How slow can you go? - 20 mile an hour speed limits...

[OneHungLow]

Wales has become the first country in the UK to roll out a default 20mph speed limit for most residential roads.

The scheme begins on Sunday and most roads in Wales that are currently 30mph have become 20mph although councils have discretion to impose exemptions.

The Welsh Government has said that cutting the limit from 30mph to 20mph will protect lives and save the NHS in Wales £92 million a year.

The RAC warned drivers not to rely on satnavs for the correct speed limit and instead follow the road signs.

Any motorist caught driving over 20mph but under 30mph will initially receive advice from the police rather than face a ticket, a minister said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/h ... 12997.html

For once I am apt to support a Tory...

Andrew RT Davies, the leader of the Conservatives in the Senedd, said: “Whilst I agree that 20mph is sensible outside heavily pedestrianised areas, such as schools, hospitals and care homes, the Labour Government’s blanket 20mph speed limit rollout across Wales is simply ludicrous.”

What do people think?

[OFSO]

Too many each of young folk and old. Need eliminating. Do away with all speed limits.

[unifoxos]

The amount of crashes on the roads are directly related to the amount of traffic. Therefore if everybody drove twice as fast the traffic would reduce by half and so would the crashes.

[OneHungLow]

The amount of crashes on the roads are directly related to the amount of traffic. Therefore if everybody drove twice as fast the traffic would reduce by half and so would the crashes.

Or the same amount of traffic would be travelling twice as fast.

[boing]

Locally they installed speed bumps, bumps the full width of the road, in an area of residential streets that has considerable through traffic. Someone pointed out that emergency vehicles were slowed down by the bumps so the solution was to level out an area of each bump either side of the centre of the road so that an emergency vehicle could drive in the centre of the road without hitting the bumps. We now have the local yobos driving in opposite directions in the middle of the road to dodge the bumps.

,

[k3k3]

Just watch the accident stastics soar as people spend all their time concentrating on the speedo to stay under 20 rather than maintaining a lookout.

[Boac]

....and of course, no-one looks at their speedometer to make sure they are driving at 30!??

[G-CPTN]

Many years ago the Road Research Laboratory conducted a survey of traffic collisions.

The probability of a collision was proportional to the time spent driving, ergo the faster you drove the less time was spent driving.

However. they concluded that the severity of a collision was proportional to the speed of the vehicle(s).
Reducing speeds to zero eliminated injuries.

[OFSO]

... Which is what the El Saddiqui Khan, the Mayor of Londonistan is planning...

[Karearea]

Wales has become the first country in the UK to roll out a default 20mph speed limit for most residential roads. ...

...

Beginning to creep in here too.

Is this not all some plot to have us on bicycles or on foot, rather than in cars?

[jimtherev]

Actually I've just returned from the Welsh borders - in out in out of the limits. Found it quite difficult
a) at that speed ya can't hear the motor (hybrid) so have to fixate on speedo - or satnav, actually, 'cos it's just about in my eyeline
b) at that speed the cruise control won't engage - seems to cut in at about 25
c) on milesandmilesand miles of country roads, 20mph is damned boring, one tends to lose attention & tempted to look at the pretty dandelions & stuff.

[llondel]

I use the cruise control on a couple of 25MPH roads around here. One is past a school, so is a deserving candidate for such a slow limit. Plus it irritates all those following me who want to zoom down at 40. It's half a mile of road with a (usually) red traffic light at either end.

[ExSp33db1rd]

One is past a school, so is a deserving candidate for such a slow limit.

I live on a school road, and the "posted" limit of 40 kph ( 25 mph ) states ".....when children present" , and most ( except me ) obey this at all times between 0800 and 1530, except during school holiday times.

Question .... are children "present" at, say, 1100 when in fact they are all in their classrooms, and not wandering around the street ?

And isn't this giving children a false message, what do they do when they cross the road without looking, when away from school ? Similar in the USA when many areas require motorists to slow down, or even stop, when passing a stationary school bus from either direction, what do children do when they leave school and join the Wide Wide World, and suprise ! surprise ! cars don't stop when they run across the road from behind the bus having just alighted ! Teach them to live with OUR rules as they join the grown-up world and are no longer treated preferentially, isn't this why they go to "school"?

20 mph ? 'course, we could go back to requiring a man with a red flag to walk in front of all cars again ?

[OneHungLow]

ExSp33db1rd your apposite comments about school children learning to deal with the real world brought back a long forgotten memory of the "scholar patrol", comprised entirely of hand picked 12 year old sensible types (unbelievably I was deemed thus) who were given 2 hours training by the local traffic police and assigned berets, belts and hand held booms with a leader with a loud whistle assigned to man the pedestrian crossing in front of the school, stopping traffic and martialling children across the road The thing to note was that this patrol was not overseen in situ by any teachers or adults and I can say that in all the time I was part of team there were no untoward incidents and the drivers seemed to abide entirely by the 20 mile an hour speed limit and stop as directed.

Sadly such a scheme would be entirely impossible now in Johannesburg due mostly to the traffic anarchy, so called taxis mostly, and the security situation with one father having been shot in front of his children by gangsters who were aware that he had just drawn the payroll for his workers. The poor man was shot at that very crossing in the last decade.All this in a well to do neighbourhood.

[ExSp33db1rd]

Yes, we have a children manned crossing patrol too for the busiest periods at morning and afternoon, but it appears to be supervised by teachers, the children just wave the poles, they don't seem to choose when to stop and re-start the waiting lines of cars. No problem with that at the busy "coming" and "going" times of mostly parent driven cars. Residents know to keep well away at those times if they want to complete their journey in a reasonable time, but it means we have to try to not need to leave home then, joining the endless stream of cars and buses passing our entry / exit way is a nightmare of waiting for the occasional "someone" to let us join in, it then can take 16 minutes to negotiate the nearby roundabout. (New Zealanders need to learn how to use roundabouts, for a start ! )

[OFSO]

All school road crossings are controlled by a member of the local police force here, 08:30-09:00 and at leaving time.

[1DC]

I recall a small town in Costa Blanca Spain, Gata de Gorgos I think that had traffic lights every 200 metres or so that where on green. It had a main road through the centre and if you exceeded the speed limit the traffic lights would turn red and stop you. I thought it was a good idea.

[Boac]

A good idea as long as the lights only control traffic in one direction!

[ExSp33db1rd]

........if you exceeded the speed limit the traffic lights would turn red and stop you.

Didn't Slough once experiment with a section of road that had all the intersection traffic lights turn green as you approached providing that you were only driving at the 30 mph limit ? If you went any faster you had to wait at each intersection until the programmed timing switched from red to green ? I've seen this in operation in California, too. Providing that you joined the road at the most appropriate time in the normal traffic light changing sequence, and were able to maintain the speed limit, then one could drive for some considerable distance before being stopped at a red light.

[unifoxos]

Yes, I think it was a length of the A4 (Bath Road) as it went past LHR? I seem to remember it didn't work that well.