Road Safety Bill [HL]

This is an excellent amendment. Such a measure should have come in years ago. It is a little like still buying a pound of butter. Why do we not go totally metric? All governments appear to have been frightened of that. We even have a maximum speed for lorries which is 56 mph. I know that that is 80 kph—I do not know how many noble Lords know that—and that presumably was the figure that came from the Commission at some stage. The noble Earl, Lord Attlee, mentioned the difficulties for continental drivers, but at the moment, as they appear not to pay any funds at all for any offences they commit, it probably does not matter, except that they will kill more people as a result, and that does matter. The noble Earl is right about railway bridges. We should make this change now and stop pussy-footing around with two different speeds, two different heights and two different widths. It will simplify things. The average person in the street is quite capable of understanding what a metre, a centimetre or a millimetre is, or even a kilometre. It is not that difficult. I strongly support the amendment.