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Increasing speed limit to 80mph will create a health risk
Thu, 12 Jan 2012

Plans by the government to increase the motorway speed limit by 10mph to 80mph by 2013 is a ‘populist gimmick’ that will have adverse effects on health and outweigh any economic benefits, according to doctors.

A team of scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine published an editorial on bmj.com criticising the government’s proposals and observed that when higher speed limits were introduced in the US in 1995, road deaths rose by 16.6 per cent.

The authors dispute the argument that there will be economic benefits as the higher limit will not extend to heavy good vehicles . However their primary concern is research which links an "exponential" increase in accidents resulting in injury and death to a rise in speed limits. In addition, they argue that the increase would be damaging to the environment, as faster speeds give rise to lower fuel efficiency and therefore greater emissions .

The authors stated: "Past evidence shows that speed limit increases lead to substantial rises in road deaths, as well as other potential negative health and economic impacts."
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