More than 10,500 requests have been received by Welsh councils from residents to reassess roads that saw their limit lowered when the policy was introduced in September last year.
Police point to a drop in road causalities and crashes to suggest Wales’ flagship policy is working, although a recent poll said seven in 10 people still oppose the new limit.
One motoring organisation has said traffic calming measures like speed bumps should be installed to force drivers to do 20mph.
Welsh ministers said a 20mph limit would reduce deaths and noise and encourage people to walk or cycle when it was implemented in September 2023 - but it caused controversy with some drivers.
The limit changed on about 35% of Welsh roads - about 22,000 miles (35,171 km) in total - last year where lamp-posts are no more than 200 yards (183m) apart.
[…]
Statistics show a drop in casualties on 20mph and 30mph roads in Wales in the first three months of 2024, after the default built-up area limit was reduced.The number of serious casualties or fatalities has dropped 23%, and Wales’ largest police force says there have been at least 11 less deaths on the roads in their area.
I’ve talked to so many fucking idiots about this that don’t get it.
Look roads are for cars and we all did a driving test and we know how fast is safe. Numbers don’t mean anything.
I should be able to drive 60 down a residential if I think I can. If some kid gets run over then that’s their fault and their parents. Roads are for cars. What you expect me to slow down and be late for work? I was already late when I left and this is going to add minutes to my journey people just don’t think.
I know I’m a good driver, I’ve only ever got points for speeding and for drunk driving (but I was still driving well). There some fucking idiots on the road I agree but we shouldn’t all be punished. We need more roads so we can go faster that’s the real issue.
1 bump 😂, on the assumption this is satire despite no /s.
This is the united kingdom anyone that needs a /s should be taken out by firing squad at first light.
this has got to be some solid satire
Idk… He’s missing the /s
It seems satire tho.
Aren’t you too busy running a pub and a farm to be on here posting?
Well played.
True brother, its not my fault that cyclist run red lights and get run over, maybe there should be a ban on cycling down car roads like on the A55, this will let drivers go as fast as they know they can go, while not endangering cyclists who think they have equal rights on the road!
I don’t think we should let speedy drivers determine the limits.
Speedophiles.
(Gas) Pedalphiles
Yeah, but that only works in countries where you mispronounce any word beginning with ‘pae’.
What about countries which use ‘pe’ in place of ‘pae’?
They must surely be too busy confusing child abusers with foot fetishists for us to worry about it
I’m not sure what to suggest, you’ve had a few hundred years to catch up :-P
Forget it, let’s go watch some associations football instead. You call that soccer right?
I wouldn’t know, I don’t follow it or know much of its history. All I know is it dates back to the Middle Ages. Lots of history. And culture of our own.
Any motoring organisation that proposed speed humps should be ignored, as they clearly aren’t competent. Proper road design slows drivers without needing to impede emergency services or add wear to vehicles. Adding bike lanes or planter boxes to the road center brings the desired behavior (slows drivers) with literally no negatives.
Ideally the design of the road should bring the speed down. Speed humps, snaking S’s, flexible poles close to the driving area, etc
You can’t effectively legislate away a safety issue, using fines. Make the system safer.
This is exactly my issue. I’m not against 20mph in urban areas, but 20mph limits on roads that are clearly designed for 30mph (or more) are a lazy solution. Every subconscious instinct of an experienced driver on these roads will be telling them to drive at 30 so they have to consciously focus on the speedometer to stay within the lower limit for prolonged periods, particularly with the proliferation of speed cameras we have in the UK - my fear in a 20 zone is often now that I’m going to cause an accident because I’m so focused on the speedometer and not the road.
The right solution is to actually turn these roads into 20mph roads (not 30mph with 20mph limits) through simple road design measures that will align drivers’ subconscious perception of the road with the speed the government wants them to drive at. I recognise that this can’t happen overnight but I see no effort by local or national government to even start investing in the set of changes needed to make 20mph sustainable. If these roads just felt like 20mph roads then people would be a lot less annoyed at driving within the speed limit and the government wouldn’t just be stoking up a massive political backlash that will end up returning them all to 30mph and abandoning all the road safety and air quality benefits that these policies are supposed to deliver for us.
Set your cruise control for 20 mph, sit back, set your seat to ‘massage’ if you have that luxury, close your eyes, and enjoy the ride.
Fix: Calls made for 1500 streets to revert to 30mph.
Roads are for cars, streets are for people.
What?
I would like this expanded into England please
Edit: I mean I want more 20 zones in England.
In Greater Manchester, we have 20mph zones in suburban areas and side roads with housing. I think this is sensible and safe for families, dog walkers and the elderly, who walk around the area they live. However, very few people appear to stick to the limit, as enforcement is lacking. This is the perfect place for speed cameras, to enforce the local speed limits.
more dead pedestrians would normally be bad, but if they’re English it probably qualifies for the greater good
Tell me you’re a bigger shite than any sassenach without telling me you’re a bigger shite than any sassenach.
So edgy
Wales in just england but with the fattest town
I mean I want more 20 zones if that wasn’t clear
hmmm i’m not sure if you were unclear or if i’m just bad at literacy but in that case i apologize and agree
Probably the way I wrote it.
Waah waah not killing people is slow and boring waaaaah.
those are the people who would otherwise be running over your kids. maybe don’t listen to them
As someone who drives to and around Wales multiple times a year, it’s a poorly thought out and implemented policy.
Many people speed and break the limit, particularly on main roads, and it’s lack of popular support is an issue in itself.
The policy could work if the speed limits was reverted to 30mph on bigger roads but local councils and the Welsh assembly blame each other for the issues.
There is also little enforcment at present - that is changing and once people start getting fined for breaking the 20mph limit it’s likely to become much more unpopular.
It could have probably been implemented successfully and with popular support with more careful designation of 30mph roads. It’s a failure of politicians rather than the idea itself.
As someone who lives in Wales and drives, cycles and walks around daily, I think this is a great policy, but poorly communicated and has been a target by populist politicians which has fed into the discontent.
Many people speed and break the limit anyway regardless of the speed limit. In my experience about 80% of cars will be sticking to 20 - either abiding by the limit or stuck behind someone keeping to it. The majority of people speeding will only speed up to ~30mph, which will be less than what they’ll be speeding if the limit was at 30 originally.
It may vary by council, but I personally can’t think of any roads near me that could do with reverting back up to 30 (that haven’t already). Some main roads will still be 20, but then there are schools and residential on these roads which doesn’t make sense to revert - but some people will still complain.
Personally I don’t think this policy will ever have national popular support. It is a policy that directly affects someone’s day to day rather than a stat which makes it a perfect candidate for people to complain about (potholes are similar). This is despite polling also saying that the vast majority support 20 outside their own house (but outside other people’s houses should be reverted?).
I am kinda sick of how much this policy is brought up. It seems like every month there is a new article critiquing the limit and it is getting quite repetitive.
As someone who lives in Wales and drives, cycles and walks around daily, I think this is a great policy, but poorly communicated and has been a target by populist politicians which has fed into the discontent.
I agree. This is an outstanding, evidence-based policy of exactly the sort we should be implementing, albeit one that’s been communicated awfully and failed to be defended against the prideful ignorance of the populist right amidst Welsh Labour’s political turmoil.
I think I’ve accepted in my head that the similarly maligned Sustainable Farming Scheme will have to be watered down due to Gething’s misadventures and our consequent inability to defend even well-constructed, evidence-based policy against populist rhetoric, but I really hope the 20mph speed limit survives this painful, reactionary period at least.
It’s poorly thought out because entitled cagers break the laws?
This is sadly quite common, and I think by design in many places.
Rather than long, open roads having a 30mph speed and smaller residential roads at 20, the opposite is chosen, purely because councils know that they can put speed cameras there to make some money. Making roads safer through design costs money, and many roads where accidents are common are largely ignored.
It’s these tactics that feed into the hysteria that these measures are an attack on motorists. While I largely agree with the rules, many councils really take the piss. I was caught doing 24mph in a 20, but was able to overturn it because the camera was placed in the middle of a hill with a sharp enough decline to not make it legal to police.
They probably made a ton from that camera, all while the top of the hill is a small junction where people regularly crash - which is 30 and is only repaired when someone crashes into the traffic lights (not a rare occurrence).
Police point to a drop in road causalities
Freudian slip?
