New clause 14 - SPEED LIMITS FOR VEHICLES OF CERTAIN CLASSES
Road Safety Bill
4:31 pm
Mr Christopher Chope (Shadow Minister, Environment and Transport; Christchurch, Conservative)
I was saying that my new clause has to be looked at in the context of raising the maximum speed in ideal circumstances. At the moment, for lorries on single carriageways, that speed is deemed to be 40 mph. We know that lorries have become much safer, their braking has become more efficient, and the quality of many of our single carriageway roads, particularly trunk roads, has increased significantly.
In the past, it was possible to overtake lorries on single carriageway roads with relative ease, because the traffic was much lighter. Now, however, it is virtually impossible to overtake any vehicle at busy times on single carriageway trunk roads, and so all the traffic goes at the speed of the slowest. I have in mind, for example, the road between my constituency and Honiton, most of which is single carriageway. The result is that heavy goods vehicles often find themselves generating driver frustration—a fact recognised by the Minister in a letter he recently sent to Commercial Motor in response to its campaign to raise the limit to 50 mph. Tesco lorries now have a sign on the back saying ''This lorry is limited to 40 mph'', because so many motorists find that speed incredible, and sometimes vent their frustration on the driver. In times past, I suspect that some lorry drivers raised their speed above 40 mph in ideal circumstances, but now, with cameras and tachographs, they are unable to do so. As a result, driver frustration creates danger.
I propose that the maximum speed in ideal circumstances for HGVs on single carriageway roads should be 50 mph rather than 40 mph, which would improve road safety rather than making it worse. That is the view of those in the commercial goods industry, and of many of those involved in driving HGVs.