So, here in the UK speed limits are popping up everywhere for the new 20mph speed limit or 32KMH in built up areas and this is because if you have an accident with a pedestrian at 20 mph then the chance of a fatality is almost nil. So, if I was Linford Christie then I would be better off getting out of my car and running. I'm not sure this 20MPH thing follows.
In the meantime here kids and olders folks are silently speeding like mad on their unlocked (derestricted) electric e-scooters and e-bicycles, 40Km/h, 50Km/h... without helmets, on the roads, pedestrian trails... silent killers. Police can't touch them, still it's not regulated here by law, on the other hand wherever I drive with my motorcycle here they are to stop me and check if my papers/bike are OK
Yeah UK with its narrow streets, bus lanes, bike lanes, speed cameras and extreme speed limits. IMHO one of the worst places in the world for car enthusiasts. I just hope this nonsense will not spread to the rest of Europe... and it was one of the reasons (albeit not the main one) why I left.
The UK is awash with narrow streets and pavement with parked cars and vans all over the place, but it also seems to have some of the worst speeding cretins to ever get behind a wheel, and i can guarrantee you on any 30 mph road anywhere in the UK you will have cretins pass you by with ease because driving standards on UK roads are abysmal, hell you will still see them on their phones or sitting around schools in lines of those jeep dropping their own kids off while making the same school road dangerous for kids on foot trying to get to school. ........so i guess something had to be done, whether it will work i don't know.
These "cretins" as you call them are pretty much everywhere. I've seen bad or reckless drivers in every country I've ever been to.
Well we can't deal with them everywhere, we can only deal with them here in the UK, everywhere else will have to come up with their own plan.
We have 30km/h limits next to schools and in some neighborhoods. But that is fine. We do have from 10 to 120km/h zones depending on the traffic, pedestrian amount and so forth. We also have speedcams and bumps and all that but it never bothers me really.
They don't have laws in England to keep people from frolicking in the street? That sounds like the easiest solution.
I'm fine with it, especially when going through an area with a lot of on-street parking or where busses frequently stop, you can't stop idiocy but you can at least protect and reduce any damage that results from it such as pedestrians running out from a hidden or obscured area - which this 20mph limit is all about.
It doesn't what is worse is, and I am assuming this is the new idea by the Welsh to introduce a 20Mph limit over the more common 30Mph limit you're speaking about, every single piece of data that has and was collected showed that the rational for them doing this is utter fallacy. The two key factors being that it will reduce injury if a collision occurs at 20 over 30Mph. Stats for 2019 (most recent I could find) showed that more people died as a result of lower than 30mph collisions than they did from higher speed 50 - 70mph collisions. Speed is looked upon in this country as the primary cause of all driving ills when the reality is it accounts for around 20% of incidents. The second reason being that it would reduce pollution, a fact that even their trials proved was incorrect as drivers ended up using a lower thus higher reving gear to deal with the lower speed limit. The biggest issue in this country is that they have just passed a series of new driving rules (laws) that shift the entire onus of blame on to the car driver. You're a pedestrian that wants to play in the street, walk out in front of a car without looking and you get hit guess what it's somehow the driver's fault now. Such as the recent introduction of mandatory speed limiting technology in all new cars yet again under the guise that it will somehow stop all car related deaths. The leading cause of accidents is drivers paying lack of attention to what they are doing, you know how you disengage a driver from what is going on around them? You get the car to do all the basic driving stuff for them which then leaves the driver with the false sense that everything is under control and when it does go wrong the driver is too disengaged to regain control in a safe time frame. Want too see a great example of this, look out for foggy or raining conditions and note how many people don't use their lights. When you ask them why I bet the answer will be 'because the car turns them on for me'.
Also, I've seen cities removing their digital warning signs showing your actual speed and replacing them with hidden speed cams. This way they will not warn you and just send you a letter week later to cash in on you. Let's not kid ourselves, a lot of these rules are about money and personal agendas. The only way to prevent all accidents is to stay still and never move a muscle. btw. I believe in drive assists those are fine, but I will never let an AI drive my car.
For those arguing about speed not being so important between 30 and 20mph, there's still such a thing of stopping distances... a 20mph stopping distance is half that of a 30mph. We're not going to stop drivers that want to speed, those drivers will continue to exist everywhere whom have no care for anyone other than themselves, this is all about protecting those that are vulnerable, stupid or not. A responsible driver will observe the speed limits and have the better attitude to being aware of the hazards around them and be able to take appropriate action. Heck, even if the speed limit is 30mph, in a crowded street full of hazards, you wouldn't be driving that speed anyway, you'd be more cautious driving at safer more appropriate speeds. https://www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/advice/stopping-distances
Their may be a different reason for this, it seems that the boy racers in certain areas use these indicated speed signs as a badge of honour so quite a few councils have removed them to try and keep the numpties under control.
Best way to make the roads safe is to get the hot headed bicyclists off them, and their stupid lanes, get the roads wide again and clear of insane obstacles. i drive for living.
Keep death off the road, walk on the pavement Keep death off the road, learn the highway code. Everyone using the road, even pedestrians really need to be aware of the highway code, education is the solution.
I think this thread is about speed limits and not about speed in general. Drivers should always drive safely and avoid accidents, but arbitrary speed limits are mostly irrelevant. It's also pointless to generalize breaking distances. Breaking distance depends on so many external factors like road condition, weather, car tires, weight of the vehicle, breaking system performance etc.. My car can stop from 30MPH in 13m. According to that website, I should be allowed to drive 30mph on 20mph roads. And conversely, during winter and on snow for example I wouldn't go faster than 15mph on the same road. Arbitrary speed limits will never cover all possible conditions. It's all about driver and how many information the driver has in the given moment.
