20mph online petition

[Rjk]

Re: 20mph online petition

Absolutely. It's pissing people off across the political spectrum.

Today I had a knob jockey doing 20mph in a 40 zone. It's confused lots of people. It's been an utter disaster.

give it a week and even the knob heads will have worked it out

[nomad blue]

Re: 20mph online petition

Both are illogical and unnecessary who decides whether it's 20mph 15mph or 3mph?

The motorway has already dropped to 50mph and the A470 to 50mph, cars are ten times safer and have ABS and airbags everywhere and the speed limits are 33% less than they were 58 years ago.

Cars may be ten times safer, but pedestrian design hasn't moved forward quite as fast...

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Re: 20mph online petition

give it a week and even the knob heads will have worked it out

You really think so?

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Re: 20mph online petition

I'm going to hop onto my soap box here and this is what I think is the crux of the matter.

Roads. What are they there for? In terms of usage, they are used mainly by vehicles; cars, buses, lorries, taxis etc, things with engines. Occasionally cyclists will use them, though the number of cyclists is very low compared with the rest. Pedestrians don't really use them, they use pavements but will also have to cross these roads from time to time.

So, given the frequency of what uses roads the most, shouldn't they be geared to making sure traffic moves smoothly and safely?

Roads are unsafe places. If I got run over I'd have either been run over by a lunatic who wasn't driving properly, or I'd have made a huge error of judgement. In 45 years I haven't been run over. Virtually all of my friends have never been run over, either. I reckon most people who are run over by a car have only themselves to blame, unless there's obvious fault on the side of the driver. The closest I ever got to running someone over was in Tonypandy - a guy walked out almost straight in front of me looking at his phone, oblivious of anything. If I'd have knocked him over I would have felt absolutely awful, but it would never have been my fault. Years ago my dad ran over a pedestrian on a motorway - he was suicidal and did it to end his life; there was never any blame attached to my dad, but he had to attend inquests and all sorts. Horrible for him and he considered quitting a career he'd spent his life doing and was really good at.

I have yet to hear from anyone that they object to 20mph limits in side streets, where there are schools and so on. At the moment we have lots of 20mph sections of road where there's no logical reason to do so. Main roads need to move traffic onwards. People have to get somewhere. Sadly the way things work in the UK means that people often have less time to do things than ever before.

Education is far better than ever before. Youngsters know the dangers of roads better than in my generation. Casualties, deaths etc on roads keep falling year by year.

[jeepster]

Re: 20mph online petition

I'm going to hop onto my soap box here and this is what I think is the crux of the matter.

Roads. What are they there for? In terms of usage, they are used mainly by vehicles; cars, buses, lorries, taxis etc, things with engines. Occasionally cyclists will use them, though the number of cyclists is very low compared with the rest. Pedestrians don't really use them, they use pavements but will also have to cross these roads from time to time.

So, given the frequency of what uses roads the most, shouldn't they be geared to making sure traffic moves smoothly and safely?

Roads are unsafe places. If I got run over I'd have either been run over by a lunatic who wasn't driving properly, or I'd have made a huge error of judgement. In 45 years I haven't been run over. Virtually all of my friends have never been run over, either. I reckon most people who are run over by a car have only themselves to blame, unless there's obvious fault on the side of the driver. The closest I ever got to running someone over was in Tonypandy - a guy walked out almost straight in front of me looking at his phone, oblivious of anything. If I'd have knocked him over I would have felt absolutely awful, but it would never have been my fault. Years ago my dad ran over a pedestrian on a motorway - he was suicidal and did it to end his life; there was never any blame attached to my dad, but he had to attend inquests and all sorts. Horrible for him and he considered quitting a career he'd spent his life doing and was really good at.

I have yet to hear from anyone that they object to 20mph limits in side streets, where there are schools and so on. At the moment we have lots of 20mph sections of road where there's no logical reason to do so. Main roads need to move traffic onwards. People have to get somewhere. Sadly the way things work in the UK means that people often have less time to do things than ever before.

Education is far better than ever before. Youngsters know the dangers of roads better than in my generation. Casualties, deaths etc on roads keep falling year by year.

Just the truth .

[blue matt]

Re: 20mph online petition

On my detour through Newport on the way home after the Jacks game, the Mrs says to me " how fast you going ", I have it on cruise control and its bang on 30mph, thats too fast she says, no no I reply, its 30 here, look at the signs, no 30 is 20 in Wales now, so I slow down ( no cruise control as its too slow for it ) it seems every idiot was determined to blast past me at 40 mph, I was glad to get back on the M4 and open the engine up and do 50 mph

[Wozza16]

Re: 20mph online petition

I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere but I think the move to electric cars is another reason this change has been brought in. Electric cars having no engine noise removing the chance of hearing cars pass by, the amount of people on their phones, not checking before stepping out, kids chasing a football into the street etc means I feel the amount of pedestrian v car collisions would naturally go up.

Maybe the idea is by reducing cars speed in all built up areas will negate this from happening as much?

[splott parker]

Re: 20mph online petition

Absolutely. It's pissing people off across the political spectrum.

Today I had a knob jockey doing 20mph in a 40 zone. It's confused lots of people. It's been an utter disaster.

Hasn’t that always been the way? There’s always been slow drivers, used to call them Sunday drivers (before Sunday became just another day). The speed limit maybe be 40mph but that exactly what it is, the limit, it doesn’t mean you have to drive at 40mph, you just don’t go above it. It’s always been frustrating being stuck behind someone tootling along at a snail’s pace but that’s nothing to do with what’s been brought in. I’ve always been of the opinion that ultra slow drivers are pretty dangerous and I think some have been pulled over to explain their cautiousness but if they’re below the limit they’d argue that they’re driving within the law.

[TWGL1]

Re: 20mph online petition

Hasn’t that always been the way? There’s always been slow drivers, used to call them Sunday drivers (before Sunday became just another day). The speed limit maybe be 40mph but that exactly what it is, the limit, it doesn’t mean you have to drive at 40mph, you just don’t go above it. It’s always been frustrating being stuck behind someone tootling along at a snail’s pace but that’s nothing to do with what’s been brought in. I’ve always been of the opinion that ultra slow drivers are pretty dangerous and I think some have been pulled over to explain their cautiousness but if they’re below the limit they’d argue that they’re driving within the law.

The problem with the 20mph speed limit ,or any other for that matter , is that it’s not a target, its “up to” the speed that’s been designated, so drivers are going to be driving slower than they should be alot of the time.

[goats]

Re: 20mph online petition

You really think so?

I dont think so, I saw someone in a Land Rover overtaking people on a 20mph rd yesterday, god knows what they were thinking…..

[caerkid]

Re: 20mph online petition

In 45 years I haven't been run over. Virtually all of my friends have never been run over, either. I reckon most people who are run over by a car have only themselves to blame, unless there's obvious fault on the side of the driver.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

"Another kind of survivorship bias would involve thinking that an incident was not all that dangerous because the only people who were involved in the incident who can speak about it are those who survived it. Even if one knew that some people are dead, they would not have their voice to add to the conversation, leading to bias in the conversation"

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: 20mph online petition

Yes I drive, every day
other than rush hour traffic has been moving completely freely around cardiff every time I've been out and about, the only traffic problems I've encountered during rush hour have been on roads that aren't affected by the change to 20 mph (A470 predominately).

If "oldies are sitting in nappies for hours" that probably has a lot more to do with the chronic shortage of carers in the system rather than that some of their journey is a little bit slower.

The care system is down to the Tories

Utter nightmare of privatisation

Maybe it won't be helped by this 20 mph thing but it's completely ruined thanks to them anyway

[JamesWales]

Re: 20mph online petition

A YouGov poll now showing big opposition to it.

The response from the WG all feels a bit like it's a legacy from covid times doesn't it?

Fairly blanket imposition, response of 'here to keep you safe' etc and not much else.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/yougov-poll-shows-massive-opposition-27769624

[xsnaggle]

Re: 20mph online petition

I dont think so, I saw someone in a Land Rover overtaking people on a 20mph rd yesterday, god knows what they were thinking…..

If the person he was overtaking was going slower and he could pass at 20/22 on his speedo then he is quite entitled to do so.

[JamesWales]

Re: 20mph online petition

The care system is down to the Tories

Utter nightmare of privatisation

Maybe it won't be helped by this 20 mph thing but it's completely ruined thanks to them anyway

Literally every truth in the universe, you will twist and squeeze and push through the tiny pinhole of 'its the Tories fault'.

It's been devolved to the Welsh Govt since 2011. Stop lying.

And yes, 20mph won't help. The lady in the flat next to mine has visitors three times a day and they have commented that it makes their job harder as they have to factor in greater downtime between visits.