One of the other factors in governmental thinking is that once a law is in place it is almost impossible to change it, through the politician's fear of losing potential votes to the propaganda of lobby groups.
Take the 70 mph speed limit for example. Introduced as a temporary measure it soon became permanent, but by the standards of the day it was hardly a limit at all. Why? Because a common or garden family saloon in those days was something like a Ford Anglia 105E, top speed was 75mph on skinny little zero grip crossply tyres with antique suspension. The only reason that the brakes didn't completely overwhelm the available grip of the tyres was because they were miserable little drum brakes that took as long to stop the car as it takes to slow a tanker down. So at 70 mph you'd have been driving the little Ford Anglia at over 9/10ths.
Imagine you applied that logic to the Anglia's great-great-grandson and set the speed limit based on 93% of a common or garden Mondeo 2.2 Tdci...that would make the motorway limit 130 mph. Can't see that happening any time soon.
Jools
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