That said, for me, the real question is; why is there so much traffic on the roads? It baffles me. Most of the people I know and speak to, work at least some days from home each week or most of the time. But whenever I venture out on the roads, it is choked. It's bonkers out there. Why are all these people on the roads? Of course, many, many jobs can only be done in person, but equally, many can be done remotely. Maybe I live in a bubble but it would make sense that since the pandemic, there would be at least some reduction in traffic. But seemingly, there isn't.

Apologies for the tangential post.

[Mjolinor]

Ever since I started driving it has baffled me where all the cars in December come from. Traffic doubles leading up to Christmas and it is chaos.

[Roy124]

Years ago, taking daughter to Uni, we used the North and South Circulars. 

We were in a stream of traffic going South observing a similar stream going North.

I wondered why they didn't shop locally or swap homes.

[Cyker]

That's the thinking behind 15 minute cities; The problem is people don't work like that - There will always be a percentage of people who want to go Somewhere Else and a car is just generally the most convenient way of doing so.

House prices are just too high in most places for people to automatically move nearer where they work, esp. if they change jobs frequently. I could move closer to where I work but that would mean moving further into London which I really don't want to do, and I can't afford the ridiculous house prices anyway.

The thing is, the amount of people using roads to move around is just a fraction (Albeit a significant fraction) of the people that need to move around - It could be much worse if everyone had to!

It's also gotten much worse in the past few years, at least in London, because the government have deliberately engineered road network changes to make traffic worse - LTNs, 20mph, desynchronized traffic signals, 1-way systems etc.

Whenever they say they have to do XYZ because of increasing road pollution I just want to yell back, "But YOU caused that in the first place!" to them! I honestly believe if they fixed the flow of traffic so it was back to its previous freer flowing setup it would reduce journey times and pollution significantly, but currently even in my hybrid Yaris I spend a significant amount of time not moving while the engine is running, whereas before I could go around traffic or make it through several sets of lights without having to stop, compared to now where I usually have to stop at all of them on the same stretch. Part of that is increased traffic, but also the light timings not being altered in line with changes in speed limits, or just changed seemingly deliberately to force a stop. Some of the light changes are just bizarre - There is one that now goes green for like, 5 seconds so maybe 3 cars can get through if the drivers are paying attention (Or zero if they aren't! Saw a fun near-accident there once, where a driver wasn't paying attention, got honked at by everyone (including me), and the light went amber, but they were already panic-gunning the car across the junction, and got mass honked as the cross traffic in both directions nearly hit them )