20 Mph Speed Limit

[whelk]

What is this all about? Roads been 30mph all my lifetime and haven’t noticed any increase in accidents. Twats who race around in urban areas don’t obey speed limits anyway so won’t deter them.  Don’t know what this is trying to achieve.

[AlexLaw76]

3 minutes ago, whelk said:

What is this all about? Roads been 30mph all my lifetime and haven’t noticed any increase in accidents. Twats who race around in urban areas don’t obey speed limits anyway so won’t deter them.  Don’t know what this is trying to achieve.

Got to Safeguard the environment, mate.

Climate Emergency and all that

[sadoldgit]

There have been discussions about bringing in 20mph limits around schools for years. The likelihood of dying or serious injuries being hit by a car at 20mph is significantly reduced and the extra braking distance helps to avoid the possibility of a collision in the first place. 
Unfortunately a great many people already drive over 30mph in 30mph zones anyway. We carried out a speed check on cars travelling through our village a couple of years ago and the average was around 35mph. If it helps bring the average speed down even if it doesn’t achieve 20mph it will still help.

I can’t see it happening though. Sunak seems to think that people care more about the supposed “war on motorists”, ULEZ and canning HS2 than they do about the cost of living crisis, the winter fuel bills, high mortgages, crumbling schools and the state of the NHS. You can expect him to make a big deal about scraping plans for 20mph zones as part of his cunning plan to deflect from the mess his party have already made of the country.

[badgerx16]

Plenty of cyclists do over 20 mph. Does a 20 mph limit mean cyclists have to have calibrated speedometers ?

[Sheaf Saint]

Last year our local council consulted on some proposed changes to the roads around our area, because the road we live on is used regularly as a rat run between different parts of the city and we have problems with knobheads racing up and down our hill at very dangerous speeds.

The plans were opposed because of the knock on effect the road closures would have on surrounding roads, and rightly scrapped (even though my road would have been closed to through traffic, it would have caused problems on other local roads so I objected myself).

The council then decided to take the cheap and easy option of putting up some 20mph signs on our road. It hasn't made the slightest bit of difference, because it wasn't people driving at 30 that were the problem. And the people who blatantly ignored the 30 limit seemingly don't give a shit about the 20 limit either, so we still have just as many dickheads hooning up our road like they are trying to set a lap record at the Nurburgring.

I really don't think it's necessary to roll this out everywhere.

[whelk]

43 minutes ago, sadoldgit said:

There have been discussions about bringing in 20mph limits around schools for years. The likelihood of dying or serious injuries being hit by a car at 20mph is significantly reduced and the extra braking distance helps to avoid the possibility of a collision in the first place. 
Unfortunately a great many people already drive over 30mph in 30mph zones anyway. We carried out a speed check on cars travelling through our village a couple of years ago and the average was around 35mph. If it helps bring the average speed down even if it doesn’t achieve 20mph it will still help.

I can’t see it happening though. Sunak seems to think that people care more about the supposed “war on motorists”, ULEZ and canning HS2 than they do about the cost of living crisis, the winter fuel bills, high mortgages, crumbling schools and the state of the NHS. You can expect him to make a big deal about scraping plans for 20mph zones as part of his cunning plan to deflect from the mess his party have already made of the country.

Are lots of people dying because hit by 30mph cars?

[badgerx16]

Lancashire County Council came up with a plan to make the entire County 20mph, other than designated trunk routes. They justified this with the results of traffic surveys that showed on many roads the average speed of traffic was below 24 mph - the surveys were taken during the 'school run' times, when traffic is naturally heavier and slower.

They were forced to withdraw the proposal. Instead they have placed 20mph zones around schools, which is fine.

In general, targetted traffic calming is far better than a blanket limit.

Edited 29 September, 2023 by badgerx16

[Lord Duckhunter]

1 hour ago, sadoldgit said:

 We carried out a speed check on cars travelling through our village a couple of years ago 

Why doesn’t that surprise me. A load of clipboard warriors checking up on people going about their daily lives. 
 

Cars have never been safer & I doubt many kids are hit by cars travelling between 20-30 MPH. All it’ll do is inconvenience law abiding folk. 

[Turkish]

21 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Why doesn’t that surprise me. A load of clipboard warriors checking up on people going about their daily lives. 
 

Cars have never been safer & I doubt many kids are hit by cars travelling between 20-30 MPH. All it’ll do is inconvenience law abiding folk. 

when Sog says "we did" presumably this means he was involved in it somehow?

In our area we have it around schools at drop off and pick up time but that's it, the estate i live on people tend to drive sensibly as there are a lot of kids, they fly round corners on their scooters or bikes, had a couple of near misses myself where kids have just jumped off the pavement into the road on scooters without looking. 

[Weston Super Saint]

I was in Wales on Wednesday where every road has been changed to 20 from 30.

The Welsh are moaning like fuck as they are now being overtaken by electric scooters in the middle of Swansea - the ones that aren't actually legally allowed on the road!

It hasn't gone down well!

[ecuk268]

2 hours ago, whelk said:

Are lots of people dying because hit by 30mph cars?

Just under 1500 in 2019.

So just over 4 every day.

[badgerx16]

51 minutes ago, ecuk268 said:

Just under 1500 in 2019.

So just over 4 every day.

Where did you get that from ? It looks like the total of road deaths, rather than those hit by cars travelling at or near 30mph.

Last year, according to Government figures, there were a total of 376 pedestrians killed on the roads of the UK. Many of those would have been hit by cars going faster than 30 mph. On top of the pedestrian figures there were 12 fatalities of e-scooter riders, and 85 cyclists.

 

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/report-reveals-number-of-deaths-on-british-roads-increase-by-8-percent/

Edited 29 September, 2023 by badgerx16

[sadoldgit]

On 29/09/2023 at 18:17, Lord Duckhunter said:

Why doesn’t that surprise me. A load of clipboard warriors checking up on people going about their daily lives. 
 

Cars have never been safer & I doubt many kids are hit by cars travelling between 20-30 MPH. All it’ll do is inconvenience law abiding folk. 

Why doesn’t it surprise me that you have a problem with people who don’t want themselves or others, including children, run over by people going about their daily lives by breaking the speed limit.

Actually it does surprise me given the fuss you made about Ray Wilkins and his drink driving issue. Very selective about which laws you think it is okay to break and which ones it is not okay to break. Very Farage of you Duckie.

I find it incredibly sad that grown men with children and grand children think it is perfectly okay to break the speed limit in residential areas.

[For the two “confused” posters - emojis below - I am referring to Duckie’s comments about about the speed check we did in our village and those who supported his comments]

Edited 1 October, 2023 by sadoldgit
Added text

[ecuk268]

19 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

Where did you get that from ? It looks like the total of road deaths, rather than those hit by cars travelling at or near 30mph.

Last year, according to Government figures, there were a total of 376 pedestrians killed on the roads of the UK. Many of those would have been hit by cars going faster than 30 mph. On top of the pedestrian figures there were 12 fatalities of e-scooter riders, and 85 cyclists.

 

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/report-reveals-number-of-deaths-on-british-roads-increase-by-8-percent/

I used ChatGPT and Bard so the results may not be accurate.

[tdmickey3]

30mph is Unjust and Unjustified: Choose 20mph - 20's Plenty for Us (20splenty.org)

[badgerx16]

At 30 mph a car passing me on my bike will generally have a speed differential of over 10 mph and will take a couple of seconds to get past me. At 20 that differential will be, at best, 4 mph, and it will take at least 3 times as long to go past.

This increases the danger to me, and means the car will need to find a much longer stretch of road without oncoming traffic to achieve it's manoeuvre with a safe passing distance. Car drivers are going to get more frustrated behind cyclists and more likely to take stupid chances to go past.

[Weston Super Saint]

1 hour ago, badgerx16 said:

At 30 mph a car passing me on my bike will generally have a speed differential of over 10 mph and will take a couple of seconds to get past me. At 20 that differential will be, at best, 4 mph, and it will take at least 3 times as long to go past.

This increases the danger to me, and means the car will need to find a much longer stretch of road without oncoming traffic to achieve it's manoeuvre with a safe passing distance. Car drivers are going to get more frustrated behind cyclists and more likely to take stupid chances to go past.

Right up until the next traffic lights when you rinse and repeat 😁

[badgerx16]

4 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Right up until the next traffic lights when you rinse and repeat 😁

I was once cycing up Blackpool Prom and there was a car in front of me the driver of which was looking for something, a side road or a hotel probably, and was dawdling along, so I shouted at him to "get out of the bloody way" as he was slowing me down.

 

Edited 2 October, 2023 by badgerx16

[sadoldgit]

I have spent a couple of hours this morning clearing up the glass and debris from a collision at our crossroads last night. It is a dangerous junction on a blind bend and accidents happen frequently. There will be a fatality at some point and that is the reason that people like me pick up clipboards and run speed checks, so that people like Duckhunter, who has had a dig at us, can get from A to B more safely.

We have been asking for a mini roundabout for some time but the council won’t do anything about speed calming measures until people die. We did a speed survey as part of a wider survey amongst the villages about spending parish council funds on an electric speed sign which flashes up your speed as you approach it.

We bought the sign and it does help slow traffic down through the village, but we could only afford 1 so have to rotate it around the 4 approach roads, which isn’t ideal.

A 20 mph limit would certainly help here but as has been said, it won’t stop the selfish drivers who think speed limits do not apply to them. At least it is raising the issue of road safety in residential areas and anything that saves lives and serious injuries has to be a good thing, doesn’t it?