Consultation is taking place about a proposal to reduce the speed on the M1 motorway over a 32-mile stretch between Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. It’s where an extra lane has been added by using the hard shoulder.

The ambition is to fix the limit at 60mph during daytime, enforced by cameras, and this approach would also apply elsewhere in the country where the hard shoulder has been incorporated into the main highway. There are plans to do the same on parts of the M6, M8 and the M25 which have similar serious air quality hot spots.

The situation in Yorkshire is that there are now four congested, and speeding, lanes, and the resulting increase in air pollution breaches EU air quality standards and so is likely to cause serious health problems for those who live close by, and that’s many thousands of people.

Those of us who had to drive slowly up the old A1 before motorways were constructed can’t really understand what all the fuss is about, particularly as there have been successful speed restrictions in the past.

The UK response to the oil crisis in the 1970s was a 50mph limit for a couple of years, and in the USA the 55mph restriction lasted almost two decades. However, in both cases, compliance was limited with around 85 per cent violation, so cameras will be important in any new schemes.

It’s clear that driving at 60mph will use about a fifth less fuel than at over 70mph, and much less than that at 80mph, so there will be fewer particulates, and less CO2. Both the air quality and emissions levels benefit, and there’s also the bonus of fewer tragic accidents, but it can be even more helpful than that.

All the research shows that driving at lower speeds allows far more vehicles to use a stretch of motorway at any one time, as they can be closer together, with shorter braking distances, and less chance of bunching up.

The figures indicate that if the limit is nine vehicles at 70mph, there would be 12 at 60mph and around 16 at 50mph. Indeed, they could have saved a considerable amount of money by leaving the hard shoulder alone and just installing a camera enforced lower speed limit.

If we intend to take the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions seriously, for the sake of future generations and folk in the more threatened parts of the world, then we should embrace the requirement to drive more slowly.

A mature driving population would accept that Top Gear attitudes to driving are environmentally irresponsible and that we all have a duty to reduce CO2 emissions – slower, thoughtful driving is one answer.