70mph speed limit

The Government, in imposing the speed limit, have in mind the USA where limits are said to have lessened road casualties. This is not necessarily relevant to conditions here, where roads are now, without general speed limits, safer than the USA’s roads are with them. lithe Government thinks it must make some spectacular gesture, why does it not, (1) prohibit parking on main roads, (2) indicate on roads whether main road traffic has priority over side traffic. These steps would make a far more effective contribution to road safety than any speed limit.

It is to be hoped that the Government will realise the futility of imposing additional strains on a police force already undermanned, to enforce a speed limit that is irrelevant to the considerations that have prompted it, and which can only accentuate the practice of ignoring limits when they are irrelevant to road conditions. It passes comprehension that the authorities have not realised that the average law-abiding Englishman ignores prohibitions in circumstances when he knows they are unnecessary, particularly when they are unenforceable.

J.N.H PURSAILL, LEEK