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news
20mph sign (CC licensed by EdinburghGreens via Flickr)“We warned that voting for these parties would lead to anti-car measures”: 20mph speed limit plan to “really encourage more cycle journeys” slammed as “nuts” and “extremely worrying”
A council’s recent announcement that it intends to reduce the speed limit in urban, residential areas from 30mph to 20mph – a move the local authority says will be “beneficial” for people cycling, walking, and wheeling – has been greeted with righteous indignation by opposition politicians, who have described the plans as “nuts”, “extremely worrying”, and guaranteed to “upset” constituents.
Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole Council’s deputy leader told a meeting this week that it was the local authority’s “intention” to introduce a “default” 20mph limit in built-up areas throughout the conurbation, similar to the widespread implementation of lowered speed limits in Wales last autumn.
The announcement comes three months after the council’s environment portfolio holder Andy Hadley pledged that a full consultation would take place before a decision was made on the matter.
This week, the Liberal Democrat-controlled administration’s deputy leader also indicated that meetings will be held with residents and campaigners, such as the 20 is Plenty road safety group, over the coming days to gauge the level of local support for reduced speed limits, the Daily Echo reports.
“Will BCP Council implement a 20mph default speed limit? Yes, that is our intention,” Millie Earl told the council meeting, adding that the local authority is “keen to hear the views of the whole community”.
““There will be some roads that are exempt on the basis of need and capacity. It is also likely that the roll-out will take some time working alongside communities and finding the needs for funding such a widespread change.”
She continued: “20mph, by default, in a built-up urban area would be beneficial to people walking, wheeling, and cycling and as highlighted would also benefit public health and air quality.
“I represent the Newtown and Heatherlands ward and we have seen the benefits of large-scale 20mph speed limits which were introduced in 2010 and extended in subsequent years to cover almost all the ward.”
The announcement was praised by Poole resident and Cycling Rebellion founder Adam Osman, who said the reduced speed limits would “really encourage more cycle journeys”, as well as improving health and reducing serious injuries and deaths on the roads.
“We need to halve the number of miles driven in order to meet climate change goals even if we switch all cars to electric,” he said.
However, the prospect of 20mph speed limits in residential areas was not met with the same enthusiasm across the political aisle, with local Conservative politicians rushing to condemn the “out of the blue” and “extremely worrying” announcement.
“Not only was this announcement before any consultation, but according to Cllr Earl was because ‘that is what the Three Towns Alliance councillors campaigned on during the local elections’,” Conservative councillor Phil Broadhead, whose tweet criticising the proposals – posted during this week’s council meeting – was met with several locals welcoming “safer streets”, told the Echo.
“Many of us warned that voting for these parties would see a return to anti-car measures, and this announcement, coupled with others such as the closure of Poole Park to through traffic, again without pre-consultation, shows that we were right.”
The council’s closure of the narrow Keyhole Bridge in Poole Park, referred to by Broadhead, came after Cycling UK launched a judicial review against the then-Conservative administration’s decision to reopen the road, which had been temporarily closed to drivers in 2020 as part of a bid to encourage active travel and provide pedestrians and cyclists with a safe route on a narrow, dangerous road hitherto used as a rat-run by motorists.
However, over the course of the following two years, the Conservative-controlled council ignored two public consultations, showing the vast majority of residents supported the road’s permanent closure, by choosing to reopen the underpass to motor traffic, prompting Cycling UK’s appeal.
Meanwhile, arguing against the widespread lowering of speed limits in his constituency, Poole’s Conservative MP Sir Robert Syms also added: “I would support 20mph near schools but a general policy I think is nuts. It is unpopular in London and in Wales and it will upset my constituents if implemented.”
While Sir Robert dismissed the widespread implementation of 20mph speed limits across Wales in September as unpopular, the initial analysis of the measure’s impact suggested a “dramatic” change in traffic speeds, with the results hailed as “astonishing and far greater than would have been predicted”.
An initial report by transport and public health data analysts Agilysis in the wake of the new speed limit’s introduction showed an average reduction in vehicle speed on new 20mph routes of 2.9mph.
Agilysis’ Richard Owen said the “marked” drop demonstrated that Welsh drivers had “on the whole” accepted lower speed limits and “have changed their behaviour accordingly”.
And Rod King MBE, a campaign director at 20’s Plenty for Us added that he was confident that the much-discussed move will make routes “far more pleasant for walkers and cyclists”.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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51 comments
20 mph means slow cars and commercial vehicles resulting in less aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance, producing lower rates of emissions ... that's also called physics.
Some vehicles will do worse at 20 MPH than at 30 MPH, some will do better. They're both near the flat range at the top of the MPG curve, bottom of the L/100km curve.
There is also the fact that drivers accelerating from rest to 20 instead of 30 mph use less fuel, creating lower emissions. I'm sure I read that 20 mph traffic is steadier, it surges less, which results in less acceleration and braking by each driver.
And of course if 20 mph means more people cycle or walk then it means fewer vehicles on the road in the first place so further lowering emissions (based on the current situation where EVs are a minority of vehicles).
And I'm definitely in favour of fewer dead children. And adults.
[ multiple citations needed]
Presumably by "physics" you may mean engineering and human factors? It's a little more complicated than that (e.g. TfL on this topic, this post on new research at the 20's plenty site).
Bus routes? They've rearranged lots I see - not surprising. Apparently there's some discussion about whether buses should be exempt. Personally I don't think that makes sense, unless e.g. they're putting in bus lanes where they don't get slowed by cars and other vehicles.
Emergency services? Do you have any data on that? The Senedd have you covered. They can go the speed they need, limited by the willingness of drivers to get out of their way. The change was supported by e.g. South Wales Fire Service. Presumably you're referring to some comments by a fire chief that firefighters might be delayed getting to the fire station and that might effect response?
It means less crashes and so less damage to their precious vehicles.
And less dead children.
You'd think - but because the accelerator pedal is magnetically attracted to the floor this means there's no time to look out the windscreen when trying to keep it under 20. Plus pollution.
Much safer and more environmentally friendly to build expressways everywhere for 50mph+ travel. America shows the way.
I didn't realise dead children where a metric .... Is that the best you can come up with .... you'll be telling me I'm a Nazi next ... oh and you and yours never use cars, delivery vehicles, HGV''s etc ... and your bicycle was not made in a robotic factory manned by modern slaves .....
Right ....
Are you as worried about emergency vehicles when you're the only occupant in your car & sat in a traffic jam?
We'll call you a nazi? Is that the best you can come up with?
Fortunately chrisonabike has rebutted all your other comments.
We're not talking about banning motor vehicles, just that they go at a safer and more appropriate speed on urban roads.
Which is it? Robotic, or manned by modern slaves?
Modern slavery is a scourge which affects much of manufacturing and other industries. Outrageous as it is, I'm struggling to see the relevance of this to driver being limited to 20mph on urban roads.
How to say "I haven't read any factual reports, just the DM" without saying it.
"20 mph means slow cars and commercial vehicles in low gears and higher RPM producing higher rates of emissions..."
What cars are people driving? I've never experienced higher revs at 20mph vs 30mph.
Emissions, if anything, have been lower in my experience.
The most important factor on emissions in urban driving due to its stop/start nature is the amount of energy required to reach the permitted speed limit from a standstill. It takes 2.25 times as much energy to reach 30 mph as it does to reach 20 mph. That's called physics too.
l
Isn't this just your opinion. Can you please let us know your competence and supply references and / or maths.
In my experience, driving an automatic camper in Wales, keeping to the speed limit was easy without over reving and fuel consumption was low. In my opinion many drivers need to learn how to drive economically in 20mph zones.
I think a cyclist should know how much more power they need to go faster or to accelerate up to speed in the first place.
Maths may be a little difficult for this one as he appears to have no concept in the idea that dead children can actually be counted.
I'm guessing his basic physics will be found to be a little wanting too...
It's like dead cats - an image so emotive that rationality leaves the building.
On the flip side that means that in fact x plus 100 dead children raises no more outrage than x.
In one sense we were unlucky - we "stopped de kindermoord" quite successfully, but "cars won". We kept all the cars and the speed, and "made kids safe" by moving all the kids away from any roads (and increasingly inside, except when in cars).
ah, nuts another Bournemouth Echo story with comments closed by mid morning because drivers are going barmy about this, absolutely haywire.
As a resident and voter in said conurbation, I can see the benefits of reduced speed limits, as long as they don't put speed jumps on all the roads. I live on a main road, speed limit is 30, but most drivers go between 40 and 50, unless they are in a queue. There are 4 schools within 1/2 a mile of me. The 3 towns have too many cars, and poor roads. Closing Poole Park to through traffic is absolutely needed too, so glad I voted against the Selfservatives
Wales wasn't first by the way even though it is invariably used as a reference, Scottish Borders Council brought in a blanket 20mph to replace 30s about 3 years earlier.
On a different note, be careful what you wish for, CTT (cycling time trials) have said that they will not sanction events that pass through 20mph limits, this will put many courses out of commision, leaving mostly the main dual carriageway ones. Possibly another nail in the coffin of a sport that is struggling at grass roots level already. If this is an safety / insurance issue (riders doing 30+ when cars are doing 20) then I suspect that triathlon and road racing may have to go the same way and we will only be left with a few expensive closed road events.
So, they made it clear what they intended to do and people voted for them anyway (unlike certain political parties who put stuff in their manifestos and then quietly forget about all those promises once elected).
Good on them.
Boohoo.
Good to see more brave political leaders following in the footsteps of Mark Drakeford's fine example, putting safety ahead of driver convenience, as it should be.
Crocodile tears for the opposition members from me. Anti-car? Cars are inanimate objects, I'd rather we ended road violence and ended the suffering of bereaved family and friends.
Exactly - decades of "anti pedestrian / cyclist " policy is obviously cool with these numpties
Proudly "anti car" - or is it more to do with:
The 4-5 daily road deaths, and a load more serious injuries; all of us always under threat of a sudden, violent end.
The destruction of all the travel alternatives - people driving who can't afford it or are simply too old to be safe
Air pollution curtailing lives - often of those who don't directly benefit from a car
Debilitating Noise pollution in the worst spots "I wouldn't wanna live there"
use of cars / vans to facilitate crime at all levels
The car-scape - urban areas designed to facilitate cars; lives bounded by major roads, scruffy car parks, horrid underpasses, roundabouts, one ways etc
driving is boring in reality - tiring, frustrating, often isolating
Politicians, why try to appease drivers? whatever you do, it will be spat right back at you.
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