20mph speed limit....for or against?

MaizieD I think people mean 'blanket' in the local rather than national sense. Our council has put a blanket 20mph limit on our village, covering not only the residential parts of the village, but also the main road going through it, which for all but a relatively short distance goes between open land devoid of habitation and with wide views, so that should a toddler get out and walk the quarter of a mile to reach the road with the purpose of throwing themselves under a car, they could be seen well in advance.

We also have speed limit jumps that go for 20 to 40 and then back to 20 in less than half a mile, because the road is between villages.

The speed limits in Wales aren’t blanket, that’s a misconception. The 20mph only applies to heavily built up areas where there is a risk to pedestrians. For example, a residential street off a main road is 20mph, whereas a main route through a village where houses are set back from the road with no stationary vehicles parked is still 30mph. It’s not perfect, councils have made some signposting errors, but taking the politics out of the equation it’s a sensible way of saving lives.

M0nica

MaizieD I think people mean 'blanket' in the local rather than national sense. Our council has put a blanket 20mph limit on our village, covering not only the residential parts of the village, but also the main road going through it, which for all but a relatively short distance goes between open land devoid of habitation and with wide views, so that should a toddler get out and walk the quarter of a mile to reach the road with the purpose of throwing themselves under a car, they could be seen well in advance.

We also have speed limit jumps that go for 20 to 40 and then back to 20 in less than half a mile, because the road is between villages.

You may think that people 'mean' that, MOnica, but looking at reactions I think that some of them take the word at face value.

It's no more 'blanket' than 30, 40, 50,60, 70mph restrictions which are in place where deemed appropriate. All of which people accept with no problem.

Thank goodness sensible people accept that there should be some restriction on the speed of lumps of metal weighing a ton or more which can seriously injure or kill fragile human bodies if they come into contact with them.

And toddlers aren't the only humans who are vulnerable. It's not all about children's lives, it's about all pedestrians 'lives. Not to mention cyclists and horse riders... Country roads are the worst because there is frequently no where on them for the vulnerable road users to escape to.

Of course there are going to be some weird speed restriction decisions, but we all have the opportunity to make a case for changing them to our local councils if we feel really strongly about them.

but we all have the opportunity to make a case for changing them to our local councils if we feel really strongly about them.

What remarkable place do you live in MazieD. Our county planners make the decisions, they think they know so much better than us what is good for us, we have no more chance of getting them to change their minds than we have of insisting developers build truly affordable 'affordable' housing.