HC Deb 22 December 1965 vol 722 cc446-7W
Mr. J. H. Osborn

asked the Minister of Transport if he will state the exact time and date before Christmas on which he will introduce the 70 miles per hour overall limit and the 30 miles per hour advisory emergency limit, with warning signals, on motorways; whether each de-limit sign from a restricted area, particularly from villages, towns and cities, will be replaced by a temporary 70 miles per hour limit sign; what other means will be used to remind motorists of the 70 miles per hour limit throughout the duration of the experiment; and on what date the experiment will end.

Mr. Tom Fraser

Both measures apply from noon today. The police, however, have had permission to activate the 30 m.p.h. warning signals before now when conditions have made it necessary.

Derestriction signs will not be replaced by temporary 70 m.p.h. limit signs. It would be impracticable for a short experiment, and the 70 m.p.h. limit is a general one, automatically applying to all roads where lower limits are not in force. The new significance of the de-restriction sign is being explained in Press advertisements and in leaflets to be issued to visitors from abroad.

A short film will, I hope, be shown periodically on B.B.C. and I.T.V. television, and I expect that there will be other references on radio and television from time to time.

Seventy m.p.h. speed limit signs have been placed at entrances to motorways, and also at their exits unless a lower limit is in force on the adjacent all-purpose road.

The 70 m.p.h. experiment will end at midnight on 13th April, 1966.

Mr. J. H. Osborn

asked the Minister of Transport what plans he has for introducing a lower speed limit on motorways in conjunction with the 70 miles per hour overall limit experiment, in order to reduce further the difference in speed between the fastest and slowest vehicles on motorways.

Mr. Tom Fraser

As I said on 1st December in reply to the hon. Member for Portsmouth, Langstone (Mr. Ian Lloyd), this is one of the measures which I am considering to make motorways safer. I do not, however, propose to introduce such a measure during the current 70 m.p.h. speed limit experiment.