This is an email "bite" from a recent exchange of emails regarding speed limits:-
Hi xxxx,
I must admit I am fairly ambivalent about fixed speed cameras. But, by a speed camera I mean any device that measures the speed of a vehicle and is used for enforcement. Most of the hand-held devices also take photos. I myself would prefer randomly placed, covert and mobile cameras rather than fixed ones which every petrol head can have programmed into his/her “Road Angel” so that they can ignore limits on the rest of the network. The “howls of protest” from some about speed cameras, hence do not get my sympathy.
The issue for most vulnerable road user casualties is that they show very little clustering. Hence any data led retrospective engineering or speed camera placement will not resolve the historical collisions and will probably be in the wrong place for the future ones. We need a broader, area wide approach which will increase the awareness by all drivers of the need to moderate speed and action in order to not only increase the opportunity and time to avoid a collision in the event of an incident, but also to decrease traffic noise and pollution, and increase the amenity of other people using those streets.
Therefore lower speeds, particularly in residential and urban areas becomes a pivot point around which communities can debate the balance they want between maximising speed of vehicular transport and maximising amenity and safety. And once that debate begins and follows its course then most communities come to the conclusion that a 30 mph speed limit on residential and urban streets is not justifiable. We then get that “paradigm shift” when it becomes clear that Road Safety is about people and not highway engineering. Its about people realising that when we are driving in a motor vehicle we exist in a sea of individuals rather than a stream of motorists. We start to drive as an engagement with the rest of society rather than a disengagement. We recognise that “speed” is not the same as “progress” and that our journey times are dictated by the time spent at congestion and other stoppages and not our maximum speed. Of course once this is realised then suddenly so much of the “aura” that has been built up around motoring disappears and all those adverts are seen for be as shallow as they actually are.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not anti-motorist. But we do need to “normalise” our relationship with the motor vehicle and stop colluding with manufacturers who’s sole interest is in fuelling our emotional dependence upon their products.
I can quite understand there being a debate about the correct speed limit for a road, but do not agree with a “woolly” advisory limit that people can ignore with impunity.
On a related issue, readers in Bristol may be interested to know that they can have their say on traffic noise (whether it bothers them, what measures they would like to see to reduce noise eg. slower speeds, areas that are particularly affected, etc. The project is called Citizenscape and it's aim is to encourage people to discuss these issues and be heard. There are several ways to get involved. An on-line map at www.bristolstreets.co.uk/quiet allows people to plot their favourite quiet place and the on-line discussion forum is at www.askbristol.com/viewfinder. Feel free to get involved and make your views on traffic noise known.
ReplyDeleteYour campaign strikes me as the work of "busy fools". You make big claims for how 20mph versus 30mph will make roads a lot safer, but then acknowledge that traffic often doesn't travel at 30mph anyway. Due to "bends, blind spots, parked cars, junctions, pedestrian crossings" (from your justification for no significant increase in journey times). So, at points where drivers need to take care the majority already do.
ReplyDeleteYou should also read the Portsmouth interem report (google "portsmouth 20 interem report")
Change in average speed after introduction of 20 limits was -0.9mph and this was not stastically significant. 14 sites were still found to have average speeds between 24 and 29mph.
KSI casualty numbers stayed the same whilst KSI accidents increased by 2%. None of these results were statistically significant.
Regarding enforcement, google "no motorists fined oxford".
If you read the literature you will find that traffic speed behaviour is well documented. Your blanket 20 campaigning will achieve very little. You need to focus on the proportion who ignore existing limits and travel inappropriately quickly for the conditions.
I thank everyone for their comments.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the "busy fools" which Tom refers to, there does seem to be an awful lot of us.In the 2005 British Social Attitudes Survey 72% of drivers were found to agree that 20 mph was the correct speed limit for residential roads.
You seem to imply that it is only where there are blind spots, etc that people need to take care. Well the whole nature of residential roads is that you need to drive at a speed which is appropriate for sharing it with others, Hence a lower speed is appropriate on the whole road.
You can be sure that I have read the "Portsmouth Interim Report". Indeed I was at the conference at whichit was presented. One of the most important findings was that the average speed on the faster roads (with a before speed > 24 mph) reduced by 7 mph. The DfT said that this was statisticaly significant. It shows the benefits of an authority-wide implementation, engagement with communities and that community commitment to making the streets of Portsmouth a better place to live.
I understand that in Oxford enforcement will be used where there are particular problems with compliance.
Traffic speed behaviour is well documented. However very little of the documentation applies to authority-wide implementations of 20 mph speed limits.
On the contrary. Given the latest government announcements that it is changing its guidance on the immplementation of 20 mph speed limits, with particular reference to the methods employed in Portsmouth, then I would suggest that our campaigning has achieved a great deal.
Best regards
Rod King