AC COBRA - DREAM DRIVING IN SPAIN!
Well, this has come as a bit of a shock! The Spanish government is reducing the maximum speed limit in Spain from its current 120 kms an hour to 110 kms per hour 68 mph). This will be imposed from the 7th March this year – so beware!
The Spanish government is reducing the speed limit in Spain to save the country money, given the current high price of oil. Evidently, every increase of 10 Euros for a barrel of oil results in Spain paying another 6 billion Euros annually for its energy costs.
Needless to say, this reducing of the maximum speed limit is contentious, despite the government lowering some rail costs by 5% to encourage people to use public transport rather than their cars.
Certainly, I am a little dubious about the benefits of reducing the speed limit in Spain and I do wonder whether this is not from the abc school of non-lateral thinking? After all, has anyone computed the costs of labour lost by people driving 10 kms per hour slower – and what about the lost tax revenue?
But perhaps I am being too cynical and too attached to my car (both of which I am) and the notion of being able to drive relative speed. For sure, as someone who loves driving, I resent any incursion on my freedom of the road. The latter has certainly suffered over the years as we have moved firmly into the digital age.
A good example is speed cameras, which I loath, along with many mandatory speed limits – which impose speed utterly irrespective of the conditions and time of day. 40 kms an hour in some areas is ridiculously fast in poor conditions as children leave school, whilst early on a perfect summer’s morning it can be absurdly slow. And yet the speed linit remains the same and the sanctions unaltered.
Meanwhile, the average motorist is, all too often, left to feel like little more than the butt of easy state fund raising – with astronomical state taxes on fuel and non-negotiable driving fines imposed even upon drivers even when they are being far from reckless.
Of course, the conundrum of public transport continues in Spain just as it does everywhere else. Invariably, it is cheaper to travel by train when you are alone. However, once you travel as a family the cheaper option is almost always by car when there are three or four of you. Until that is resolved by a ‘non-abc’ thinker about public transport – then people (particularly families) will still find it more practical and cost effective to go by car.
Maybe I am being too crusty over all of this?
The trouble is that I have a feeling that Fernando Alonso (Spain’s Formula 1 championship driver) is not too far off the mark with regard to the new speed limit in Spain. He disagrees with it and says that at 110 kms an hour it will be difficult to stay awake as a driver!
Of course, Fernando Alonso must mean on the motorways and main roads of Spain – which are normally superb and often disappear in almost straight lines into the far distance. Indeed, one of the joys of Spain is the ability to drive with almost no meaningful traffic for kms on end, at a relatively decent speed. To have to do so more slowly from now on, will, I fear, be a monumental test of one’s ability to remain alert…
the reason is to reduce fuel consumption as a response of oil shortage
Nothing that anyone involved in motor racing says about driving on the public highway should be given any credence. They all have high-octane fuel for blood and red mist clouds their vision.
Sir Frank Williams admits that the accident that rendered him a quadplegic was ‘not my first roll-over crash, maybe my 5th or 6th.”
When Rob Walker overtook Mike Hawthorne on the Guildford bypass, he knew roughly what speed he was going [being a racer, he'd have his eye on the revs] because he only went into top gear in his 300SL [the same car Moss won the Miglie Miglia with] at around 120mph. Hawthorne then repassed him – going backwards. Hawthorne died in the ensuing crash.
Prof Sid Watkins, for 30 years the F1 chief medic, tells of being driven in traffic by Ayrton Senna. Senna, diving at great speed, approached two long lanes of traffic queueing at lights and, without slowing down, passed down the gap between them and accelerated across the junction – just as the lights turned green.
That is why, down the ages, [before radar and automatic cameras] policemen who had stopped a speeding motorist would say, “‘Oo d’y think you are – Stirling Moss/Graham Hill/James Hunt/Nigel Mansell?”
I’m driving from Bristol to Denmark tomorrow. The time saved by going the whole 800kms at 120kph rather than 110kph is 1 hour. Any distance that saves less than 1 hour is not worth talking about, certainly in terms of ‘productivity’. And, as the writer surely knows, wind resistance increases with the cube of velocity, so another 10kph adds significant drag. Even fernando would agree with that.
The reduction in the motorway speed limit to 110kph is typical of the lunacy the Spanish government employs. Another reason given, is to reduce accidents. The Spanish driving test is the easiest in Europe and the cause of most accidents is simply atrocious driving skills.
By reducing the speed limit, less fuel will be used resulting in a loss of fuel tax revenue. I expect they believe they can recoup this by awarding large fines for speeding. However, the cost of implementing the fine and retrieval of the same will have its own administrative cost negating any financial benefit to the government.
More madness!