Head of the Highways England Jim O'Sullivan has argued that the speed limit could rise in
certain areas of the road network to 80mph but it is 'public opinion' stopping
the change.
Mr O'Sullivan also said that classic cars may be banned from fully-automated motorways in the next 30 years as they will not be able to communicate with the autonomous cars and lorries and will therefore present a risk, reports the Daily Telegraph.
The roads boss said that vehicles where
the motorist is in complete control would probably have to be removed
from the roads as early as the middle of the century.
Back in 2011 an official
plan to increase the speed limit on motorways was launched by Philip
Hammond, when he was transport secretary. At the time it was thrown on the back burner due to a lack of support from the Coalition Government and hasn't been revisited since.
The current top speed of 70mph was
introduced in 1965, The Highways England chief executive said 'We have not done a formal safety analysis but there
are parts of the network that subject to a safety analysis could
probably operate at 80 miles an hour.'
Dont get exited though!
the change is unlikely to happen to any time soon as the boss said that
there is a 'low probability' that a consensus would be reached. He said that he believes the barrier is more to do with public opinion and views than it has to do with vehicle technology.
The Chancellor
of the Exchequer previously said in 2017 that the Governments plan was
to have driverless vehicles on the roads by 2021.
Mr
O'Sullivan said that during the initial roll-out period there will be a
'mixed economy', arguing that non-autonomous cars are a long way from
being phased out.
He also confirmed
that the organisation's plan to increase the speeds from 50mph to 60mph
on Sundays and that this trial is due to
begin before the end of the year, assuming the six month trial is a
success it is likely to become the standard speed limit by the end of
next year.
