President of the T&T Automobile Association Rawle Mahabir says there is no need to increase this country’s speed limit, as the current 80 kilometres per hour is sufficient. He made the appeal yesterday, even as calls are being made to have the limit increased to 120 kph.
Mahabir said rather than seeking a higher speed limit, motorists must instead practice a culture of safe and responsible driving, insisting driving faster was not the answer.
“You’ve got to have real supporting documentation before you could make the move to increase the speed limit,” Mahabir told the T&T Guardian in a telephone interview.
Apart from this, he said T&T’s roads were not properly constructed to accommodate driving at 120 kph.
“We simply do not have these kinds of roads. In the first instance our drivers need to have the respect for our current road regulations,” Mahabir said.
“And the only reason there is the push to increase the speed limit is that so many people are accustomed to driving way beyond the speed limit because of the lack of enforcement.”
He also dismissed claims that the 80 kph speed limit was contributing to unnecessary traffic, as he said he had personally observed this was not the case on the highway last week.
“People have come back to driving at 80 and the traffic was not that bad. And I believe we ought to take a hard look at where we ought to be, as opposed to where we want to go, without the facts,” Mahabir added.
The group Safe Drivers for Efficiency, via a petition, has called on Transport Minister Fitzgerald Hinds to modernise existing road traffic laws as it relates to the speed limit. The petition was started last week and had already garnered the support of close to 10,000 people as of yesterday.
It proposes the variable speed limits of 120 kilometres per hour on long open stretches of highway, 100 kilometres per hour approaching simple highway intersection areas and 60 kph at complex intersections.
It added that in the USA, speed limits have been increased from 113 to 130 kph on longer open highways to mitigate the risk of drivers falling asleep or tuning out.
The petition came one day after Works and Transport Minister Fitzgerald Hinds announced that police would be using speed guns to ticket offenders who go over the 80 kph speed limit.
So far, seven people have been charged with speeding since the use of speed guns came into effect. One of those drivers was tagged going at 85 kph. But yesterday, Mahabir said the stipulated 80 kph has always been law, but was never enforced, resulting in drivers “speeding past” the police and getting away with it.
“So the issue was we were allowed to get into bad habits, just as ‘PH’ taxis which are practically illegal but is now accepted across the board because of the lack of enforcement,” Mahabir said. He said this particular problem has been compounded by the lack of efficient public transport.