How fast

[sebmet]

Hello,

I am wondering how fast are driving trucks in Europe in Real Life ? What are the speed limits?
I assume they are some company speed limitations and technically cannot drive faster.
But else, on the speedway, how fast are they driving in real life ? I cannot imagine they are driving 80 in western Europe on the speedway. What about on secondary roads? 60 is very exagerated except approaching cities, but sometimes, even in the middle of nowwhere, speed limit is 60 in the game.

I already experienced trucks driving 120-130 downhill in France and in the Ardennes.

Thanks

[Wolfgang]

Trucks are required to have a speed limiter active in the EU that limits their speed to 90km/h. Most countries in Europe have a maximum speed limit for trucks at 80km/h with some countries having it at 90km/h. For secondary roads it varies from country to country with Germany having 60km/h while many others having it at 70-80km/h.

[Wille Wilse]

The speed limit may also vary depends on with load and/or trailer or not.

[Joe__Walker]

In Germany is manipulation of speedlimiter an offense. You can go up to 5 years in prison.

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by Joe__Walker:

In Germany is manipulation of speedlimiter an offense. You can go up to 5 years in prison.

AFAIK, this is the case everywhere in the EU.

[Don]

yes it is and even in the UK where speed limit is 60 MPH (on Motorway)
you can only go 56 MPH because of the limiter

[kLuns]

Standard highway limit in Europe is 80 in most of the countries, standard speed limiter is 90.

Removing the limiter is no offense in ETS and handling can be a chalenge going 140

[sebmet]

Yes but I wanted to stick to reality. In ETS2 I use to drive 100 so far, because there was a time - when I was young, trucks drove 100-110 and I remember that some of them were difficult to overtake downhill as they were driving 125-130 and this was just about 5-6 years ago between Luxembourg and Brussels, or in France between Tours and Bordeaux. So I was wondering why the game is limiting speed at 90 by default and why the german motorway was at 80... 80 is so slow!
When I drive my car, I don't realize are slow they are...
Once I forgot my wallet at home, drove 100km and I realized I did not have my wallet and could not fill my tank. I had 100km range to go back home and I was exactly 100km from home. So I decided to follow a truck close enough to save fuel to go back home... and he was driving 85-90 all the time but I was wondering why he was not driving faster.

[Joe__Walker]

With the old analog tachograph they are more option to cheat,one of them, they remove the fuse and the tachograph record only until 80 km/h. With the digital tachograph is this not posible, becouse he record how long he had no power.
End remember 80 km/h with 40t crashed in the end of a traffic jam it's definitly to fast, so i don't wan't 100 km/h or more in this situation.

[sebmet]

Speed is always associated with braking ability. If the driver does not realize there is a traffic jam, even at 50, the car preceeding will end in a pancake. So with that common sense reasonment, we should be all walking, because for sure at 5km/h there will be less accidents than at 50 or even 80 or less than if we are riding a horse coach at 15.
So the question is how reactive we are, not the speed we are driving.
But people who are driving slow are less proactive and less reactive as there is less danger, and there are also less aware. Often they even feel asleep because the road is boring, some are chatting with their passengers, are sending messages on their smartphones and are not driving proactively. I even saw guys driving their van at 120 and reading the newspaper spread on the steering wheel in the meanwhile. That's why I considere that a guy who is speeding, is less dangerous than all those drivers. This is even what comes out when you have a look at the death and casualties on the roads in Europe. You will see there less accidents and less death in Germany (64 deaths for 1million) than in France (87/1000000), although there are more cars in Germany and there are many segments of motorway where it is allowed to speed.
I know what I am saying sounds scandalous and inpolitically correct, but the association of speed with accidents and death is a very trivial way of thinking taught to 4 years old children who are learning to ride their tricycle.
Also, saying that reducing the speed limits allowed to decrease the deaths is also reduced point of view, as it does not take into account that the vehicles and roads are more safe over the decade, that road works are multiplied in order to obstruct trafic and to cause trafic jams. It does not take into account all the factors contributing to an accident, as it does not take into account the weather conditions over the years that will have an influence on the behaviour of the people wether they get out more often or not... Good weather conditions will incite people to get out and increase trafic meaning more accidents... Icing rains, snow in winter will also increase accidents... and it does not even take into account were locked down for months.
just mean that there is no link between speed and accidents.
It is a pity speed has been so much reduced in Europe. Driving 80 is very few, even for a truck.
In the US, except in California where it is limited at 90km/h, in most of the state it is possible to drive 100 km/h or even up to 85 mph (130km/h) and trucks are even often loaded with 40t heavy trailers...

[Wolfpig]

Originally posted by sebmet:

Speed is always associated with braking ability. If the driver does not realize there is a traffic jam, even at 50, the car preceeding will end in a pancake.

The driven speed is only one factor.
The more dangerous thing is that most people are to dumb to keep a save distance to the vehicle in front...regardless of the speed they drive.

[pieperjohanns]

Originally posted by sebmet:

I am wondering how fast are driving trucks in Europe in Real Life ? What are the speed limits?

In Germany the official limit is 60 km/h outside of cities and 80 on highways.
But still many trucks are going 70–80 km/h outside of cities and 90 on highways.

[The Pitts]

Originally posted by sebmet:

just mean that there is no link between speed and accidents

I'm not sure that that statement is correct, but there is a difference between correlation and causation. Speed in and of itself does not cause accidents but it makes those accidents that do happen more severe.

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by sebmet:

In the US, except in California where it is limited at 90km/h, in most of the state it is possible to drive 100 km/h or even up to 85 mph (130km/h) and trucks are even often loaded with 40t heavy trailers...

Just to give you a sense of scale: A fully loaded truck with 40 tonnes driving 80mph has about the same kinetic energy as a car with 2 tonnes driving at about 575 km/h (approx. 357 mph). I don't need to say that a truck driving at that speed (80mph) is not just crashing into cars (when it happens) but driving through them. The cance of survival for the people in the car is pretty much at zero.

As for the rest: Lower speeds mean less kinetic energy (half speed means that you only have a fourth of the kinetic energy with the same weight as in the calculation for kinetic energy the velocity is squared). And when a crash happens this kinetic energy has to go somewhere (since we know that energy is a constant and can not be destroyed nor created but is only getting converted into other forms of energy) and it is usually converted to deform the car (not the passengers in it) which is then converted into heat. If that doesn't work out (because the kinetic energy is too high) then the deformation is not just the front of the car but can even be the entire car. Lower speeds reduce the chance of this happening but it is only one factor of the whole puzzle. As The Pitts stated: Correlation does not imply Causation as explained here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B271L3NtAw
And here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HLtFv_KqoE

[sebmet]

Hallo Wolfang,
'40 tonnes driving 80mph has about the same kinetic energy as a car with 2 tonnes driving at about 575 km/h. --> So erklärt, ist es mehr greifbar. Ich wußte der Unterschied an freigestzte kinetische Energie wäre so riesig. Aber in Utah ist die Geschwindigkeitsgrenze ziemlich extrem.
Regeln und Gesetze müssen nicht wie in Utah so freizügig sein. Für Jahrzehnte haben die Lastwagens in Europa 100 km/h auf Autobahn gefahren.
Wie gross ist denn der Unterschied wenn die Lastwagens 100 km/h fahren anstatt 80 ?

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by sebmet:

Hallo Wolfang,
'40 tonnes driving 80mph has about the same kinetic energy as a car with 2 tonnes driving at about 575 km/h. --> So erklärt, ist es mehr greifbar. Ich wußte der Unterschied an freigestzte kinetische Energie wäre so riesig. Aber in Utah ist die Geschwindigkeitsgrenze ziemlich extrem.
Regeln und Gesetze müssen nicht wie in Utah so freizügig sein. Für Jahrzehnte haben die Lastwagens in Europa 100 km/h auf Autobahn gefahren.
Wie gross ist denn der Unterschied wenn die Lastwagens 100 km/h fahren anstatt 80 ?

Bei einem LKW mit 40 Tonnen und 100km/h entspricht dies bei einem PKW mit 2 Tonnen einer Geschwindigkeit von 447 km/h. Bei nur 80km/h sind das bei dem PKW 357,8 km/h. Das ist schon ein substanzieller Unterschied. Wenn der LKW nur 60 km/h fährt (wie er auf deutschen Landstraßen sollte), dann entspricht dies beim PKW einer Geschwindigkeit von 268 km/h.
Die Gleichung für die kinetische Energie ist: E(kin)=0,5*m*v^2 (wobei m die Masse des Objektes in kg und v die Geschwindigkeit des Objektes in m/s ist).
Wie bereits gesagt, kann nur ein gewisser Teil der Energie in Verformungsarbeit des Autos und in Wärme umgewandelt werden, ohne die Insassen (schwer bis tödlich) zu verletzen. Und es ist eben dieser Unterschied, der wichtig ist. Auch, wenn die USA andere Regeln haben, so sind dennoch meines Wissens nach die meisten LKW von Unternehmen dort auf 65mph (104,6 km/h) begrenzt. Dies dient zum einen der Sicherheit, zum anderen zur Reduktion des Spritverbrauches (auch beim Luftwiderstand bzw. -reibung geht die Geschwindigkeit des Objektes quadratisch in die Gleichung ein, d.h. wenn du die Geschwindigkeit verdoppelst, vervierfachst du den Luftwiderstand), welcher vor allem bei hohen Geschwindigkeiten deutlich spürbar ist.