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The need for less speed - 20 or 30mph?

Oh dear. At the grand old age of 48 and after 31 years of driving I recently got caught by a speed camera for the first time. Now I’m not exactly Lewis Hamilton, I potter around in a Prius. But I was taking the in-laws to Jane Austen’s house and didn’t spot the sign changing the speed limit from 60 to 50 mph. No excuses, banged to rights.

I had the option of points or doing an AA speed awareness course, and I chose the latter. I was dreading it as I thought it would be full of pimply youffs driving hot hatches with exhausts as wide as the channel tunnel. However it was fascinating.


One of the elements was a study of the effect of speed in an accident, and its impact on how survivable an accident is for pedestrians. To cut a long story short, the obvious answer is the lower the speed the greater the chance of not only surviving but also making a full recovery.


The course reminded my fellow old lags and I that if a road has streetlights and no repeated speed signs it’s a 30mph limit – even if it’s not obviously residential. And there’s the snag for the wider adoption for 20mph limits. The City of London and Birmingham have both recently voted for 20mph limits, but the problem is it’s expensive because of those repeated speeds signs. If they aren’t there, it’s 30mph.

A number of organisations and local authorities are calling for the assumed mandatory speed limit on such roads to be reduced to 20mph. That way there’s no need to spend vast sums on repeated speed signs. Only those authorities opting for a higher speed would have to pay more. Speed limits of 20mph in built up areas would catch on swiftly. Better for school kids, cyclists and the environment.


And those street lights send an obvious message – you don’t need to keep an eagle eye open for speed limit signs. Which is good if you have a car full of in laws talking about Jane Austen. That’s a truth universally acknowledged…

 

David Jinks MILT BA (Hons)

Publisher and PR Manager


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