I’ve read the Welsh tory complaints and what is being said in our media, there are some ‘glaringly disingenuous’ figures being used deliberately to mislead:
It’s not a blanket 30 to 20mph change
there are ‘exceptions’, many roads are the expected ie. schools, dense residential, care/nursing homes, hospitals, accident black spots etc
all roads are to be monitored for a impacts and assessment over the coming 12mths, so some may revert
The study undertaken before implementation went far beyond that which was undertaken in Sheffield (yes, England did it first and there’s currently 8 others areas under test in England). One important factor, and one that surprised the researchers, was that the average journey time only increased by a minute or less (think how much time we sit on jams). Other factors found that delivery/haulage traffic found other routes, more parents and kids walked to schools and air quality improved
I’ve looked at the interactive maps (Welsh g’ment site) and there does seem to be some nonsensical applications, but some you can’t tell until you go on ‘street view’.
Round here the roads are used like race and rally tracks, the yummy mummys park like they want to create hazards and often block the road. Our access road is a national speed limit lane and there’s always accidents, (I’ve had to rebuild our drystone wall’s multiple times) there’s a concerted effort to get the limit reduced but the council are deaf, dumb or both
Not all that "disingenuous" when 97% of Wales' 30mph restricted roads have dropped to 20mph !
To my understanding, this can reasonably be described as a blanket reduction with limited exceptions.
Many of the roads around schools, hospitals, etc, were already 20mph. These make sense, but speed limits could have been reduced selectively rather than taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
"Roads to be monitored ... over ... 12 months" smacks of a political statement which can conveniently have no effect. I'll believe the speed reduction has reduced traffic accidents when my insurance premium drops next year - some chance of this happening either.
I live in one of the trial areas which has had the 20mph limits since about March last year, so I have first-hand experience. Unless the researchers' trips were just a mile to the shops, then travel times will increase by a lot more than 1 minute - you only need the slower, more congested roads to slow you enough to miss one traffic light sequence and that's at least one minute added. I have seen no sign of delivery/haulage traffic finding other routes, and that's when living in a trial area - there's even less chance now that all the surrounding areas have 20mph limits too.
Roads are not emptier - a similar amount of traffic at a slower speed makes them more congested - and there is more pollution when you can't get out of second gear for large parts of the journey. How will increased congestion and pollution encourage people to walk, apart from for short journeys ?
Slowing cars to little more than cycling speed makes it more dangerous to pass cycles whilst keeping to the speed limit. Much better to pass cyclists quickly with a wide berth, rather than having to travel side-by-side for longer whilst concentrating on the cyclist and the road ahead. I have not felt safer to cycle within the 20mph limit areas.
Using roads as "race and rally tracks" will not be changed by reducing limits from 30mph to 20mph. If drivers are ignoring 30mph limits they will also ignore 20mph limits. Similarly poor parking will not be cured by speed limits. Lack of enforcement of existing restrictions seems to be the problem there.
