SIR – Proposals to set up a 60 mph speed limit on a 32 mile stretch of the M1 are another piece of motorway madness.
Modern cars with significantly more environmentally-friendly engines are designed for motorways and appropriate speeds. This will not improve the environment as many gear boxes are designed with fifth and sixth gears.
The average family car engine performs most efficiently at around 2,000 to 2,500 revolutions, so speed has very little to do with it. Which is why limits too low actually increase pollution. Cars are in only second or third gear in the 20mph zones, fourth gear up to 50/60mph and the overdrive or fifth and sixth for high-speed cruising will be left dormant. The vehicle, incidentally, lingers in the zone longer at low speed.
This is not about the environment or road safety but yet another attempt to screw more money out of motorists with fines and a bigger strategic EU plan to force motorists off the road altogether.
Godfrey Bloom, MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire
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