CARS POLL: Should motorway speed limits be increased? Calls grow for new driving law changes

A petition on the Parliament website has called for speed limits on dual carriageways and motorways to be increased to 80mph, citing benefits around reduced congestion.

More than 2,600 drivers have signed the petition, while a previous survey attracted almost 43,000 signatories.

It explained that the 70mph speed limit was introduced almost 60 years ago, and improvements to vehicle technology have helped reduce dangers on the road.

The petition creator suggested that motorways should have a speed limit of 100mph, while dual carriageways could carry an 80mph limit.

It added that faster travel could "enhance reliability of supply chains and logistics", as well as improve the flow of traffic.

In response, a Government spokesperson said: "The Government has undertaken no recent assessment on increasing national speed limits and we have no current plans to undertake such an assessment on the basis of traffic flow or other factors."

Support for the calls has been backed by MPs, including former MP Sir Bill Wiggin, who said higher speed limits would boost productivity and cut traffic rates.

Speaking in the House of Commons in 2024, he said: "We need to test and trial increased speed limits in line with safer cars and better brakes.

"And I suggest that an excellent place to test this would be the M50. This is the perfect motorway to try to increase the speed limit."

Sir Wiggin, who was the MP for North Herefordshire from 2001 and 2024, said the M50, which was part of his constituency, would be a suitable place to trial the scheme.

Other European nations have started rolling out higher speed limits, including Spain, which started trialling a 150km/h (93mph) limit on the AP-7 near El Vendrell.

The Spanish General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) approved the test of the new speed limit of 150km/h on the motorway in Catalonia.

The speed limits will be controlled by artificial intelligence to account for changing weather conditions and how the amount of traffic will impact the limit.

Commenting on the trial, a spokesperson for the Alliance of British Drivers (ABD), said: "The ABD has long called for trialling of higher limits on certain motorways at certain times. This could easily be done using smart motorway systems.

"However, successive UK Governments seem only interested in ratcheting down limits at every opportunity, a short-sighted approach."