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.
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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.
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.