Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

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buksida
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Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by buksida »

The cabinet yesterday approved a higher speed limit of up to 120 kilometres per hour on national and rural highways.

Deputy government spokeswoman Traisuree Taisaranakul said the cabinet yesterday approved in principle a draft regulation on speed limits on highways as proposed by the Transport Ministry.

The regulation is applicable to highways with at least two lanes running in the same direction and traffic islands with barriers. The roads also must not have a ground-level U-turn slot.

The new speed limits are expected to improve traffic flow, she said.

The speed limit for trucks weighing over 2,200kg and buses with more than 15 passengers is 90km/h, while buses with 7-15 passengers are allowed to go up to 100km/h.

Smaller motorcycles won't be allowed to exceed 80km/h, while those with 400cc engines and 35-kilowatt engines and above are limited to 100km/h.

School buses must not exceed a speed limit of 80km/h.

The speed limit for vehicles travelling in the furthest right lane is no less than 100km/h.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... peed-limit

Highways without u-turns eliminates 90% of the roads in the country.
And ... are they going to enforce that last bit? I would love to see the busses and siplors that hog the outside lane doing 65kph nabbed.
Also ridiculous is that a 20-year-old Nissan pickup can do 120 but a brand new Ducati Panigale is limited to 100. :banghead:
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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by Big Boy »

The entire bill is BS. How will they enforce speed, when they sit under a shady tree or bridge, and wait for vehicles to come to them? I've been there many times...........

- Pull up to road block under shady tree.
- How fast were you driving?
- 90Kmph
- No, you were seen doing 135Kmph

I don't speed, but resistance is futile :banghead: However, Mrs BB has chewed a few up, and spat them out on the roadside as a result of their imagination.
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buksida
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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

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It'll only be enforced when they replace the police farce with automated speed cameras. Not that I'm advocating for that by any means!
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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by Big Boy »

Even then, they will have to be quite smart, with variations like number of passengers being carried as one of the variables.

[Edit] I guess the police will have to get smarter as well, having to learn to count to 15.
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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by migrant »

It hasn't been 120?? :oops: :oops:
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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by HHTel »

The national speed limit was reduced from 110 to 90 some years ago. I think it was when oil prices were going through the roof.
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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by handdrummer »

Combine 120 K per hr. with a good dose of Cocaine, Oxycontin or Opium and that should make for interesting driving. Coming soon to a road near you.
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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by Dannie Boy »

Many drive faster than 120 already, so it won’t necessarily make a lot of difference
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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by brianks »

I don't get it. I've only seen 2 Traffic Police on the highway in my 13 years here. All they have to do is put some Traffic Police on the highways and make them do their job. Never will happen so who cares what the speed limit is.
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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by VincentD »

buksida wrote: Wed Dec 02, 2020 8:29 am It'll only be enforced when they replace the police farce with automated speed cameras. Not that I'm advocating for that by any means!
I do the Asian highway run fairly often, Bangkok to some ways past Nakhon Sawan. There are at least 4 fixed speed cameras, one of them manned, on that stretch. Have not seen the patrol cars with their mobile speed guns for quite some time. Guess they prefer the a/c comfort of the police post..
migrant wrote: Wed Dec 02, 2020 1:57 pm It hasn't been 120?? :oops: :oops:
The posted limit has always been 90. However, unofficially if you don't exceed 110 you may be let off. The speed cameras, however, are a different story. Go just 10 kmh over the posted limit and you could get something in your letterbox..

Side note: Most car speedometers are set to overread the actual speed. I know mine reads 4 kmh over the actual, so I know what speed I'm actually doing. Just keep an eye on your speedo, follow the traffic and you should be okay. Too many people have been caught so not many (except for those delivery pickups) will be over the limit for any length of time.
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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by HHTel »

Motorways are already at 120. With one of the restrictions for the new limit of 120 on rural roads is that roads must not have ground level U-turns, then I can't see much in the way of change.
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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by GroveHillWanderer »

I think you can probably count the number of divided highways with two lanes or more, that don't have ground-level U-turns, on the fingers of one hand.

So as written, this new speed limit will hardly be applicable anywhere, in practice, as far as I can tell.
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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by Dannie Boy »

Quite a high proportion of drivers do 120 (or more) already, so I’m sure this little restriction won’t cause any problem!!
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Re: Minivan, bus and road accidents

Post by Thailightzone »

Exactly what Thailand needs, more speed. Now somchai can roll his pickup 17 times instead of an unimpressive 9 times.

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Re: Govt approves 120km/h speed limit

Post by HHTel »

"4 lane roads". That I assume is 4 lanes each way and an earlier report stated that roads with ground level u-turns were not included.

4 lanes, no u-turns - so pretty much no change!

Regardless of the rules, the local drivers will continue to drive as they always have. i.e. their own speed choice.
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