Campaign launched for nationwide 20mph speed limit as Road Safety Week begins

The problem with anything above 30mph is what the Police call the cartwheel effect. As you are hit the car travels onwards and you go over the roof. It's not just the impact with the car but the impact with the road behind the car which kills at higher speeds.

Wishing that 30mph could be respected is like wishing people didn't drink and drive. It was far more common for people to drink and drive before it was stamped on and a combination of police and peer pressure will achieve results with 20mph.

We keep looking at Holland and saying 'that could never happen here'. I remember the smoking ban and tablet pcs weren't a silly idea as well.

Don't contact your MP. They have nothing to do with it. It is the responsibility of your local councillors to implement it if you want it.

The best one I ever saw was the bloke on the TfL site saying that he was going to spite Ken Livingston over the congestion charge - by buying an electric car! That was Ken told good and proper...

Ridiculous.

They should ban people from moving at all

I have to agree with Scott Sportster '08. If you get hit by a car at 20mph vs 30 it isn't going to make a world of difference; you'll still be in some solid pain. I think efforts should be made to educate motorists and raise the standards we hold them to and not just try to slow them down. If they are talking on the cell it won't matter they will still hit cyclists.

30 is fine, slower and it's difficult to draft effectively and you have to keep overtaking the mobile chicanes (cars)

On my 5 mile drive home tonight I saw 3 cars go through red lights, one guy on a mobile and based on the speed relative to me, almost everyone was speeding in a 30. 20mph is all well and good but there just isn't enough enforcement. Drivers who break the law know there'a almost no chance they'll be caught, and if they are practically nothing will happen to them. I'd be a lot happier if we just put more effort into enforcing current laws, but would still like to see the 20mph as at least it might lower the overall speed

I'd rather everyone just stuck to 30mph when it's a 30mph limit rather than having 20mph speed limits.

Putting in more road furniture or leaving things as they are isn't an option anymore. Most of the misconceptions of 20mph limits can be answered by checking out the '20 is plenty' website.

To answer Paul W:

No traffic calming is needed as it's not a 'zone' but a blanket 'limit'. It can cost as little as £200 per road.

As for people not respecting the limit. I already practice driving at 20mph and none of the speeders are overtaking me on residential roads.... Once 50% of us are doing 20mph everyone will. They will have no choice. It may sound bossy but we've been asked to drive at 30mph and respect other road users and upwards of 60% of road users are taking no notice.

The death rate difference between 20 mph and 30 mph is on the website.

I wouldn't mind if people did 30mph but they're complaining that cycling isn't safe for their kids - whilst doing 35-40mph in a 30mph speed limit area themselves. This has to stop and if we can force people to cut their speed to at most 25mph it will be a big help - regardless of what the naysayers think.

Lets go the whole hog, make the speed limit 5mph and 20 on major trunk roads, look how safe that will be.

I support lots of 20mph zones, around schools etc. but why can't they then be 30 after say 8:00pm !, its not correct to have such low speed limits late on.

Also... I see more cyclists speeding past my local school than cars, breaking the 20mph limit, it is on a hill and congested.

Anyway, the issue is not fully speed, its crap driving standards, this is just a cheap way of trying to get around that fact, lets have a re-test every 3 years, lets have average cameras around towns, ltes have tougher laws for people who speed, bring the points ban down to 6 points, there are far more effective ways.

Pinch points can be made so that cyclists aren't affected by them - if the council bothers engineering them with cyclists in mind, and does it properly.

Like a lot of others on here I feel that this may not be necessary, if we enforced the existing laws, educated drivers and changed the "car" culture in this country.
I don't mind somebody overtaking me at thirty as long as they do it properly and safely. I believe there was a post recently on a similar subject where they stated rather 30mph with room, than 20mph and within a hair's breadth of my handlebar.

I think the 20mph limit in residential areas is a great idea. But I do ride and drive along a few streets where there is a 20mph limit. I've noticed that when I'm on my motorbike or in my car and stick to 20mph, there's often some frustrated twit tailgating me because they want to overtake, despite the fact that those routes mostly have speedbumps that beat the hell out of your suspension if you do top 20mph. When I ride them on my bike, they can also be dangerous due to those same frustrated twits using the roads as rat runs and weaving along narrow roads with loads of parked cars. I use a couple of roads like that in Dulwich in South London regularly, and they are dangerous whether you're on two wheels or four, because so many drivers don't give a hoot about the 20mph limit.

Basically, proper enforcement is needed, otherwise it's a non-starter.

An accident at 20 is likely to be less serious than an accident at 30, but I worry that the angry minority will a. grow, and b. go blasting past at 35 in frustration. Currently, this doesn't usually have a major effect, but if the majority of the traffic is travelling at the same speed as me, then I'll be sat in primary position when they do this. Potential unintended consequences here, I think.

Some of the commenst are not quite accurate. In Portsmouth (I was there recently), the 20 limit applies to residential streets, the through routes and major roads are 30 limit. No signs of a lot of enforcement, but traffic is slowed simply by thelevels of congestion. The real problem there (and probably in many urban areas) is later in the evenings when some drivers just tear about in the dark, with no consideration of consequence. Just when you need the cameras about!
So far as a 40 limit on country roads is concerned, Surrey has done this, and the net result is no-one bothers, as it's often not appropriate (long wide straight of over a mile, no junctions?) and enforcement is not done.
The whole point of having laws or rules is that evenyone can sign up and agree they are a positive thing, and if that does not happen and the laws/rules are essentially unenforceable, then it's not good law/rule making.
All law works by public consent, without that it's not going to work - so a PR campaign has to go alongside any proposals. And where is the money for that?

no point it just typing 'good idea' and 'yes i support this', for anything to happen to need to get your MP on the case.

get yourselves on www.writetothem.com
pop in your post code, write a couple of lines urging your MP to support it and press fire, that's pretty much it.

Its so easy it'd be rude not too

This is a waste of time. The same motorists that ignore the 30 mph limit will ignore the 20 mph limit. Money would be better spent on physical traffic calming measures to force speeders to slow down and prevent the creation of rat runs through residential areas.

What amazes me is that, and I quote, "More than three-quarters (77%) say drivers need to slow down around their home and school"

My question is...... Aren't many, if not the majority of this 77% all drivers themselves, who probably speed and make short cuts through other people's residential areas and schools?

20mph is a start but it then also needs more pedestrian crossings. And it's about time that this system was changed that gives motorised vehicles right of way on side roads when it comes to pedestrians and pavements.

Pavements need to be extended across side roads with cars asking permission to cross the pavement onto the main road (as in the Dutch style) rather than the pedestrian always having to ask permission to cross.

It really is about time the motorised vehicle was knocked off of it's throne and roads given back to the people.

I don't agree with this at all. Cycling doesn't carry a risk because cars drive at 30mph and not 20mph. It carries a risk because drivers don't effin' well look where they're going or before they pull out.

Thank god.

Now we just need country lanes to have a max of 40mph.