How did we end up with 56mph speed limiters ?
Jenson Button:
How did we end up with 56mph speed limiters ?
Because it suits the French motorway truck speed limit and they didn’t like the idea of competing with anyone who wants to go faster than them ( like the Brits for example running trucks around the place at 60-65 mph ) and the British government then thought it was a good idea to enforce it here to make trucks less competitive with rail transport considering that the British government has actually always had a VETO or opt out of any EU bs that doesn’t suit it.Such as the convenient bs misinterpretation of domestic v EU regs concerning everything from hours regs to speed limiters let alone allowing the EU to determine and set the rules instead of all,including international running,vehicles only needing to satisfy the regs in the country in which they’re registered.
In which case we/should still be using trucks,including American ones not subject to bs EU type approval regs,without speed limiters,subject to a 60 mph motorway speed limit and no tachographs running under uk so called ‘domestic’ hours regs at least for those vehicles which are only used on domestic journeys and arguably also international ones ‘if’ we had a government with some bottle and that wasn’t in the pockets of the rail freight industry. 
Jenson Button:
‘…How did we end up with 56mph speed limiters…?’
Easy (or is this a wind-up?) ‘…We…’ didn’t choose that figure - it was imposed on the UK by the EU in Brussels.
No need to bother to vote Lib, Lab or Con since they all want us told what to do in our own [sic] back yard by undemocratic & inept foreigners 
Happy Keith:
Jenson Button:
‘…How did we end up with 56mph speed limiters…?’Easy (or is this a wind-up?) ‘…We…’ didn’t choose that figure - it was imposed on the UK by the EU in Brussels.
No need to bother to vote Lib, Lab or Con since they all want us told what to do in our own [sic] back yard by undemocratic & inept foreigners
Not exactly see my above post.When it comes to making,and adhering to,‘ze rules’ the Brits are as good,if not better,at doing that than ze Germans. 
Happy Keith:
Jenson Button:
‘…How did we end up with 56mph speed limiters…?’Easy (or is this a wind-up?) ‘…We…’ didn’t choose that figure - it was imposed on the UK by the EU in Brussels.
No need to bother to vote Lib, Lab or Con since they all want us told what to do in our own [sic] back yard by undemocratic & inept foreigners
No its a genuine question - I just wondered if there was a particular reason we ended up with 56mph ?
Speed limiters are set to 90 km/hr( which aproximates to 56 mph) to comply with EU legislation. UK speed limit on motorways remains at 60 mph, bit silly but thats the way it is.
So if you were doing 60 on the motorway could some jobsworth do you ? and as such would you only get a fine for a defective speed limiter?
56 mph, I wish! Both the trucks with limiters that I drove were set at 52mph which was the rate set by the calibrating company as they were anticipating the limit to be lowered! Of course that didn’t happen. Life in the slow lane! 
Pete.
Jenson Button:
So if you were doing 60 on the motorway could some jobsworth do you ? and as such would you only get a fine for a defective speed limiter?
no 60 mph is the limit 
Jenson Button:
So if you were doing 60 on the motorway could some jobsworth do you ?
no
and as such would you only get a fine for a defective speed limiter?
going downhill I regularly do 60mph but don’t have a defective limiter
it only cuts the fuel not applies the brakes
I actually like 56mph. I don’t tear arse round in a van anymore, at the end of the day I am far more chilled. Me…chilled, who’d have thought it?
Carryfast:
'…ee my above post…'[/size]
[/quote]
Yeah, and it rambles a bit, eh…
> Carryfast:
> ‘…When it comes to making and adhering to,‘ze rules’ the Brit[ish] are … good…’
Which confirms how cosy the Lib-Lab-Con politicians are in the EU’s pocket
They continually capitulate to EU clerk-administrators * who in this case have imposed/dictated an mph equivalent to a foreign lorry speed limit: Surely, our top-whack on top of 56 mph approximates to 100kmph?
My 50p says that one day the EU will dictate that the UK will totally run in kmph ‘for harmony’ or some such bolleaux
Many might bleat - but another 50p says that lots of tribally biased Lib-Lab-Con turkeys will continue voting for Christmas
*E.g. Ask yourself 'who has ever voted for the EU’s Baroness Ashton (how come Baroness? What’s she ever done and what’s wrong with ‘Mrs’?) '.
The answer is that she has never been democratically elected by any of us, the electorate - yet this chinless & ex CND (Commie?) admin’ plant now dictates EU foreign policy
Carryfast:
Jenson Button:
How did we end up with 56mph speed limiters ?Because it suits the French motorway truck speed limit and they didn’t like the idea of competing with anyone who wants to go faster than them ( like the Brits for example running trucks around the place at 60-65 mph ) and the British government then thought it was a good idea to enforce it here to make trucks less competitive with rail transport considering that the British government has actually always had a VETO or opt out of any EU bs that doesn’t suit it.Such as the convenient bs misinterpretation of domestic v EU regs concerning everything from hours regs to speed limiters let alone allowing the EU to determine and set the rules instead of all,including international running,vehicles only needing to satisfy the regs in the country in which they’re registered.
In which case we/should still be using trucks,including American ones not subject to bs EU type approval regs,without speed limiters,subject to a 60 mph motorway speed limit and no tachographs running under uk so called ‘domestic’ hours regs at least for those vehicles which are only used on domestic journeys and arguably also international ones ‘if’ we had a government with some bottle and that wasn’t in the pockets of the rail freight industry.
Here we go again babbling on about guess what trains!.. 
Taffos!
As has been said… The limiters are set to 90KM/H. This equates to (as near as damned) 56MPH.
You get overspeed warnings on digital tachos if you go over 60MPH. Between 56-60MPH is not illegal as the Motorway limit for LGV over 7.5t is 60MPH.
I seem to recall reading at the time that it is about the most fuel-efficient speed for a vehicle to run at which is why the USA imposed a blanket 55mph speed limit during the 1973 oil crisis.
the double nickel speed limit harry…
I believe the EU came up with a range within which individual countries could have their limiters set from (in imperial) about 52 to 56 mph. The UK chose the highest setting it legally could.
Speed limiters were not introduced for road safety reasons, but environmental ones. Air resistance increases by a square of velocity, so a small reduction in top speed (which has little impact upon journey time) results in quite a big saving in fuel and thus reduced pollution.
Many operators have cottoned on to this and are voluntarily setting limiters for 52 mph.
The practice is also being followed in the shipping world, particularly with container ships (google ‘slow steaming’).
And it’s being happening with airliners for years.
Concorde was obviously the fastest ever airliner, and the fastest non-Concorde scheduled airliner across the Atlantic was the VC-10 of the 1960s. The modern widebodied airliners are all considerably slower then the Boeing 747, which can hit mach 0.9 on a good day. It’s mostly down to fuel saving, and also a recognition that carving 10 minutes off a flight time means very little when you have to get to the airport 2 hours before the flight takes off.
Happy Keith:
Carryfast:
'…ee my above post…'[/size]
[/quote]
Yeah, and it rambles a bit, eh…
> Carryfast:
> ‘…When it comes to making and adhering to,‘ze rules’ the Brit[ish] are … good…’
Which confirms how cosy the Lib-Lab-Con politicians are in the EU’s pocket
They continually capitulate to EU clerk-administrators * who in this case have imposed/dictated an mph equivalent to a foreign lorry speed limit: Surely, our top-whack on top of 56 mph approximates to 100kmph?
My 50p says that one day the EU will dictate that the UK will totally run in kmph ‘for harmony’ or some such bolleaux
Many might bleat - but another 50p says that lots of tribally biased Lib-Lab-Con turkeys will continue voting for Christmas
*E.g. Ask yourself 'who has ever voted for the EU’s Baroness Ashton (how come Baroness? What’s she ever done and what’s wrong with ‘Mrs’?) '.
The answer is that she has never been democratically elected by any of us, the electorate - yet this chinless & ex CND (Commie?) admin’ plant now dictates EU foreign policy
[/quote]
No because,as I said,our government could have just opted out of all the bs EU type approval,tachograph,hours,and speed limiter regs,at the very least for domestic running operations,but it didn’t because anything that puts more restrictions on the road transport industry helps the big business rail freight industry.In just the same way as it opted out of joining the euro amongst other EU regulation of the banking industry to suit the bankers.
While I don’t think there’s even anything in Farage’s election manifesto that says he wants to put the uk road transport industry regulation back where it was before we’d joined the EU.Unless you know different.
Taffos!:
Here we go again babbling on about guess what trains!..Taffos!
Absolutely because you can bet that if anyone did try to get the things removed from British trucks all the usual suspects in the rail transport lobby like Transport 2,000 etc would be the first ones to object about ‘killer juggernauts’.
Harry Monk:
I seem to recall reading at the time that it is about the most fuel-efficient speed for a vehicle to run at which is why the USA imposed a blanket 55mph speed limit during the 1973 oil crisis.
Not exactly because after trying it they then decided to get rid of it with many speed limits in the states now being higher than the uk motorway limit with as usual no difference between the limit for trucks or cars in most cases. 