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)
There are signs—admittedly mainly on trunk roads—saying, ''Dual carriageway 3 miles ahead.'' Those signs are put up to try to ensure that drivers who are frustrated and do not know that length of road very well will hold themselves back, will not engage in a potentially dangerous overtaking manoeuvre and will wait for the dual carriageway. The issue of driver frustration and the reality of life on the roads is already recognised by the highway authorities. That is why we are deluding ourselves if we deny that there is such an issue as driver frustration. We delude ourselves if we think it is not a sensible way forward to try to reduce the amount of driver frustration and create safer roads as a result. Obviously, I would like a lot more dual carriageways and bypasses. We are already on record as having promised that and that is what we intend to get down to after 5 May.
In the meantime, however, we think that raising the HGV speed limit would make a contribution in this area. I am not saying that it is a panacea and that we will save hundreds of lives, but we will save some and we will certainly make the roads more efficient.