Why I support the Welsh Govt's new 20mph default speed limit

Thanks Mike for taking us through your experience.

Good points

I agree with all of that. I think the people who object to the new limits lack imagination - their unthinking assumption is If I can't see a problem there is no problem.

Mr Lipinski's anecdotal evidence would not have sufficed for any police or insurance report, so I see no reason for accepting his uncorroborated opinion of the matter. No doubt his ultra-risk-averse approach to motoring would prefer to see only autonomous cars on our roads, although these are not flawless in their safety performance either. No point in suggesting a return to pony and trap since these also presented dangers to life and limb, particularly in busy urban situations. Bicycles, as any cycle race shows, can have terrible accidents without any other vehicles around. No, the only alternative for private transport is clearly 'Shanks's pony' - just as long as we wear those special padded suits when we go out and are not allowed to jog! Oh, and if it rains remember not to take that lethal umbrella with you. It could have someone's eye out!

To say that the two examples given would've ended up with him in hospital is sheer fantasy. He cannot predict what would've happened had he been going 30mph. How did this delusional man get elected?

This blanket 20mph limit is ridiculous ~ 20mph is too fast for 2nd gear and too slow for 3rd and will add to pollution in built up areas.

This is too risk-averse. I'm a community carer and don't get paid to travel between visits. It's going to cause so much inconvenience travelling at a snail's pace - noone I know supports it. Fair enough outside schools etc. but this is ridiculous. Seems like just an opportunity to raise revenue through fines.

This is no less true in holiday seaside resorts, these should all be twenty miles an hour. Both side parking, delivery lorries constantly, kids, dogs, pushchairs, elderly folks appearing from between two lorries no chance to stop doing thirty, and those visitors who assume that just because the locals walk down the middle of the road they can ! Been there, got to know my MP. Bless him, "sorry Mab, I tried but your local council has the last word and they won't play ball"...

From the anecdotal weak evidence produced by this MS it shows a total lack of objectiveness and speaks more of his inability to drive a modern car on today's roads. The evidence for the reduction of the speed limit as a blanket law is extremely weak. This speed limit should be for schools and hospital locations only. The introduction will result in an increase In road rage and it will cost the welsh economy dearly. The cost of implementing the law is also taking away finance from areas such as health care. Secondly, inforcement is next to impossible unless there are speed cameras on every street. Perhaps an investigation into our AMs financial background to ascertain any link to any speed camera company?

Let's just all stay at home Mike and wrap ourselves in cotton wool. The labour government is a perfect example of the nanny state and why we have too many politicians interfering in people's lives. Time to have a cull of the amount of politicians and put the money back in the NHS. That will certainly save lives!!

You're an amateur.. if you look ahead you'd be able to see a car coming towards you at 30mph.. Don't penalize those who can drive.

Ian Botham was once criticised for fielding in the slips with his hands on his knees, Ian Bothams reply was do not judge others on your own reactions.,

The 20mph limit is going to be unnecessary and inconvenient in some places but taken overall it will save lives, reduce hospital and emergency services costs and reduce the costs due to the lost work incidents cause. It'll make pedestrians and cyclists less anxious and so encourage more to walk and cycle. It should also make choosing to use public transport a more attractive option. When it comes down to it much of the motivation against a 20mph limit is people just not wanting to change a long established habit of driving to a 30mph limit. Arguments such as fuel efficiency, lower productivity, increased pollution are in effect being used to try and legitimise a 30mph habit. Similar types of arguments were used by those opposed to banning smoking in public places. Including I think the daft prediction that smokers would erupt in a nicotine rage if they were stopped from smoking where they were used to smoke.

It's a speed limit and not a speed target, by saying had I drove at or above the limit I could have had a crash doesn't mean the limit is wrong just that the road conditions weren't right for that speed at that time, which is where the drivers judgement comes in. The biggest issue with lowering limits is that it incentivises the idea that it's a speed target, because that the speed most people will end up doing. Having a lower blanket limit also reduces the significance of places already designated with a lower limit, such as around schools, if you go from a 30-20 you start to think what's around that bend the sign is hinting at is it a school crossing, it also ignores times when a little burst of speed can be helpful for managing traffic flow and dangerous situations, twenty might be plenty, but when you need more you'll have to break the law.

20mph in some areas I agree with such as school areas but for the rest of the roads it’s a NO from me, has anybody taken into account that traffic at 20mph will create more congestion hence more confined area pollution the one thing we are trying to avoid. The next will be congestion charge because of pollution or is that the long term plan???

If he has almost had 2 accidents in a week just navigating the usual then he needs to overreact elsewhere and hand his licence in. Most of us haven't had an accident in a decade and all this despite hammering it about at 30 for well, decades. I suggest he calms down and reads the road better and indeed does 12mph in a busy high street but accept 30 should still be permissible and fine on wide roads with good pavements and few people about. Like many of our new 20 roads... Just wait for Go (stash your cash in a) Safe to start hammering us for 24 at 10pm on a dual carriageway :-( We should reject hyperbole and dogma and 'brave career making decisions' in search of truth and common sense rather than grind Wales to a halt on so many road and economy issues. But those days are long gone despite UK being top 3 in road safety for over a decade. There's no career or pension in that...

Spare a thought for pedestrians. If someone is hit at 20mph, they are likely to survive. If they are hit at 40mph they are likely to die.

Dont listen to poison ,it's to much, will not help anything ,just want cars off road

The plural of anecdote is not evidence

Will cars being driven slower reduce traffic on account of slower but continuous driving is quicker than quicker driving with lots of stops and starts? Will it reduce road traffic with more people walking/getting a bus? Will it make commuting a much worse experience with people needing to add 10+ minutes driving to their day and thus making people's work/life balance worse? Will it mean more people use bikes (we don't have the infrastructure for this yet) or e-bikes/scooters (usually worse drivers than those using a car)? Will it mean more people use public transport? Well one of the trains I should be able to get into work on time I cannot rely on because it never arrives at my destination when it's scheduled to - both usually late on arrival and slows down too much between stops. What investment into bus networks to make this a better experience? Prices of public transport aren't cheap. What will it mean for businesses? We don't have strong enough position to see businesses close down due to extra costs of transporting goods. So many questions and I'm not convinced by the argument that we should let people decide on street by street basis.

Most people drive to the road conditions, don't drive down a narrow street at 30. The man simply refuses to accept anything but what his boss tells him. If he was in hospital he'd have trouble,as most front line medical staff travel distances of over 20 miles.

It might be good for safety and the normal fine penalty might be OK as a deterrent but the current three points on the licenses is too much. Loads of people will start losing licenses and then their jobs being reliant on cars just to get to work. the points should be lowered from three to one if the speed is not excessive.

My concern is this lazy councillor drives 1 mile to his office and yet they say ditch the car because we are killing people and the earth. Muppet

I suppose it will be a lot easier at 20 mph for people to use their mobile phone.

Hedges are you certain twenty mph is enough? The WG thinking is we all will have EVs in about five years. Fact; EVs are heavy, very heavy, they way almost twice that of car's now on the road. If you hit a pedestrian, at 20mph you have a good chance of killing them. Where are we going to park? Multi storey carparks can't take the weight, I've seen a report that was leaked and carparks will need substantial amounts of money to get them up to standard and safety. I live in Swansea and three years ago and bought an EV. Yes the acceleration was brilliant, but the range was shocking. We got rid of it after about eighteen months, and it was almost worthless. We now have an SUV, just to get round the potholes. Once again the WG haven't thought it through.

This journal is so much pleasanter now it seems to be less of a deafening echo-chamber for people virtue-signalling to each other over the heads of us ignorant plebs!