Driving at 150 km/h instead of 130, what difference does that make?

In several European countries, the speed limit has been increased to 150 km/h. But would such a measure be beneficial in France?

Since the dawn of time, or rather, since the Highway Code was introduced, the debate on speed limits has been an eternal restart. 80 km/h or 90 km/h on departmental roads, 30 km/h in town instead of 50 km/h … And on the motorway then? If in France, the maximum speed is 130 km/h, in our neighboring countries, there are two schools of thought. On one side, those who limit the speed to 120 km/h like Belgium or the Netherlands, and on the other, those who want to be able to drive up to 150 km/h like Italy, which is seriously asking the question, or Germany, which on certain sections of its Autobahn does not impose any limit. But concretely, what would we gain by driving at 150 km/h?

A time saving, certainly, but minimal.

Let’s say that all roads in France are now limited, initially to 130 km/h, then to 150 km/h. To travel the country from north to south, from Calais to Perpignan, the Maps navigation application announces a minimum of 1,131 km. At a constant speed of 130 km/h, it would take you 8.7 hours, or approximately 8 hours and 42 minutes, to travel this distance. The calculation is quite simple to do. Those who still remember their physics lessons know that time is equal to the ratio of distance to speed.
Similarly, at 150 km/h, you would therefore take 7.54 hours, or approximately 7 hours and 32 minutes to cover this distance. At first glance, saving 1 hour 10 minutes on a journey like this may seem more than beneficial. But don’t forget that we are in a world where all roads are limited to the same speed. In reality, some parts of the Calais-Perpignan journey will never allow a motorist to drive at 150 km/h. On the chosen route, the Paris ring road is limited to 70 km/h for example. So, it’s not really 1 hour 10 minutes that you would save, but rather 30 minutes perhaps at most.

The shorter the distance, driving less at 150 km/h saves time

But not everyone drives from Calais to Perpignan during the holidays. And the shorter the distance, the slower you drive, the more time you save. Let’s go back to our alternative realities where all roads are limited to 130 km/h and 150 km/h. On a Calais-Bourges trip, which is about half of France, driving at 150 rather than 130 only saves you about 30 minutes for a trip that takes about 3 hours and 26 minutes. Knowing, once again, that these 30 minutes saved are utopian because some roads cannot allow a maximum speed of 150 km/h (the Paris ring road, again and again).
And on an even shorter route, Calais-Lille for example, you wouldn’t even save 7 whole minutes.
And by driving faster, your car will become more greedy. It will rev higher and consume more fuel. Already at 130 km/h, some drivers exceed 3,000 rpm and see the fuel gauge drop at an alarming rate. The vast majority of vehicles are not designed to drive at 150 km/h over long distances. Even sports cars, designed to reach incredible speeds, do not always drive at full throttle.

Speed ​​increases risks

So if limiting motorways to 150 km/h does not save a considerable amount of time, it is above all more dangerousThe higher the speed, the more the driver’s visual perception deteriorates. At 130 km/h, the usable field of vision of a motorist behind the wheel is 30°. In short, if you follow the road with your eyes, you no longer see what is happening on the parallel lanes. At 150 km/h, this field of vision is further reduced and you may not detect imminent danger, even if you are extremely careful.
Similarly, the braking distance increases. On dry roads, the stopping distance, which represents the distance traveled during the reaction time plus the braking distance, is calculated approximately by multiplying the tens digit of the speed by itself. At 150 km/h, this is therefore potentially 15*15 or 225 m compared to 169 m at 130 km/h. You therefore need 56 m more to come to a complete stop. A considerable distance. Especially since braking at a higher speed wears out your brakes more.
It is unlikely that one day the speed limit of 150 km/h on the motorway will be imposed in France. Our politicians are even advocating the opposite, namely lowering the limit to 120 km/h, or even 110 km/h.

Source: www.autoplus.fr