LIZ Truss is “prepared to look” at scrapping 70mph speed limits on motorways if she becomes the next PM.
The leadership hopeful entertained the massive motoring change this evening at the 12th and final Tory hustings before polls close on Friday night.
3
Six thousand eager members descended on Wembley stadium to see her go up against Rishi Sunak to end their gruelling summer of campaigns.
There the Foreign Secretary said she would consider abolishing the current legal limits in a bid to give drivers back more freedoms.
The national speed limit for motorways has been 70mph since 1965, but has long been fought over by motoring groups and road safety campaigners.
Truss’ potential move to make speed limits advisory could bring the UK closer to countries such as Germany, where some sections of the autobahns are unrestricted.
At the hustings, Truss didn’t give specific plans for the law change, but refused to rule it out.
She replied to a Tory member’s questions: “On speed limits, we need to be prepared to look at that … I can’t give you a precise answer.”
Although Truss’ appeal to drivers comes late in her campaign, she did claim back in 2018 that a higher restriction of 80mph would improve the nation’s productivity as drivers could get to work quicker.
She said at the time ministers should look again at moves to stop gridlock on the country’s roads.
The then Chief Secretary to the Treasury said four years ago: “We have often toyed with the idea of raising it to 80mph, why don’t we look at that again?”
She claimed it would lead to “productivity improvements” as drivers would be able to get to meetings quicker.
Truss added that people would also be “wasting less of their lives” on the road.
During the Wembley event this evening, the Tory leader candidate also said she’d scrap smart motorways, a promise her rival Rishi made earlier this month after calling them “unsafe”.
She said: “I absolutely think that we need to review them and stop them if they are not working as soon as possible … and all the evidence I have suggests they’re not working.
“We need to be prepared to look at that. I do believe that the smart motorways experiment hasn’t worked.”
Smart motorways have sections without a hard shoulder at all, where drivers in trouble have to rely on Emergency Refuge Areas.
Controlled sections of motorway manage the flow of traffic during busy times and increase the capacity for traffic by using the empty emergency lanes.
The roads use technology to vary speed limit in order to “minimise environmental impact, cost and time”.
Voting in the Tory leadership contest closes at 5pm on Friday and the winner will be announced on Monday.
Boris Johnson and his successor will then fly to Balmoral for the appointment of the new prime minister, rather than Buckingham Palace.
3
3
For all the latest Automobiles News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
