20mph residential speed limit (replacing 30mph)

Minato said:
I'm a doctor with a subspecialty in major trauma. I deal with catastrophic RTAs on a regular basis. 20mph zones won't affect my workload substantially. Next, thanks.
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Glad you work down south and I'll never have the misfortune of being treated by you. What an attitude!

I really don't mind the 20mph limits it's still 3rd gear in my car so more efficient than 30.
It's only for small sections anyway.
 
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robj20 said:
Glad you work down south and I'll never have the misfortune of being treated by you. What an attitude!

I really don't mind the 20mph limits it's still 3rd gear in my car so more efficient than 30.
It's only for small sections anyway.
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This is the difference though. For you it's only small sections, here it's entire boroughs of the city. Miles and miles of 20mph zones and sluggish traffic jams at busy times.
 
I haven't got a problem with it.

We all still seem to be able to get around. You still get the odd cretin that drives too fast. The road outside my house is 20 but some still do well over 40.
 
EddScott said:
I haven't got a problem with it.

We all still seem to be able to get around. You still get the odd cretin that drives too fast. The road outside my house is 20 but some still do well over 40.
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I get tail gated horrendously every day, its near impossible to keep my car at 20mph, if i even extremely lightly feather the accelerator it shoots up to about 25mph so i am constantly watching my speedo instead of watching the road like i should be.

Clearly most people are ignoring it, when i actually do 20mph through all the zones I end up with a pile of cars behind me that never used to happen in the past so no way are they doing 20mph.

Of course everyone will have different experiences but that is how i see it driving in two counties in Wales regularly.
 
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I think I am seeing more speeding now than 10-15 years ago. When it was sensibly placed 30 and 40mph zones people stuck to it. But now we have long, open roads which have been reduced for seemingly no reason and 20 zones everywhere. People just ignore it unless there are average speed cameras. Even then I see people speeding as apparently they don't work most of the time.
 
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Just stop repairing the roads, speeds will naturally come down as we all end up swerving around the huge pot holes.

At least that seems to be our councils current way of thinking.
 
EddScott said:
I haven't got a problem with it.
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I have problems with it on the basis that the claimed environmental benefits don't work in the real world - in fact can go the opposite way when you include the knock on factors of more people driving longer under conditions which don't get engines properly up to temperature, erodes the value of 20 zones in areas they are most needed and doesn't actually save lives in the long run, at least not without a number of other substantial changes like massive improvements to the cycling network, etc. despite a reduction in the first 1-2 years after implementation.
 
Yep 20 is second gear in a lot of cars, especially diesels. Which means emissions are higher and so is noise.

Most accidents are in tight urban areas where people are driving slow anyway. Or they are ignoring rules and driving dangerously. If you look at MK where most roads are 60 or 70mph, very few accidents happen and it has some of the cleanest air of any city.

The whole thing is just a farce.
 
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Nasher said:
Yep 20 is second gear in a lot of cars, especially diesels. Which means emissions are higher and so is noise.

Most accidents are in tight urban areas where people are driving slow anyway. Or they are ignoring rules and driving dangerously. If you look at MK where most roads are 60 or 70mph, very few accidents happen and it has some of the cleanest air of any city.

The whole thing is just a farce.
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I am not sure you can really compare Milton Keynes to many other cities in the UK - the whole road infrastructure is different to most towns and cities.

Edit - I was late for a flight once from Luton as the M1 was closed - the diversion was through Milton Keynes. Since the key roads are basically a series of dual carriageways linked by 2 lane roundabouts, I hammered "through" MK at an extremely illegal pace. I don't think there are many cities in the UK where I could have physically managed to do the same.
 
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Lopéz said:
I am not sure you can really compare Milton Keynes to many other cities in the UK - the whole road infrastructure is different to most towns and cities.

Edit - I was late for a flight once from Luton as the M1 was closed - the diversion was through Milton Keynes. Since the key roads are basically a series of dual carriageways linked by 2 lane roundabouts, I hammered "through" MK at an extremely illegal pace. I don't think there are many cities in the UK where I could have physically managed to do the same.
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Yep, it's an ugly AF city (as "architecture" from the 60s onwards is mostly awful) and certain parts of it look like it could be a Detroit suburb. But traffic wise it works.
 
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Lopéz said:
I am not sure you can really compare Milton Keynes to many other cities in the UK - the whole road infrastructure is different to most towns and cities.

Edit - I was late for a flight once from Luton as the M1 was closed - the diversion was through Milton Keynes. Since the key roads are basically a series of dual carriageways linked by 2 lane roundabouts, I hammered "through" MK at an extremely illegal pace. I don't think there are many cities in the UK where I could have physically managed to do the same.
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Yeah, while MK might have a low amount of road traffic accidents, some of the accidents can be pretty horrific as people bomb around and dont slow down sufficiently at roundabouts and plough into each other
 
dave28 said:
...its near impossible to keep my car at 20mph, if i even extremely lightly feather the accelerator it shoots up to about 25mph so i am constantly watching my speedo instead of watching the road like i should be.
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The lack of self awareness to openly admit you're not in proper control of your car is astonishing. Either swap it for something you can drive or consider whether you're actually fit to. What happens if the person you're behind is driving at 20? I can just imagine the concentration it must take to avoid rear-ending them.

Why do so many people have some instinctive ability to drive at 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70 mph without staring at the speedometer and yet it's impossible to do likewise at 20? If it's simply a case of not being used to it, that will obviously change with time.
 
Brun said:
The lack of self awareness to openly admit you're not in proper control of your car is astonishing. Either swap it for something you can drive or consider whether you're actually fit to. What happens if the person you're behind is driving at 20? I can just imagine the concentration it must take to avoid rear-ending them.

Why do so many people have some instinctive ability to drive at 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70 mph without staring at the speedometer and yet it's impossible to do likewise at 20? If it's simply a case of not being used to it, that will obviously change with time.
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read the first couple of lines of that and no more, quite rude and an exaggeration
 
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Does anyone really thinks that a 20mph speed limit is anything more than politicians/councils virtue signalling? We have Secondary school teacher "helping" teenagers cross the road where I live. Everyone has reduced there speed as its a school zone already. It seems like a significant amount of people need the nanny state
 
Not really no.

The argument is because drivers don't drive at 30 in a 30, they tend to be going much faster. So if they set the limit to 20, the driver is likely to be going less than 30 which will save lives.

The reason why the speed limit is 30 is that its the golden speed when it comes to pedestrian vs car collisions and whether the person is going to get life changing or life ending injures or not.

Personally I don't think it should be a blanket 20mph but I do think 20mph should go further than just outside schools etc. The speed limit is 30mph in the estate I live on, you'd be driving like an absolute maniac if you were actually doing 30 and 20 is more than enough. However on the main through road, 30 is a suitable speed.
 
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