Man behind Wales’ 20mph limit admits mistakes
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70j0gv5xpdo
by ParkedUpWithCoffee
Man behind Wales’ 20mph limit admits mistakes
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70j0gv5xpdo
by ParkedUpWithCoffee
31 comments
Goodness me. A policy put into place without proper planning, and an absence of common sense being applied? Blimey.
Maybe making enforcing new rules with absolutely no democrat mandate to do so isn’t a good idea. Maybe a lesson could be learned here
I know the median user of this sub can’t drive anyway, but it’s comical how slow 20 mph is as a blanket rule in built up areas.
It’s like driving around Center Parcs.
I remember being downvoted for simply questioning this a few months back. Maybe people have seen the light now.
People complain that politicians aren’t truthful. Politician admits he didn’t get something perfect first time. Politician is murdered in the court of public opinion. Politician decides that lying and claiming he was right is the best policy ongoing.
The heading is a bit disingenuous. He says it managed to achieve the goal it set out to do but some details need changing, mainly that some roads should still be 30mph. But you cant name every road to be exempt in a national policy, it would take another decade to get it passed.
I think the way it happened is fine. Change all built up residential areas which are currently 30mph to 20mph and then let individual roads be reverted back. Seems much quicker than to do the opposite and review every road to change them to 20mph.
Its like with the pavement parking ban which was proposed by the previous government. Of course a national blanket ban wont work well but the government cant go through literally 100,000s of roads and list all that should be exempt. Youd do it by applying the ban nationally on every pavement by default and then afterwards let councils signpost where you can park on it. But the ban isnt happening because of the whole people deciding to overplan it.
Just going through with a big non economic policy change like this instead of delaying constsntly so it never happens is a good thing. Make the rule default nationality and then let it be adjusted locally. Same with Londons pavement parking ban, just got applied London wide and councils signposted the excluded places, the city didnt crumble it got better.
BBC with its dodgy misleading headlines as usual. Wouldnt have been hard to say “man behind 20mph limit says it achieved its purpose but admits mistakes too”. Gotta go for the clickbait instead i guess
Recently drove in Wales and 20 limit is hard to drive in plus most drivers was doing 25. Just too slow
Our city Due to traffic lights junctions road works and closures , accidents .
You are lucky if you drive across the city at an average of 15 miles an hr
It’s saved lives and after implementing it they will revise the rules improve the system.
It was the right decision and its the right decision to admit some mistakes and tweak it. They are not going to cancel the whole idea.
All areas around schools should be 20 mph.
Each day I see a lot of idiots speeding in school zones . It does my head in.
FM Eluned Morgan:
> But let’s not forget that central to this is safety and… the number of collisions has seen a significant reduction
Ok.
But 15mph would surely lead to a reduction in collisions from 20mph, right? And 10 from 15? And banning cars completely? And only allowing people out of their homes in plastic inflatable bubbles?
The debate isn’t about whether we want to reduce harm, obviously everyone would prefer nobody ever gets hurt.
The debate is where we’re willing to set things like speed limits compared to the risks we’re willing to accept for ourselves and others.
And this government decided that 20 was best for us without our consent. The same sort of decision worked for seat belts, as they point out, but they have not managed to realise that it has not here because it’s a completely different type of decision.
The imposition of seat belts was accepted because (a) loads of people already wore them and most importantly (b) it wasn’t actually much of an imposition, it’s easy to do and causes no real negative impact.
This is very different.
Mistakes, not a mistake.
There’s a core of dickheads in this country that think that their speeding is acceptable because they have “modern brakes” & “superhuman reaction times” and that it is a cynical revenue collection tool.
They think this until a loved one is killed or injured by a speeding driver when they then want the perpetrator hung.
It’s a bizarre logic.
Speeding is speeding. If the 20mph policy saved lives in the time it has been operating, it is worth it.
My only surprise is that the Welsh conservatives haven’t adopted the policy of reversing it.
It’s a shame that people are still scathing of this speed limit, because there has been a significant reduction in accidents for motorists and pedestrians, which for me is a solid sign that this scheme has had positive impacts across the country.
On the whole this scheme has been a positive societal success, but it would be foolhardy to suggest that it is either a huge success or a failure at this time.
Personally I’d stick with it in principle, and tinker around the edges.
I‘d also hope that governments start a new speed initiative. Where I live I’m constantly stuck in traffic jams, the root cause being slow drivers that cause other people to brake and stop. Because of this I’m losing up to 30 minutes of my life stuck behind arseholes who can‘t drive. My proposal would be to have signs telling people to fucking accelerate and get a move on. Failure to drive over the recommended speed should result in a fine. This doesn‘t mean that you are free to become a racing driver, just that your speed must be over and under a certain limit to keep the traffic flowing. The next bullshit I encounter every day are signs telling people to drive during off-peak hours to avoid pollution and more traffic jams. All this while the third lane (a hard shoulder which serves a double purpose as an extra lane when needed) is switched off. Why not keep this open all day? It would solve so many problems and frustration issues.
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About once a week I see a post on my local facebook about a cat getting run over either by someone in a white van or some cunt in an Audi.
These are on residential roads, houses and parked cars either side, 2-3 roads away from a secondary school.
I’ve seen white vans going 40+ down these roads (at school drop off time) and stupid little bumfluff cunts doing 40+ in their shitbox A3’s and rotten 3 series.
Some little turd rolled his A3 when he was driving two girls around.
It was a miracle no-one was killed.
I literally couldn’t care less about the feelings of motorists on this.
When the deaths of pedestrians, cyclists and vulnerable road users are down to zero then we can think about loosening speed restrictions.
If you don’t like driving at 20mph, boo hoo you poor fucking baby **get over it.**
There are many good reasons for 20mph limits.
All the central London boroughs have them, but it’s a bit different in London to wales:
• Huge numbers of pedestrians
• High numbers of cyclists (which is significant because cyclists usually travel at just under 20mph on flat, so this prevents cars from dangerously overtaking)
• Easier to implement when most of your roads would be 20 anyway
• Reduced need to drive in London
Long story short, it’s easy to see how the positives outweigh the negatives in London given the significant increase in safety and the fairly minor decrease in travel time for drivers. That being said it’s important to remember that according to DfT about 80% of vehicles in a 20 are going north of 20. Would Wales instead be better using 20mph sparingly but in conjunction with other traffic calming and speeding prevention measures?
In parts of the he estate I live on, 20mph is too fast …
He was the mistake, should have ended up in a tissue
Blanket 20 limits are counter productive. It’s just too slow 90% of the time. Literally everybody from police cars to buses to cyclists just ignore them completely. They discredit the limit to the point where no one takes any notice of them where they are required like outside schools or where there’s no footpath. It gets even worse when they’re an obvious money making scheme. I was in Wales a few weeks ago, there were several main roads on the outskirts of towns, with big footpaths, almost no pedestrians, a 20mph limit and discrete average speed cameras.
I live in a city.
I can walk to the city centre in 25 mins to give you an idea of how close.
My local roads are 30mph with a few 40mph.
I often drive at 22/25 mph as
A) the traffic dictates that speed
B) the limit is the limit, not a suggestion
C) I’m finding a slower speed is more relaxing, gives me time to spot the hazards..kids on bikes, dogs pulling on leads etc
D) bombing about gets me home a minute or two quicker.
Twas a time we walked or rode a horse and 20mphs was thought excessive so all perspective.
While I do think a 20mph MAX limit is futile, equally the reaction to the idea of slowing down is misplaced
Personally I’d like to see as much anger over center lane drivers on motorways and twats who think the right hand lane is their personal exclusive lane( usually Audi and BMW drivers)..yes you know you do.
As someone who lives in a built-up area where the limit was changed to 20, it’s really reduced the amount of noise pollution generated by traffic. The speed camera installed has also helped (one covering the opposite direction as well would be nice…)
You still get idiots in cars and on bikes revving their engines or showing off their (possibly illegal?) loud exhausts, but still.
Apart from the emergency services who can go as fast as they need, I just don’t think there’s any reason to go 30mph in a lot of places.
Speed limits are pointless unless you are going to enforce them 24/7.
Could reduce the death rate even more by reducing the speed to 0 mph… stupid survey. stupid conclusions
He’s like my dumb younger ex boss saying drive around at 70, doing 80 isn’t going to get you there any faster.
Say wat now !
I remember him once leaving 10 minutes before me and later passing me while I was doddering on the motorway at 50 mph, while he did 70 going through the camera set at 50 and getting a ticket as he was staring at me with a surprised expression on his face of “how did you get here before me”
He tried to write me up, I just laughed at him and told him to prove it,
Wasn’t it done to stop deaths and reduce pollution in those areas, I guess one out of two isn’t bad
Awful headline. They’ve already proved that the policy has saved lives and prevented injuries and is on course to have paid for itself with another two years and then be a boost to the economy
We can’t possibly have positive headlines about good things if they’re not popular with a car addicted society though now can we
Much better than some prime minister who is still denying they were crashing the economy and destroying our country inside out
Why not just drop it 1 MPH?
Then at least no insects will die either.
Things are getting more and more nonsensical, everywhere.
> Waters also spoke of opposition to the policy, acknowledging it had been “greater and lasted longer than what we anticipated”.
Yeah I guess going public and saying you don’t give a shit what the voters thought and generally acting like the Tories turned out to not be a good plan.
The actual particulars of the policy are borderline irrelevant. Labour went mask off and made it clear they saw Wales as a personal fiefdom that will do what it is told. That is what will hurt them in the end.
It worked in an unusual way I have observed. Very few people adhere to the 20 mph limit, but no one exceeds 30 mph as was common, including me. I would estimate average speed to be about 27 mph, is this a win?
Maybe the speed limit should be 27mph?