YOUR VIEWS: Time to increase HGV speed limits on Highland roads?
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A reader thinks roads could be improved by addressing speed issues.
Time to increase HGV speed limits on our roads?
Numerous signs on the A9 trunk road between Inverness and Perth indicate that there is a trial 50mph speed limit for HGVs over 7.5 tonnes.
These signs cause confusion, particularly for drivers from overseas and those unfamiliar with the A9, and this is likely to be a contributory factor to the high level of serious accidents on the road.
Many drivers will be unaware that the national speed limit for HGVs in Scotland is 40mph on single carriageway roads and 50mph on dual carriageways since these limits are seldom observed and do not seem to be enforced.
In April 2015, the national speed limits for HGVs in England and Wales were increased to 50mph and 60mph on single and dual carriageways respectively.
The 50mph trial on single carriageway sections of the A9 started in November 2014 and by October 2017 sufficient data had been obtained for it to be reviewed. The “Final Report on Evaluation of the A9 HGV Speed Limit Pilot” was published by Transport Scotland in June 2018. The trial is therefore complete but the signs have not been removed, presumably since, if they were, the HGV speed limit would revert to 40mph.
In February 2018, a separate report was published by Transport Scotland entitled “Evaluation of the Potential Impacts of Increasing Speed Limits of HGVs in Scotland”.
Both Transport Scotland reports were broadly positive about aligning HGV speed limits in Scotland with those already applying in the rest of the UK. Indeed, in response to a petition to the Scottish Parliament on the matter in February 2022, the Scottish Government stated that “safety benefits and marginal environmental impacts” would result from increasing the limits. However, rather than make that change, a further process called The National Speed Management Review is now under way.
In summary, eight years after HGV speed limits were increased in England and Wales and five years after two reports were published by Transport Scotland showing that an increase in Scotland would result in positive road safety benefits, nothing has happened beyond an ongoing bureaucratic process.
Meanwhile, the level of accidents on the A9 resulting in fatalities and life-changing injuries remains unacceptably high. HGV speed limits could readily be increased and these confusing signs removed from the A9 but, despite warm words about extending sympathy to those affected by accidents, nobody in government seems to have the will to take this simple action.
George Rennie
Inverness
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