20mph zones!

Lots of roads right next to schools are having the limit reduced to 20. Used to be advisory but now its becoming compulsary.
 
It's hard driving at 20mph just keeping at that low speed as the car just wants to go faster, I won't stick to it if the road is empty and very little pedestrians around as its pointlessley slow then.
 
Fellow Bristolian here, so I've spent the last couple of years watching almost every road on the way from home to work drop from 30 to 20 for no reason. Not just residential roads, main roads too. It's a complete farce, because almost nobody obeys them - everyone drives through them at 30 just like they did before. Everyone knows they're not enforced. You occasionally get stuck behind someone who is obeying the 20 limit, but it's very very rare.
 
Where I used to work, the speed limit on site was 20mph. The site was a disused airfield.
 
SlyReaper said:
Fellow Bristolian here, so I've spent the last couple of years watching almost every road on the way from home to work drop from 30 to 20 for no reason. Not just residential roads, main roads too. It's a complete farce, because almost nobody obeys them - everyone drives through them at 30 just like they did before. Everyone knows they're not enforced. You occasionally get stuck behind someone who is obeying the 20 limit, but it's very very rare.
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In my experience it only seems to be older people and ones new to the area that do 20. What's even more interesting to me is how I'll get people riding my bumper if I'm, uh accidentally, doing 30 in a posted 20...but then most people in Bristol can't drive anyway so I shouldn't be surprised.

One thing I liked about the whole "20 is plenty" campaign is how I was told that it would only be certain more 'vulnerable' areas, around schools etc. that get the 20 limits...the whole city is now a 20 limit. :rolleyes:
 
About the only saving grace is my hybrid system means that at 20 the engine almost never cuts in, rather than 30 it can vary depending on acceleration ... going slower but now I can be silent to the oblivious pedestrians :)
 
It's nice to hear that at least a few other people on here stick to 20. I'm not trying to be all high and mighty about the whole thing, if you want to speed I don't really care, just don't penalise little old me because I don't!
 
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I live in a home zone with a 10mph limit, it is a lot less problematic than I thought it would be and actually makes for a nicer environment. I wasn't sure about it when we bought the house but it has definitely grown on me.

The big reason it works though is that it doesn't impact the main roads nearby, so traffic keeps moving unless it wants to come in for access. I have been to places in other cities (Bristol being one of them) where they have indiscriminately applied a blanket limit and it makes the experience hellish.

So low speed limits, fine, but only in the right places.
 
Freefaller said:
It's not "hard", but it may just be unusual. A car no matter what it is will happily drive at 20mph.
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It's hard in the sense that keeping at that speed constantly, also mentally when you have an open road and driving at that speed its really hard, not sure how to explain it, but in my car 20mph feels like 10mph, just too slow and I tend to switch off mentally too.
 
Just returned from a holiday in Bath and I noticed these all over the place there as well. They have been slowly creeping in around Nottingham. Personally I find them hugely frustrating and they dont seem to target the areas they claim. Two big schools near me are still a 30 / 40 on the main roads directly in front of where the students leave, but then as you get onto the side streets around the area they are all dropped to 20s.

I get the idea of wanting to slow traffic down, but it's just a horribly frustrating speed to drive at. I find it's too fast for second gear (unless you enjoy lots of revs) and just a smidge too slow to really be comfortable in 3rd. Then as others have mentioned there is of course the fact that most people ignore it and actually trying to stick to 20 generally results in people right up your arse annoyed that you aren't doing 30.

Hundreds of children managed to survive when old crappy cars with no decent pedestrian protection or braking systems were doing 30mph, I dont understand why we now suddenly feel road crossing has become so difficult that 20 is necessary :(
 
East Lancashire and beyond has been like this for a long time. Pretty sure the local news stated nobody has actually been caught and convicted of exceeding the 20mph limts either as they really don't bother having traffic teams to patrol to enforce as resources are stretched as it is.

Pointless. I also haven't experienced anyone who actually does under 30 when it's clear to do so and the places that warrant a lower limit people always naturally went slower anyway.

They're trying to solve a problem that in my opinion doesn't really exist and with nobody visibly enforcing it, it's just a waste of time.

Soon they'll just be handing out driving licences on our 17th birthday for free and let all these stupid measures control how we drive. Driver education should be the foremost preventative measure. A bit of compassion and common sense on the roads goes a long way.
 
Winchester has had one for over a year, I only noticed it a bit over a month ago. Nobody follows it.

I'm fine with them in residential areas, I do less than 30 anyway, but the one-way round the town center is daft.
 
lemonade said:
It's hard in the sense that keeping at that speed constantly, also mentally when you have an open road and driving at that speed its really hard, not sure how to explain it, but in my car 20mph feels like 10mph, just too slow and I tend to switch off mentally too.
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Can't say I have the same issue. Hopefully it isn't too distracting for you.
 
Freefaller said:
Can't say I have the same issue. Hopefully it isn't too distracting for you.
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Perhaps it's dependent on the car? I find driving at 20 notably more awkward than driving at 30 as it's in a spot that my car just doesn't feel like it enjoys doing. I will generally stick it in third but it's just on the very edge of that labored feeling you get when you know you should really be considering changing down.

It's not the end of the world, but I'd certainly say I spend more time monitoring my speed and paying attention to the cars controls than I do when I'm driving at 30. I imagine this will be a small fraction of time in the grand scheme of things, but I wonder how much of the benefit of driving at the slower speed it erodes.
 
There's one sprung up near where I live, alongside a school. Fair enough, it is a primary school and there is a secondary school a bit further down the same road on the opposite side, so for the school run, meal-times and the odd extra curricular event I can see the point. I can't work out why they don't put up a variable limit though - is 20 mph really necessary on a straight well-lit road (with no parking) at 9.00pm, especially with only half a dozen houses right at one end?

Maybe it has something to do with the frequent visits by those gaudy V70 T5s or Evo Xs inevitably parked just out of sight down a disused and blocked off private road and those dodgy looking blokes in the high viz lurking right on the corner with a speed gun?

I don't recall there ever having been an incident on that particular road either.
 
BinnsY said:
Perhaps it's dependent on the car? I find driving at 20 notably more awkward than driving at 30 as it's in a spot that my car just doesn't feel like it enjoys doing. I will generally stick it in third but it's just on the very edge of that labored feeling you get when you know you should really be considering changing down.
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Possibly, but having driven several cars in 20mph zones, including my 350z and other more gutsy motors as well as yoghurt pots on wheels I can't say it was ever difficult to drive along at 20mph. I guess I'm just lucky. :)
 
Freefaller said:
Possibly, but having driven several cars in 20mph zones, including my 350z and other more gutsy motors as well as yoghurt pots on wheels I can't say it was ever difficult to drive along at 20mph. I guess I'm just lucky. :)
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This is a funny one, because I kind of get both sides of this argument - so I went a checked the historic on my data logger, and sure enough my throttle application at 20 looks a bit like a long lazy sine wave - I guess this just bothers some people more than others!
 
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