It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
MK is exactly how you should do it. Fast roads between communities, with grade-separated crossing paths for walkers and cyclists, what we now call LTNs inside the communities themselves, the central area being walkable but with plenty of parking around the outside.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
Exactly. Driving in Milton Keynes: great. Living in Milton Keynes: not so great.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
When I visited Milton Keynes I didn't drive - I think that's the key difference.
Not sure why you would call that prejudiced?
I'm driving most days now because I'm living in a rural area. Cars are great. I'm not prejudiced against them. There simply isn't room for them in urban areas. So the only tricky thing is managing the transition between rural area and urban area.
There is room for cars in urban areas. Milton Keynes manages it well.
Maybe next time you go to Milton Keynes you should drive, maybe that'll improve your view and you'll find it less hellish.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
The move of the sign further out is sensible, because they know that your average UK driver who does not look beyond the end of their bonnet will be racing up to that sign at 50 or 60mph than stand their car on its nose to slow down, or continue through the village (and it is through the village) at highway speeds.
I'd say that 30mph is a sensible limit there IF the limit is obeyed, but it will be ignored - because that is seen as acceptable behaviour.
The real issue there is that UK roads are not designed to look like roads that are safe at the suitable speed limit eg through villages, so there are not the necessary visual cues for people driving through to slow down, and they go hooning through regardless.
That's down to the nature of LHAs being created to build roads, and ignore other interests - such as adequate consideration for pedestrians. It's also why junctions prioritise throughput over safety, and anyone asking for a Zebra crossing across a busy road to a primary school will be told in effect that not enough children under 10 have been killed or crippled to justify it yet.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
When I visited Milton Keynes I didn't drive - I think that's the key difference.
Not sure why you would call that prejudiced?
I'm driving most days now because I'm living in a rural area. Cars are great. I'm not prejudiced against them. There simply isn't room for them in urban areas. So the only tricky thing is managing the transition between rural area and urban area.
I think it's my upbringing in an area that relies on cars that makes me value public transport, cycling and walking so much. Don't take it for granted, but also don't forget the experience of people in those rural areas that depends on them.
The way we tax cars at the moment is deeply unfair and with VED coming to an end, and ongoing discussions around fuel duty, Labour have an opportunity to invert it.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
You very quickly get used to 20mph zones, we’ve had them here in suburban north London for years. Trust me.
I rarely drive in London, but did have to pop down last week. Although it's as busy as it ever was, driving around the city seems a lot more relaxed with the 20 mph limits than it used to be back in the 80s, when I remember it as being quite manic.
I remember driving round Milan in the 80s. Hmm. Not for the faint-hearted.
Wonder if Meloni has gone for 20mph limit (or whatever it would be in Kms)? Betrayal of a vital part of Italian machismo culture, if so.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
When I visited Milton Keynes I didn't drive - I think that's the key difference.
Not sure why you would call that prejudiced?
I'm driving most days now because I'm living in a rural area. Cars are great. I'm not prejudiced against them. There simply isn't room for them in urban areas. So the only tricky thing is managing the transition between rural area and urban area.
I think it's my upbringing in an area that relies on cars that makes me value public transport, cycling and walking so much. Don't take it for granted, but also don't forget the experience of people in those rural areas that depends on them.
The way we tax cars at the moment is deeply unfair and with VED coming to an end, and ongoing discussions around fuel duty, Labour have an opportunity to invert it.
Agreed completely, we should be completely slashing the cost of motoring which is far too high.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
When I visited Milton Keynes I didn't drive - I think that's the key difference.
Not sure why you would call that prejudiced?
I'm driving most days now because I'm living in a rural area. Cars are great. I'm not prejudiced against them. There simply isn't room for them in urban areas. So the only tricky thing is managing the transition between rural area and urban area.
There is room for cars in urban areas. Milton Keynes manages it well.
Maybe next time you go to Milton Keynes you should drive, maybe that'll improve your view and you'll find it less hellish.
You'd force everyone into driving, all the time. Great. The segregated walking paths and cycle lanes are just for show then?
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
When I visited Milton Keynes I didn't drive - I think that's the key difference.
Not sure why you would call that prejudiced?
I'm driving most days now because I'm living in a rural area. Cars are great. I'm not prejudiced against them. There simply isn't room for them in urban areas. So the only tricky thing is managing the transition between rural area and urban area.
There is room for cars in urban areas. Milton Keynes manages it well.
Maybe next time you go to Milton Keynes you should drive, maybe that'll improve your view and you'll find it less hellish.
You'd force everyone into driving, all the time. Great. The segregated walking paths and cycle lanes are just for show then?
I wouldn't force anyone into anything, there's choices available.
You are free to make your own choices.
Plenty of people do choose to use and enjoy using segregated cycle paths. If you don't like them, that's your choice not mine.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
Exactly. Driving in Milton Keynes: great. Living in Milton Keynes: not so great.
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
I still maintain this road near me should be a 40 https://tinyurl.com/5n7f524t got done for doing 36 about 6 years back.
One of the two flat roads in Sheffield?
I don't understand people getting "caught out" if they have gone past a 30 sign, either at the side or on the road - or in my case when the 30 sign is displayed on the dash as a further reminder.
(What I want is a bleeper that responds to detecting going over the speed limit, rather than over my preset value.)
But that's another one where "felt appropriate" speed for those who do not bother to keep and eye out does not match the posted limit.
Given that it's a flat road with a 17-18m corridor and a 11-12m carriageway, I'd put it on a road diet and add a two way mobility track one side, and perhaps some parking and trees. It could be a valuable aterial route from Sheffield to Rotherham for cycles and mobility aids (I'm sure I've seen some debate about that proposal.)
BTW why is the bus stop painted about 6 ft out from the kerb here?
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
When I visited Milton Keynes I didn't drive - I think that's the key difference.
Not sure why you would call that prejudiced?
I'm driving most days now because I'm living in a rural area. Cars are great. I'm not prejudiced against them. There simply isn't room for them in urban areas. So the only tricky thing is managing the transition between rural area and urban area.
There is room for cars in urban areas. Milton Keynes manages it well.
Maybe next time you go to Milton Keynes you should drive, maybe that'll improve your view and you'll find it less hellish.
You'd force everyone into driving, all the time. Great. The segregated walking paths and cycle lanes are just for show then?
I wouldn't force anyone into anything, there's choices available.
You are free to make your own choices.
Plenty of people do choose to use and enjoy using segregated cycle paths. If you don't like them, that's your choice not mine.
One of the problems with the approach in Milton Keynes is that the cyclists and pedestrians are thrown into a completely separate network, and so don't have the visual cues they would have from being beside/on the road to be able to navigate.
This isn't about personal choice, it simply doesn't work for cyclists and pedestrians in a town/city centre. (A completely separate route is fine for long distance routes)
I find your position on this really bizarre and doctrinaire. Your completely unable and unwilling to consider alternate points of view.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
The move of the sign further out is sensible, because they know that your average UK driver who does not look beyond the end of their bonnet will be racing up to that sign at 50 or 60mph than stand their car on its nose to slow down, or continue through the village (and it is through the village) at highway speeds.
I'd say that 30mph is a sensible limit there IF the limit is obeyed, but it will be ignored - because that is seen as acceptable behaviour.
The real issue there is that UK roads are not designed to look like roads that are safe at the suitable speed limit eg through villages, so there are not the necessary visual cues for people driving through to slow down, and they go hooning through regardless.
That's down to the nature of LHAs being created to build roads, and ignore other interests - such as adequate consideration for pedestrians. It's also why junctions prioritise throughput over safety, and anyone asking for a Zebra crossing across a busy road to a primary school will be told in effect that not enough children under 10 have been killed or crippled to justify it yet.
Bit in bold. The problem is, some people will obey a 20 limit and that annoys people.
Stick a speed camera in there and people will do 30.
I've been teaching my step-daughter to drive recently, and it is very noticeable that some people simply cannot stand to drive at the speed limit. My step-daughter obviously has to learn to drive at or just below the speed limit (since she'd otherwise fail her driving test), but whatever the speed limit, there's always some bozo behind who just has to get past and will drive right on our tail before overtaking at the next (barely) possible opportunity.
And while I'm on the topic, I've seen some of the worst driving about while teaching her to drive. The L-plates seem like a red rag to a bull for some people. They think nothing of driving right on your tail, or cutting straight across in front of you. And if a learner has stalled their car on a hill in front of you, sitting two inches behind their bumper and leaning on your horn isn't going to help them get going any faster!
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
When I visited Milton Keynes I didn't drive - I think that's the key difference.
Not sure why you would call that prejudiced?
I'm driving most days now because I'm living in a rural area. Cars are great. I'm not prejudiced against them. There simply isn't room for them in urban areas. So the only tricky thing is managing the transition between rural area and urban area.
There is room for cars in urban areas. Milton Keynes manages it well.
Maybe next time you go to Milton Keynes you should drive, maybe that'll improve your view and you'll find it less hellish.
You'd force everyone into driving, all the time. Great. The segregated walking paths and cycle lanes are just for show then?
I wouldn't force anyone into anything, there's choices available.
You are free to make your own choices.
Plenty of people do choose to use and enjoy using segregated cycle paths. If you don't like them, that's your choice not mine.
Overwhelmingly in this country choices are *not* available, which is a large part of the problem. That's why I usually argue from an equality viewpoint commenting on schemes.
It's also a significant part of the reason why elderly people with failing eyesight can feel a need to lie to the DVLA to keep their driving licences; they feel they have no alternative.
That can be seen in stats around, for example, why people do not walk, wheel or cycle, or feel they have no option but to drive their children to school.
It is also visible in the modal shares where infrastructure is built and choice does become possible.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
The problem Milton Keynes had - at least historically - was that because pedestrian routes were separated from roads, they became dangerous late at night. Muggers knew that their antics weren't going to be illuminated by passing motor vehicles, they could safely rob people.
(Disclaimer: this was a historic issue, and may have been solved.)
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
When I visited Milton Keynes I didn't drive - I think that's the key difference.
Not sure why you would call that prejudiced?
I'm driving most days now because I'm living in a rural area. Cars are great. I'm not prejudiced against them. There simply isn't room for them in urban areas. So the only tricky thing is managing the transition between rural area and urban area.
There is room for cars in urban areas. Milton Keynes manages it well.
Maybe next time you go to Milton Keynes you should drive, maybe that'll improve your view and you'll find it less hellish.
For all those of us who travel by train/bus/taxi, my abiding memories of Milton Keynes station is i) nowhere to get food/a hot drink late at night at/near the station, ii) the station platforms don't have enough rain cover, and iii) tent tramps outside the station entrance.
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
I still maintain this road near me should be a 40 https://tinyurl.com/5n7f524t got done for doing 36 about 6 years back.
One of the two flat roads in Sheffield?
I don't understand people getting "caught out" if they have gone past a 30 sign, either at the side or on the road - or in my case when the 30 sign is displayed on the dash as a further reminder.
(What I want is a bleeper that responds to detecting going over the speed limit, rather than over my preset value.)
But that's another one where "felt appropriate" speed for those who do not bother to keep and eye out does not match the posted limit.
Given that it's a flat road with a 17-18m corridor and a 11-12m carriageway, I'd put it on a road diet and add a two way mobility track one side, and perhaps some parking and trees. It could be a valuable aterial route from Sheffield to Rotherham for cycles and mobility aids (I'm sure I've seen some debate about that proposal.)
BTW why is the bus stop painted about 6 ft out from the kerb here?
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
When I visited Milton Keynes I didn't drive - I think that's the key difference.
Not sure why you would call that prejudiced?
I'm driving most days now because I'm living in a rural area. Cars are great. I'm not prejudiced against them. There simply isn't room for them in urban areas. So the only tricky thing is managing the transition between rural area and urban area.
There is room for cars in urban areas. Milton Keynes manages it well.
Maybe next time you go to Milton Keynes you should drive, maybe that'll improve your view and you'll find it less hellish.
You'd force everyone into driving, all the time. Great. The segregated walking paths and cycle lanes are just for show then?
I wouldn't force anyone into anything, there's choices available.
You are free to make your own choices.
Plenty of people do choose to use and enjoy using segregated cycle paths. If you don't like them, that's your choice not mine.
Overwhelmingly in this country choices are *not* available, which is a large part of the problem. That's why I usually argue from an equality viewpoint commenting on schemes.
It's also a significant part of the reason why elderly people with failing eyesight can feel a need to lie to the DVLA to keep their driving licences; they feel they have no alternative.
That can be seen in stats around, for example, why people do not walk, wheel or cycle, or feel they have no option but to drive their children to school.
It is also visible in the modal shares where infrastructure is built and choice does become possible.
Simon Richardson on GCN does a lot of interesting vids on urban cycling.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
You very quickly get used to 20mph zones, we’ve had them here in suburban north London for years. Trust me.
I rarely drive in London, but did have to pop down last week. Although it's as busy as it ever was, driving around the city seems a lot more relaxed with the 20 mph limits than it used to be back in the 80s, when I remember it as being quite manic.
I remember driving round Milan in the 80s. Hmm. Not for the faint-hearted.
Wonder if Meloni has gone for 20mph limit (or whatever it would be in Kms)? Betrayal of a vital part of Italian machismo culture, if so.
Meloni is against it, but Italian cities (like Milan) led by the centre-left are indeed introducing varying amounts of 30kmh zones - Bologna has a general 30kmh limit.
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
I still maintain this road near me should be a 40 https://tinyurl.com/5n7f524t got done for doing 36 about 6 years back.
One of the two flat roads in Sheffield?
I don't understand people getting "caught out" if they have gone past a 30 sign, either at the side or on the road - or in my case when the 30 sign is displayed on the dash as a further reminder.
(What I want is a bleeper that responds to detecting going over the speed limit, rather than over my preset value.)
But that's another one where "felt appropriate" speed for those who do not bother to keep and eye out does not match the posted limit.
Given that it's a flat road with a 17-18m corridor and a 11-12m carriageway, I'd put it on a road diet and add a two way mobility track one side, and perhaps some parking and trees. It could be a valuable aterial route from Sheffield to Rotherham for cycles and mobility aids (I'm sure I've seen some debate about that proposal.)
BTW why is the bus stop painted about 6 ft out from the kerb here?
My Honda has an intelligent speed limiter that detects the speed limit pretty accurately, it beeps if you get to an area where a reduced speed limit until you are below it again. It's very useful when driving in unfamiliar places where limits keep changing, such as London.
Toyota, on the other hand, are over the moon with their primarily hybrid strategy, which is now really paying off for them in markets that haven’t yet fully developed electric infrastructure.
Toyota were caught on the wrong side of the electrification wave by sticking with their FCEV bollocks for too long. Now they have, rather cleverly, not let a good crisis go to waste and have obviously decided to be the last one standing in the ICE business as it was impossible to be a first mover in BEVs.
Tesla look like they are heading into choppy waters. The Proud Boy Tony Stark is killing the brand by association and the tier one OEMs are finally bringing out superior products. A290, Ioniq 5N, etc. Their product pipeline is stale and just moves far too slowly.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
When I visited Milton Keynes I didn't drive - I think that's the key difference.
Not sure why you would call that prejudiced?
I'm driving most days now because I'm living in a rural area. Cars are great. I'm not prejudiced against them. There simply isn't room for them in urban areas. So the only tricky thing is managing the transition between rural area and urban area.
There is room for cars in urban areas. Milton Keynes manages it well.
Maybe next time you go to Milton Keynes you should drive, maybe that'll improve your view and you'll find it less hellish.
You'd force everyone into driving, all the time. Great. The segregated walking paths and cycle lanes are just for show then?
I wouldn't force anyone into anything, there's choices available.
You are free to make your own choices.
Plenty of people do choose to use and enjoy using segregated cycle paths. If you don't like them, that's your choice not mine.
One of the problems with the approach in Milton Keynes is that the cyclists and pedestrians are thrown into a completely separate network, and so don't have the visual cues they would have from being beside/on the road to be able to navigate.
This isn't about personal choice, it simply doesn't work for cyclists and pedestrians in a town/city centre. (A completely separate route is fine for long distance routes)
I find your position on this really bizarre and doctrinaire. Your completely unable and unwilling to consider alternate points of view.
Not remotely, if that's your issue then what's wrong with addressing it by giving more visual clues for the cycle network?
Having a different point of view is not the same as being unwilling to consider it.
Toyota, on the other hand, are over the moon with their primarily hybrid strategy, which is now really paying off for them in markets that haven’t yet fully developed electric infrastructure.
Toyota were caught on the wrong side of the electrification wave by sticking with their FCEV bollocks for too long. Now they have, rather cleverly, not let a good crisis go to waste and have obviously decided to be the last one standing in the ICE business as it was impossible to be a first mover in BEVs.
Tesla look like they are heading into choppy waters. The Proud Boy Tony Stark is killing the brand by association and the tier one OEMs are finally bringing out superior products. A290, Ioniq 5N, etc. Their product pipeline is stale and just moves far too slowly.
The Ioniq is the first non-Tesla mass market vehicle I'd buy. (My Rivian isn't really mass market.)
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
Those are the closest places we have, including where there are businesses etc, to the horrible freeways-through-town in the USA known as stroads.
For those, 30mph is the max which is realistic, I think. For an example, consider the A6 going into Leicester through Oadby. Anything with a limit of >30mph requires separated mobility infrastructure per national guidelines, for safety reasons.
(Major highways which have been cut through urban areas with no junctions or buildings on them, such as motorways in Greater Manchester, for example, are a different case I suggest.)
40 or 50 and separated mobility infrastructure works quite well. What's wrong with that exactly?
As too does having 40-50mph through roads with junctions or roundabouts leading to local roads, which is a very British solution not an American one.
It sounds fine in practice, but whenever I've visited somewhere which has that sort of rigid segregation between cycle/pedestrian routes and cars, such as Milton Keynes, the outcome is something hellish.
Designing urban areas to accommodate cars doesn't work. I can't think of a single town or city I've been where designing around the needs of cars leads to a positive outcome. But I can think of lots of urban centres where cars are mostly excluded that are delightful.
I think that's letting your own prejudices shine through.
I used to travel regularly to Milton Keynes and always found it very pleasant, not remotely hellish. I'd rather drive in Milton Keynes than London that's for sure.
The problem Milton Keynes had - at least historically - was that because pedestrian routes were separated from roads, they became dangerous late at night. Muggers knew that their antics weren't going to be illuminated by passing motor vehicles, they could safely rob people.
(Disclaimer: this was a historic issue, and may have been solved.)
OTOH, those underpasses seem to work really well for those Starship delivery robots.
Milan is going to near-blanket 20mph limits next year. Edit - it might already have done so.
Not true.
Oh really? I can't see anything online about a reversal.
I'll see if I can find something, but according to people actually living in Milan so far only a handful of streets have been made 30kmh, and the latest plan is to have streets going past schools 30kmh. This may or may not be a first stop towards a general 30kmh limit.
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
I am not quite sure how to express my view of that.
TRanslation issue? Hard to tell if he was using English - the wording is a bit stilted. It would be dodgy quoting him in quotation marks if he was speaking in Italian.
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
I am not quite sure how to express my view of that.
TRanslation issue? Hard to tell if he was using English - the wording is a bit stilted. It would be dodgy quoting him in quotation marks if he was speaking in Italian.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
The move of the sign further out is sensible, because they know that your average UK driver who does not look beyond the end of their bonnet will be racing up to that sign at 50 or 60mph than stand their car on its nose to slow down, or continue through the village (and it is through the village) at highway speeds.
I'd say that 30mph is a sensible limit there IF the limit is obeyed, but it will be ignored - because that is seen as acceptable behaviour.
The real issue there is that UK roads are not designed to look like roads that are safe at the suitable speed limit eg through villages, so there are not the necessary visual cues for people driving through to slow down, and they go hooning through regardless.
That's down to the nature of LHAs being created to build roads, and ignore other interests - such as adequate consideration for pedestrians. It's also why junctions prioritise throughput over safety, and anyone asking for a Zebra crossing across a busy road to a primary school will be told in effect that not enough children under 10 have been killed or crippled to justify it yet.
Bit in bold. The problem is, some people will obey a 20 limit and that annoys people.
Stick a speed camera in there and people will do 30.
I've been teaching my step-daughter to drive recently, and it is very noticeable that some people simply cannot stand to drive at the speed limit. My step-daughter obviously has to learn to drive at or just below the speed limit (since she'd otherwise fail her driving test), but whatever the speed limit, there's always some bozo behind who just has to get past and will drive right on our tail before overtaking at the next (barely) possible opportunity.
And while I'm on the topic, I've seen some of the worst driving about while teaching her to drive. The L-plates seem like a red rag to a bull for some people. They think nothing of driving right on your tail, or cutting straight across in front of you. And if a learner has stalled their car on a hill in front of you, sitting two inches behind their bumper and leaning on your horn isn't going to help them get going any faster!
People are bullying arseholes, especially when they feel safe from confrontation, such as in their car, or behind the boss’s desk.
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
Well Happy Birthday to me and a big one too. So big the Beatles wrote a song about it. Bringing the cat in, taking my statin ... when I'm 64.
The slightly disconcerting thing about that whimsical song is that they clearly think 64 is really old.
The same problem arises in Lukas Graham's 7 years, an otherwise good song:
Soon, I'll be 60 years old, my daddy got 61 Remember life and then your life becomes a better one I made the man so happy when I wrote a letter once I hope my children come and visit, once or twice a month
Soon, I'll be 60 years old, will I think the world is cold? Or will I have a lot of children who can warm me?
As someone who is 63 very soon this is not how I see my world. Hope you don't either and have an exciting day.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
The move of the sign further out is sensible, because they know that your average UK driver who does not look beyond the end of their bonnet will be racing up to that sign at 50 or 60mph than stand their car on its nose to slow down, or continue through the village (and it is through the village) at highway speeds.
I'd say that 30mph is a sensible limit there IF the limit is obeyed, but it will be ignored - because that is seen as acceptable behaviour.
The real issue there is that UK roads are not designed to look like roads that are safe at the suitable speed limit eg through villages, so there are not the necessary visual cues for people driving through to slow down, and they go hooning through regardless.
That's down to the nature of LHAs being created to build roads, and ignore other interests - such as adequate consideration for pedestrians. It's also why junctions prioritise throughput over safety, and anyone asking for a Zebra crossing across a busy road to a primary school will be told in effect that not enough children under 10 have been killed or crippled to justify it yet.
Bit in bold. The problem is, some people will obey a 20 limit and that annoys people.
Stick a speed camera in there and people will do 30.
I've been teaching my step-daughter to drive recently, and it is very noticeable that some people simply cannot stand to drive at the speed limit. My step-daughter obviously has to learn to drive at or just below the speed limit (since she'd otherwise fail her driving test), but whatever the speed limit, there's always some bozo behind who just has to get past and will drive right on our tail before overtaking at the next (barely) possible opportunity.
And while I'm on the topic, I've seen some of the worst driving about while teaching her to drive. The L-plates seem like a red rag to a bull for some people. They think nothing of driving right on your tail, or cutting straight across in front of you. And if a learner has stalled their car on a hill in front of you, sitting two inches behind their bumper and leaning on your horn isn't going to help them get going any faster!
People are bullying arseholes, especially when they feel safe from confrontation, such as in their car, or behind the boss’s desk.
My driving instructor liked my approach to people hammering the horn when I was doing 20.
I would, almost instinctively, slow down by about 1 mph, each time they sounded the horn.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Nope. It's just Denbigh and Flint have been apathetic about doing a proper in-depth study of speed limits, unlike say Gwynedd.
The reaction I'm seeing suggests this is pissing locals off more than tourists.
Compare and contrast to somewhere like Edinburgh, where almost everything inside the bypass is 20mph or moving towards it.
That map isn't correct. Of the 20mph zones I've been driving through, it's got Ruthin and Llanfiar MG but not Cerrigydrudion or Pwllglas.
Edit - on a double check, not Llanfair either
That would suggest they were 20mph limits already.
It might, but the signs all appear to be new. They might, of course, have been renewed at the same time, or only have been introduced just before. But if the latter, we're splitting hairs about the ubiquity of them.
Edit - I'm remembering that article you sent me by mistake for something else, about how important it was when changing speed limits to prepare the ground carefully and make sure everyone had bought into and understood the changes. The reaction I'm seeing here suggests that just hasn't happened. But equally, I seem to remember that wasn't a point of dispute.
I'm suggesting that much of the opposition to 20mph limits in Wales is based on false information. Indeed, what BigG describes as the perfect suite of speed limits is in effect what the Welsh government has introduced, given the very large number of existing exceptions (and perhaps more after the consultation).
Indeed, you've just demonstrated that a number of the limits were already in place, but are being falsely attributed to the new scheme. You can't cater for that kind of misinformation, and you either rely on your democratic mandate and tough it out, or capitulate.
Good morning
I would suggest you have no idea about the actual position in Wales both in public opinion which indicates 70% opposition to the way the scheme has been implemented from those actually living and driving in Wales, and you seem to ignore that the Welsh government itself concedes it is to change
You can go from 20mph to 30 mph to 40 mph back to 20mph over the Little Orme in a distance less than three quarters of a mie when the previous speed limit was 30 mph and 40mph
Look at the maps from Edinburgh as much as you want but that is not what is the experience nor is it some conspiracy theory that it is based on misinformation
Frankly the issue has been widely discussed in Wales by those living in Wales and the government have listened so little point in arguing an issue that the Welsh have dealt with
Hello BigG , hope you are well. We see yet again these anti - car nutters desperate to stop people being able to get around whilst they live in large cities and even different countries, they spout crap about using bikes and public transport. Bet they are worst polluters to boot as they fly off to the sun etc.
Morning Malc - thank you and considering my health issues I am very grateful to be plodding along
The argument over Wales 20mph zones has been widely discussed in Wales and recognised by the Welsh government it was not implemented properly and changes are being made
The conspiracy theory of misinformation is not valid as it is the day to day experience of Welsh drivers that has led to the changes accepted across the political divide and it has to be said nobody objects to 20mph zones near schools, hospitals, and villages
It is interesting that Starmer has avoided the same error by Drakeford and not mandating it for England from central government but leaving it to local councils to decide where these measures are best applied
I would just say about cycling there are many cycle paths now already separating them from road users, but in our area there are not a large number of cyclists on the roads anyway
Morning @Big_G_NorthWales (and everyone). Pleased that you are plodding along.
I'm interested in how you characterise the changes in the 20mph default limit initiative.
To me - and I've followed it though I'm not in Wales very often - the scheme introduced already has making-appropriate-exceptions as a feature already, and was a manifesto commitment for parties that received half of the vote.
So what they are doing is wait-and-see what Highways Authorities choose to do with the power to make exceptions, and they will be guided by data as it emerges, as well as local attitudes.
Politically I think that Reform Wales (what are they called?) in particular will try and use this as a wedge issue as their stuff about riots and the Two Tier Kier trope etc loses traction, as they go after the not-insubstantial former UKIP vote and Conservative vote in Wales. Lee Anderson has been noisy about their first Welsh Councillors.
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
How's that focus on growth working out, between the windfall tax and cutting investment to fling cash at the unions?
You don't want people to be paid a decent wage for doing the jobs you don't want (or can't) do? Why?
Train drivers and Doctor's are among the highest paid in the country already, what do you count as a decent wage £150K
Malc, PB Tories get the shits if a public sector worker gets a payrise, but feel a warm glow if Serco get their bin collection contract renewed. You're better than that, mate.
TFS, I do agree on Tories , but Labour are looking like they are just as hopeless. Them forking out in self interest is no better than the Tories. No problem when it is not their money they are hosing out. I hav elittle time for either of them , cheeks of the same arse with more faces than the town clock.
"Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Nope. It's just Denbigh and Flint have been apathetic about doing a proper in-depth study of speed limits, unlike say Gwynedd.
The reaction I'm seeing suggests this is pissing locals off more than tourists.
Compare and contrast to somewhere like Edinburgh, where almost everything inside the bypass is 20mph or moving towards it.
That map isn't correct. Of the 20mph zones I've been driving through, it's got Ruthin and Llanfiar MG but not Cerrigydrudion or Pwllglas.
Edit - on a double check, not Llanfair either
That would suggest they were 20mph limits already.
It might, but the signs all appear to be new. They might, of course, have been renewed at the same time, or only have been introduced just before. But if the latter, we're splitting hairs about the ubiquity of them.
Edit - I'm remembering that article you sent me by mistake for something else, about how important it was when changing speed limits to prepare the ground carefully and make sure everyone had bought into and understood the changes. The reaction I'm seeing here suggests that just hasn't happened. But equally, I seem to remember that wasn't a point of dispute.
I'm suggesting that much of the opposition to 20mph limits in Wales is based on false information. Indeed, what BigG describes as the perfect suite of speed limits is in effect what the Welsh government has introduced, given the very large number of existing exceptions (and perhaps more after the consultation).
Indeed, you've just demonstrated that a number of the limits were already in place, but are being falsely attributed to the new scheme. You can't cater for that kind of misinformation, and you either rely on your democratic mandate and tough it out, or capitulate.
Good morning
I would suggest you have no idea about the actual position in Wales both in public opinion which indicates 70% opposition to the way the scheme has been implemented from those actually living and driving in Wales, and you seem to ignore that the Welsh government itself concedes it is to change
You can go from 20mph to 30 mph to 40 mph back to 20mph over the Little Orme in a distance less than three quarters of a mie when the previous speed limit was 30 mph and 40mph
Look at the maps from Edinburgh as much as you want but that is not what is the experience nor is it some conspiracy theory that it is based on misinformation
Frankly the issue has been widely discussed in Wales by those living in Wales and the government have listened so little point in arguing an issue that the Welsh have dealt with
Hello BigG , hope you are well. We see yet again these anti - car nutters desperate to stop people being able to get around whilst they live in large cities and even different countries, they spout crap about using bikes and public transport. Bet they are worst polluters to boot as they fly off to the sun etc.
Morning Malc - thank you and considering my health issues I am very grateful to be plodding along
The argument over Wales 20mph zones has been widely discussed in Wales and recognised by the Welsh government it was not implemented properly and changes are being made
The conspiracy theory of misinformation is not valid as it is the day to day experience of Welsh drivers that has led to the changes accepted across the political divide and it has to be said nobody objects to 20mph zones near schools, hospitals, and villages
It is interesting that Starmer has avoided the same error by Drakeford and not mandating it for England from central government but leaving it to local councils to decide where these measures are best applied
I would just say about cycling there are many cycle paths now already separating them from road users, but in our area there are not a large number of cyclists on the roads anyway
If they get the chance no doubt SNP would implement willy nilly.
Well Happy Birthday to me and a big one too. So big the Beatles wrote a song about it. Bringing the cat in, taking my statin ... when I'm 64.
The slightly disconcerting thing about that whimsical song is that they clearly think 64 is really old.
The same problem arises in Lukas Graham's 7 years, an otherwise good song:
Soon, I'll be 60 years old, my daddy got 61 Remember life and then your life becomes a better one I made the man so happy when I wrote a letter once I hope my children come and visit, once or twice a month
Soon, I'll be 60 years old, will I think the world is cold? Or will I have a lot of children who can warm me?
As someone who is 63 very soon this is not how I see my world. Hope you don't either and have an exciting day.
If you've reasonable health, the years between 60 and 80 are pretty good. All sorts of things you can do, clubs, societies, activities. And, again an assumption, if you've got enough money .... not a lot ..... but enough to mean you're warm, well fed and watered, and, if you want to, travel a bit, life can be good.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
The move of the sign further out is sensible, because they know that your average UK driver who does not look beyond the end of their bonnet will be racing up to that sign at 50 or 60mph than stand their car on its nose to slow down, or continue through the village (and it is through the village) at highway speeds.
I'd say that 30mph is a sensible limit there IF the limit is obeyed, but it will be ignored - because that is seen as acceptable behaviour.
The real issue there is that UK roads are not designed to look like roads that are safe at the suitable speed limit eg through villages, so there are not the necessary visual cues for people driving through to slow down, and they go hooning through regardless.
That's down to the nature of LHAs being created to build roads, and ignore other interests - such as adequate consideration for pedestrians. It's also why junctions prioritise throughput over safety, and anyone asking for a Zebra crossing across a busy road to a primary school will be told in effect that not enough children under 10 have been killed or crippled to justify it yet.
Bit in bold. The problem is, some people will obey a 20 limit and that annoys people.
Stick a speed camera in there and people will do 30.
I've been teaching my step-daughter to drive recently, and it is very noticeable that some people simply cannot stand to drive at the speed limit. My step-daughter obviously has to learn to drive at or just below the speed limit (since she'd otherwise fail her driving test), but whatever the speed limit, there's always some bozo behind who just has to get past and will drive right on our tail before overtaking at the next (barely) possible opportunity.
And while I'm on the topic, I've seen some of the worst driving about while teaching her to drive. The L-plates seem like a red rag to a bull for some people. They think nothing of driving right on your tail, or cutting straight across in front of you. And if a learner has stalled their car on a hill in front of you, sitting two inches behind their bumper and leaning on your horn isn't going to help them get going any faster!
People are bullying arseholes, especially when they feel safe from confrontation, such as in their car, or behind the boss’s desk.
My driving instructor liked my approach to people hammering the horn when I was doing 20.
I would, almost instinctively, slow down by about 1 mph, each time they sounded the horn.
I let them pass.
As a general rule I like dangerous idiots in front of me so I can watch them, rather than behind me where they are likely to rear-end me.
Well Happy Birthday to me and a big one too. So big the Beatles wrote a song about it. Bringing the cat in, taking my statin ... when I'm 64.
The slightly disconcerting thing about that whimsical song is that they clearly think 64 is really old.
The same problem arises in Lukas Graham's 7 years, an otherwise good song:
Soon, I'll be 60 years old, my daddy got 61 Remember life and then your life becomes a better one I made the man so happy when I wrote a letter once I hope my children come and visit, once or twice a month
Soon, I'll be 60 years old, will I think the world is cold? Or will I have a lot of children who can warm me?
As someone who is 63 very soon this is not how I see my world. Hope you don't either and have an exciting day.
If you've reasonable health, the years between 60 and 80 are pretty good. All sorts of things you can do, clubs, societies, activities. And, again an assumption, if you've got enough money .... not a lot ..... but enough to mean you're warm, well fed and watered, and, if you want to, travel a bit, life can be good.
More years in our life and more life in our years are what me and the Mrs are working towards!
Not great headline - many more costly drugs are approved by NICE. The issue is that the benefits are judged not to justify the cost. May also not be the end of the issue as it's not unknown for further negotiations after such a decision to find a price at which it is cost effective (although that will depend on whether the maker thinks there's more money in keeping the price higher elsewhere).
I have some personal interest in this, having a parent with diagnosed (mixed vascular and) Alzheimer's dementia. However, I think she's too far progressed for this and is ruled out on other health grounds/medications anyway.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
The move is sensible, because they know that your average UK driver who does not look beyond the end of their bonnet will be racing up to that sign at 50 or 60mph than stand their car on its nose to slow down.
The real issue there is that UK roads are not designed to look like roads that are safe at the suitable speed limit eg through villages, so there are not the necessary visual cues for people driving through to slow down, and they go hooning through regardless.
That's down to the nature of LHAs being created to build roads, and ignore other interests - such as adequate consideration for pedestrians. It's also why junctions prioritise throughput over safety, and anyone asking for a Zebra crossing across a busy road to a primary school will be told in effect that not enough children under 10 have been killed or crippled to justify it yet.
Beyond the entrance to the estate? That's absurd, why should the main road outside the estate be a 20?
Inside the estate, sure, drive slowly on residential streets. But if you're driving past and not on the estate? Then keep driving past it.
Your whole argument for LTNs and one I can respect and agree with is it separates the residential from the traffic, but that becomes moot if you're making the main road be classed the same as the estate, its not.
Note I said I think 30mph would be appropriate there for the main road, not 20mph. I'd have left the limit at 30 and moved it further out of the village as the built-up zone expands.
(Aside: I didn't mention LTNs, though you are correct about my view. BTW LHA is Local Highways Authority - sorry, should have mentioned.)
The entrance to the estate is better into a 30mph limit on the major road rather than a 60mph because there will be something like 2-4 turning manoeuvres per day per household into and out of that estate road (standard road design assumption), and we know that junctions are where most collisions happen, and that they are significantly more dangerous into higher speed than lower speed major roads.
That's established design practise for safety, and reduced speed limits near junctions are a routine practise by Highways Authorities.
So extending the lower speed limit to beyond the entrance from the estate seems sensible.
That would be great. One of my grandchildren, having just got his degree, wants to see a bit of the world before settling down, and at time of writing is planning to go to Australia for a year or so. That seems, apparently, his nearest practical option. He doesn't fancy N. America.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
The move of the sign further out is sensible, because they know that your average UK driver who does not look beyond the end of their bonnet will be racing up to that sign at 50 or 60mph than stand their car on its nose to slow down, or continue through the village (and it is through the village) at highway speeds.
I'd say that 30mph is a sensible limit there IF the limit is obeyed, but it will be ignored - because that is seen as acceptable behaviour.
The real issue there is that UK roads are not designed to look like roads that are safe at the suitable speed limit eg through villages, so there are not the necessary visual cues for people driving through to slow down, and they go hooning through regardless.
That's down to the nature of LHAs being created to build roads, and ignore other interests - such as adequate consideration for pedestrians. It's also why junctions prioritise throughput over safety, and anyone asking for a Zebra crossing across a busy road to a primary school will be told in effect that not enough children under 10 have been killed or crippled to justify it yet.
Bit in bold. The problem is, some people will obey a 20 limit and that annoys people.
Stick a speed camera in there and people will do 30.
I've been teaching my step-daughter to drive recently, and it is very noticeable that some people simply cannot stand to drive at the speed limit. My step-daughter obviously has to learn to drive at or just below the speed limit (since she'd otherwise fail her driving test), but whatever the speed limit, there's always some bozo behind who just has to get past and will drive right on our tail before overtaking at the next (barely) possible opportunity.
And while I'm on the topic, I've seen some of the worst driving about while teaching her to drive. The L-plates seem like a red rag to a bull for some people. They think nothing of driving right on your tail, or cutting straight across in front of you. And if a learner has stalled their car on a hill in front of you, sitting two inches behind their bumper and leaning on your horn isn't going to help them get going any faster!
I hope she does well.
Can I recommend the Ashley Neal Youtube channel, which is very good because he spends much time reviewing particular situations and reflecting on what could have been done better - and he is an Instruct the Instructors Instructor (so to speak). And the comments section is quite knowledgeable and civilised.
It's great for learners, as she will get extra perspectives over your own (and we all have blind spots).
I identify with the "learners get bullied by MGIFers" comment. Around here I see in media reports too many inexperienced drivers (say <5 years) driving to the speed limit not the conditions - we have a lot of dips and hollows in Notts / Derbys which have moisture and ice and they go in at near the limit, and lose control. When I was 17 and 8 months, I spun the family car off a just-about-frozen roundabout, which did not make me popular.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
The move of the sign further out is sensible, because they know that your average UK driver who does not look beyond the end of their bonnet will be racing up to that sign at 50 or 60mph than stand their car on its nose to slow down, or continue through the village (and it is through the village) at highway speeds.
I'd say that 30mph is a sensible limit there IF the limit is obeyed, but it will be ignored - because that is seen as acceptable behaviour.
The real issue there is that UK roads are not designed to look like roads that are safe at the suitable speed limit eg through villages, so there are not the necessary visual cues for people driving through to slow down, and they go hooning through regardless.
That's down to the nature of LHAs being created to build roads, and ignore other interests - such as adequate consideration for pedestrians. It's also why junctions prioritise throughput over safety, and anyone asking for a Zebra crossing across a busy road to a primary school will be told in effect that not enough children under 10 have been killed or crippled to justify it yet.
Bit in bold. The problem is, some people will obey a 20 limit and that annoys people.
Stick a speed camera in there and people will do 30.
I've been teaching my step-daughter to drive recently, and it is very noticeable that some people simply cannot stand to drive at the speed limit. My step-daughter obviously has to learn to drive at or just below the speed limit (since she'd otherwise fail her driving test), but whatever the speed limit, there's always some bozo behind who just has to get past and will drive right on our tail before overtaking at the next (barely) possible opportunity.
And while I'm on the topic, I've seen some of the worst driving about while teaching her to drive. The L-plates seem like a red rag to a bull for some people. They think nothing of driving right on your tail, or cutting straight across in front of you. And if a learner has stalled their car on a hill in front of you, sitting two inches behind their bumper and leaning on your horn isn't going to help them get going any faster!
People are bullying arseholes, especially when they feel safe from confrontation, such as in their car, or behind the boss’s desk.
My driving instructor liked my approach to people hammering the horn when I was doing 20.
I would, almost instinctively, slow down by about 1 mph, each time they sounded the horn.
I let them pass.
As a general rule I like dangerous idiots in front of me so I can watch them, rather than behind me where they are likely to rear-end me.
Letting people in is the best way to drive even if they're in the wrong.
The flipside is using the invariably empty lane for a road merger, don't be the arsehole hanging wheels over the white line to "block" people coming up the other lane in some sort of weird non highway code compliant moral queueing protocol.
That would be great. One of my grandchildren, having just got his degree, wants to see a bit of the world before settling down, and at time of writing is planning to go to Australia for a year or so. That seems, apparently, his nearest practical option. He doesn't fancy N. America.
I know I keep banging on about this - but for 95% of us, a country which speaks the same language is a far more practical option for living/working abroad than a country which happens to be close.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
The move of the sign further out is sensible, because they know that your average UK driver who does not look beyond the end of their bonnet will be racing up to that sign at 50 or 60mph than stand their car on its nose to slow down, or continue through the village (and it is through the village) at highway speeds.
I'd say that 30mph is a sensible limit there IF the limit is obeyed, but it will be ignored - because that is seen as acceptable behaviour.
The real issue there is that UK roads are not designed to look like roads that are safe at the suitable speed limit eg through villages, so there are not the necessary visual cues for people driving through to slow down, and they go hooning through regardless.
That's down to the nature of LHAs being created to build roads, and ignore other interests - such as adequate consideration for pedestrians. It's also why junctions prioritise throughput over safety, and anyone asking for a Zebra crossing across a busy road to a primary school will be told in effect that not enough children under 10 have been killed or crippled to justify it yet.
Bit in bold. The problem is, some people will obey a 20 limit and that annoys people.
Stick a speed camera in there and people will do 30.
I've been teaching my step-daughter to drive recently, and it is very noticeable that some people simply cannot stand to drive at the speed limit. My step-daughter obviously has to learn to drive at or just below the speed limit (since she'd otherwise fail her driving test), but whatever the speed limit, there's always some bozo behind who just has to get past and will drive right on our tail before overtaking at the next (barely) possible opportunity.
And while I'm on the topic, I've seen some of the worst driving about while teaching her to drive. The L-plates seem like a red rag to a bull for some people. They think nothing of driving right on your tail, or cutting straight across in front of you. And if a learner has stalled their car on a hill in front of you, sitting two inches behind their bumper and leaning on your horn isn't going to help them get going any faster!
People are bullying arseholes, especially when they feel safe from confrontation, such as in their car, or behind the boss’s desk.
My driving instructor liked my approach to people hammering the horn when I was doing 20.
I would, almost instinctively, slow down by about 1 mph, each time they sounded the horn.
I let them pass.
As a general rule I like dangerous idiots in front of me so I can watch them, rather than behind me where they are likely to rear-end me.
Letting people in is the best way to drive even if they're in the wrong.
The flipside is using the invariably empty lane for a road merger, don't be the arsehole hanging wheels over the white line to "block" people coming up the other lane in some sort of weird non highway code compliant moral queueing protocol.
That one annoys me. Using both lanes is quite explicitly the rule!
That would be great. One of my grandchildren, having just got his degree, wants to see a bit of the world before settling down, and at time of writing is planning to go to Australia for a year or so. That seems, apparently, his nearest practical option. He doesn't fancy N. America.
I know I keep banging on about this - but for 95% of us, a country which speaks the same language is a far more practical option for living/working abroad than a country which happens to be close.
Which is why I was reasonably effective when I was working in Copenhagen and Amsterdam. You can do post-graduate studies in English in lots of European countries too.
That would be great. One of my grandchildren, having just got his degree, wants to see a bit of the world before settling down, and at time of writing is planning to go to Australia for a year or so. That seems, apparently, his nearest practical option. He doesn't fancy N. America.
I know I keep banging on about this - but for 95% of us, a country which speaks the same language is a far more practical option for living/working abroad than a country which happens to be close.
It would do wonders for language teaching in this country for a start. During my working life I hosted, or participated in hosting, students from various European countries, most of who spoke quite good English and it was a pleasure to see the interest they took in the world around them.
Imagine if they had offered some similar constructive ideas to Cameron BEFORE the referendum happened...
We would still have left. It was in the stars.
No, we left because Cameron came back with a shit "renegotation", got defensive when this was pointed out and then pissed off his should-have-been Remainers with his wank about European wars, etc etc etc.
I know, I was one of those should-have-been Remainers.
Can I recommend the Ashley Neal Youtube channel, which is very good because he spends much time reviewing particular situations and reflecting on what could have been done better - and he is an Instruct the Instructors Instructor (so to speak). And the comments section is quite knowledgeable and civilised.
It's great for learners, as she will get extra perspectives over your own (and we all have blind spots).
I identify with the "learners get bullied by MGIFers" comment. Around here I see in media reports too many inexperienced drivers (say
Yes, I find Ashley Neal's channel extremely useful, and it's good that he also gets on his bike sometimes to give the perspective from that side. My step-daughter's getting on alright and can drive perfectly well on an empty road, but she does get very nervous when other cars are following behind, especially if they are close. And when she's nervous, she starts to make mistakes. It's probably about time she started having some lessons with a proper driving instructor now.
P.S. Something weird was happening with the block quote chain, so I had to delete them.
"These numbers are a real mess. The recession in Germany’s manufacturing sector deepened in August, with no recovery in sight. In fact, new orders took a sharper dive than last month, mainly due to a significant drop in foreign demand, signalling more trouble ahead. Given this, it’s hardly surprising that companies are ramping up staff cuts and slashing inventories of inputs even more aggressively than before.
“The struggles in manufacturing are starting to spill over into the otherwise steady services sector. For the third month in a row, services activity growth has slowed down. New business is barely growing, and backlogs declined once again. The export side of services, including tourism, isn’t offering much support either, shrinking at an even faster rate than in July."
It's hard to see how they can compete with China moving up the value chain in manufacturing. They're going to be left behind in car exports soon:
Perhaps Germany should have spent as much effort in developing electric cars as they did in cheating on diesel emissions.
Both the US and German manufacturers thought they could make the transition for ICE to electric at their convenience, while maintaining profit margins. It doesn't work like that in the modern world, as any business in the tech sector has known for decades.
And it makes little sense to complain about Chinese subsidies for their industry, when the west has (quite rightly) been arguing for subsidies to make the transition to renewables. China just decided to go for ir before we did.
Both US and European manufacturers are reassessing what they need to do, as they start to realise how far behind they are. For some, it will be too late.
If Keir Starmer resigns today he will be the UK's shortest ever serving Prime Minister. If he makes it through to Saturday it will still be Liz Truss.
2 worst PMs since Boris 😫
Genuine question, BJO, What would labour need to do to get your vote at the next election?
What would Starmer need to do?
If it were realistically a choice between Farage v. Starmer on voting day (not that I necessarily think it likely, but in that hypothetical scenario....) in which box would you place your all-important "X"
"These numbers are a real mess. The recession in Germany’s manufacturing sector deepened in August, with no recovery in sight. In fact, new orders took a sharper dive than last month, mainly due to a significant drop in foreign demand, signalling more trouble ahead. Given this, it’s hardly surprising that companies are ramping up staff cuts and slashing inventories of inputs even more aggressively than before.
“The struggles in manufacturing are starting to spill over into the otherwise steady services sector. For the third month in a row, services activity growth has slowed down. New business is barely growing, and backlogs declined once again. The export side of services, including tourism, isn’t offering much support either, shrinking at an even faster rate than in July."
It's hard to see how they can compete with China moving up the value chain in manufacturing. They're going to be left behind in car exports soon:
Perhaps Germany should have spent as much effort in developing electric cars as they did in cheating on diesel emissions.
It's ironic that BMW created the first electric car that Jeremy Clarkson preferred to a petrol one (the i8), and then they effectively abandoned the space, just before it took off.
The other thing I find impressive about that chart is how well the Japanese have turned things around, given they were *very* late to the game with electric, having abandoned the Leaf, and having gone down a number of dead ends like the hydrogen powered Mirai.
With Panasonic, though they weren't late at all in battery manufacturing.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
The move is sensible, because they know that your average UK driver who does not look beyond the end of their bonnet will be racing up to that sign at 50 or 60mph than stand their car on its nose to slow down.
The real issue there is that UK roads are not designed to look like roads that are safe at the suitable speed limit eg through villages, so there are not the necessary visual cues for people driving through to slow down, and they go hooning through regardless.
That's down to the nature of LHAs being created to build roads, and ignore other interests - such as adequate consideration for pedestrians. It's also why junctions prioritise throughput over safety, and anyone asking for a Zebra crossing across a busy road to a primary school will be told in effect that not enough children under 10 have been killed or crippled to justify it yet.
Beyond the entrance to the estate? That's absurd, why should the main road outside the estate be a 20?
Inside the estate, sure, drive slowly on residential streets. But if you're driving past and not on the estate? Then keep driving past it.
Your whole argument for LTNs and one I can respect and agree with is it separates the residential from the traffic, but that becomes moot if you're making the main road be classed the same as the estate, its not.
Note I said I think 30mph would be appropriate there for the main road, not 20mph. I'd have left the limit at 30 and moved it further out of the village as the built-up zone expands.
(Aside: I didn't mention LTNs, though you are correct about my view. BTW LHA is Local Highways Authority - sorry, should have mentioned.)
The entrance to the estate is better into a 30mph limit on the major road rather than a 60mph because there will be something like 2-4 turning manoeuvres per day per household into and out of that estate road (standard road design assumption), and we know that junctions are where most collisions happen, and that they are significantly more dangerous into higher speed than lower speed major roads.
That's established design practise for safety, and reduced speed limits near junctions are a routine practise by Highways Authorities.
So extending the lower speed limit to beyond the entrance from the estate seems sensible.
Sorry I thought you were arguing it should be 20.
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
We can agree that 20 is preposterous outside estates can we not and it should be a 30 not a 20, right?
Imagine if they had offered some similar constructive ideas to Cameron BEFORE the referendum happened...
We would still have left. It was in the stars.
No, we left because Cameron came back with a shit "renegotation", got defensive when this was pointed out and then pissed off his should-have-been Remainers with his wank about European wars, etc etc etc.
I know, I was one of those should-have-been Remainers.
What could/should Cameron have got that he didn't get?
What more could/should Cameron have offered to get that?
Sunder Katwala @sundersays · 7m My hunch is that James Cleverly is likely to make the ballot, against either Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick, perhaps as the slight outsider in the second round
Imagine if they had offered some similar constructive ideas to Cameron BEFORE the referendum happened...
In retrospect, what Cameron should have done is taken them by surprise by invoking Article 50 after Merkel opened the borders and then renegotiated from a position of strength.
That would be great. One of my grandchildren, having just got his degree, wants to see a bit of the world before settling down, and at time of writing is planning to go to Australia for a year or so. That seems, apparently, his nearest practical option. He doesn't fancy N. America.
I know I keep banging on about this - but for 95% of us, a country which speaks the same language is a far more practical option for living/working abroad than a country which happens to be close.
It would do wonders for language teaching in this country for a start. During my working life I hosted, or participated in hosting, students from various European countries, most of who spoke quite good English and it was a pleasure to see the interest they took in the world around them.
As a general observation - I absolutely cannot fathom how people can master a language other than their own. I can see that people do - but the ability to do so utterly evaded me at school. I could learn to write and (clumsily) speak words in other languages, and at a push I could sometimes understand what a piece of writing was about - but picking out meaning from sentences spoken in other languages utterly eluded me. Measured objectively, I'm quite clever - but languages defeat me. I did manage an A in GCSE German, but the listening bit was entirely guesswork.
One for @Foxy , and since we are on Transport as the OT subthread.
I see that Oadby is about to get Leicestershire's first Cyclops junction (main change is protected mobility and pedestrian tracks around the junction on the A6), and that LCC (County) even though this is only their first seem to know what they are doing in that they are going for an "all round green" phase for the active travel modes, rather than making them wait 3 or 4 times to cross 2 roads. Unlike Liverpool City Regon who cocked up the lights and mobility track in St Helens, by requiring wheelers and cyclists to make a 180-turn on a radius only suitable for unicycles.
I gave them comments as a sometimes-visitor, especially about the importance of sweating the detail on stuff they have not done before.
Some interesting politics in local forums from the usual motor-orientated suspects, who will hardly be affected: "How DARE they not spend ALL the money on MEEEE".
Sunder Katwala @sundersays · 7m My hunch is that James Cleverly is likely to make the ballot, against either Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick, perhaps as the slight outsider in the second round
"one of the biggest reasons the Conservative party should pick James Cleverly is that he is the candidate the opinion polls tell us is the preferred pick!"
Sunder Katwala @sundersays · 7m My hunch is that James Cleverly is likely to make the ballot, against either Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick, perhaps as the slight outsider in the second round
Can I recommend the Ashley Neal Youtube channel, which is very good because he spends much time reviewing particular situations and reflecting on what could have been done better - and he is an Instruct the Instructors Instructor (so to speak). And the comments section is quite knowledgeable and civilised.
It's great for learners, as she will get extra perspectives over your own (and we all have blind spots).
I identify with the "learners get bullied by MGIFers" comment. Around here I see in media reports too many inexperienced drivers (say
Yes, I find Ashley Neal's channel extremely useful, and it's good that he also gets on his bike sometimes to give the perspective from that side. My step-daughter's getting on alright and can drive perfectly well on an empty road, but she does get very nervous when other cars are following behind, especially if they are close. And when she's nervous, she starts to make mistakes. It's probably about time she started having some lessons with a proper driving instructor now.
P.S. Something weird was happening with the block quote chain, so I had to delete them.
I wouldn't teach my children to drive, but insisted (and paid) for professional lessons. I was happy to sit beside them, though. Son and son-in-law followed my example.
That would be great. One of my grandchildren, having just got his degree, wants to see a bit of the world before settling down, and at time of writing is planning to go to Australia for a year or so. That seems, apparently, his nearest practical option. He doesn't fancy N. America.
I know I keep banging on about this - but for 95% of us, a country which speaks the same language is a far more practical option for living/working abroad than a country which happens to be close.
It would do wonders for language teaching in this country for a start. During my working life I hosted, or participated in hosting, students from various European countries, most of who spoke quite good English and it was a pleasure to see the interest they took in the world around them.
As a general observation - I absolutely cannot fathom how people can master a language other than their own. I can see that people do - but the ability to do so utterly evaded me at school. I could learn to write and (clumsily) speak words in other languages, and at a push I could sometimes understand what a piece of writing was about - but picking out meaning from sentences spoken in other languages utterly eluded me. Measured objectively, I'm quite clever - but languages defeat me. I did manage an A in GCSE German, but the listening bit was entirely guesswork.
I'm the opposite. I can learn to speak another language but writing it is a different matter.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
The move is sensible, because they know that your average UK driver who does not look beyond the end of their bonnet will be racing up to that sign at 50 or 60mph than stand their car on its nose to slow down.
The real issue there is that UK roads are not designed to look like roads that are safe at the suitable speed limit eg through villages, so there are not the necessary visual cues for people driving through to slow down, and they go hooning through regardless.
That's down to the nature of LHAs being created to build roads, and ignore other interests - such as adequate consideration for pedestrians. It's also why junctions prioritise throughput over safety, and anyone asking for a Zebra crossing across a busy road to a primary school will be told in effect that not enough children under 10 have been killed or crippled to justify it yet.
Beyond the entrance to the estate? That's absurd, why should the main road outside the estate be a 20?
Inside the estate, sure, drive slowly on residential streets. But if you're driving past and not on the estate? Then keep driving past it.
Your whole argument for LTNs and one I can respect and agree with is it separates the residential from the traffic, but that becomes moot if you're making the main road be classed the same as the estate, its not.
Note I said I think 30mph would be appropriate there for the main road, not 20mph. I'd have left the limit at 30 and moved it further out of the village as the built-up zone expands.
(Aside: I didn't mention LTNs, though you are correct about my view. BTW LHA is Local Highways Authority - sorry, should have mentioned.)
The entrance to the estate is better into a 30mph limit on the major road rather than a 60mph because there will be something like 2-4 turning manoeuvres per day per household into and out of that estate road (standard road design assumption), and we know that junctions are where most collisions happen, and that they are significantly more dangerous into higher speed than lower speed major roads.
That's established design practise for safety, and reduced speed limits near junctions are a routine practise by Highways Authorities.
So extending the lower speed limit to beyond the entrance from the estate seems sensible.
Sorry I thought you were arguing it should be 20.
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
We can agree that 20 is preposterous outside estates can we not and it should be a 30 not a 20, right?
That seems broadly reasonable to me as a default. No doubt there will be exceptions.
30mph is in most circumstances a perfectly reasonable speed in an urban environment. The problem comes when this is flouted. But the correct response to this shouldn't be to say 'well in 30 zones some people go at 40, so we'll drop the limit to 20 so they go at 30' but to enforce laws and adjust behaviours so that the stated limits are adhered to. The alternative is punishing the law abiding but not the guilty.
"Worms are also food for all sorts of fish and birds, and we’re polluting them: we mimicked the levels of cocaine and antidepressants that were measured in the mud in Bristol harbour in a lab experiment and looked at how that affected worms’ behaviour. The worms stopped eating, lost weight and stopped burrowing into the mud."
That would be great. One of my grandchildren, having just got his degree, wants to see a bit of the world before settling down, and at time of writing is planning to go to Australia for a year or so. That seems, apparently, his nearest practical option. He doesn't fancy N. America.
I know I keep banging on about this - but for 95% of us, a country which speaks the same language is a far more practical option for living/working abroad than a country which happens to be close.
It would do wonders for language teaching in this country for a start. During my working life I hosted, or participated in hosting, students from various European countries, most of who spoke quite good English and it was a pleasure to see the interest they took in the world around them.
As a general observation - I absolutely cannot fathom how people can master a language other than their own. I can see that people do - but the ability to do so utterly evaded me at school. I could learn to write and (clumsily) speak words in other languages, and at a push I could sometimes understand what a piece of writing was about - but picking out meaning from sentences spoken in other languages utterly eluded me. Measured objectively, I'm quite clever - but languages defeat me. I did manage an A in GCSE German, but the listening bit was entirely guesswork.
There are no miracles or mysteries in language learning. Just work harder. Some people find it easier than others but proficiency in a language is just an indication of how badly you want it.
I've studied Arabic for 4-6 hours a day for two years without a single day off, even when I was driving across Ukraine. I think I will have to do another two years with some extended bouts of immersion before I am confident and comfortable teaching it. I will freely admit that this is not everybody's idea of a good time.
It is interesting being in Wales for a few days and obeying the new 20mph speed limit. Everywhere I seem to build up massive queues of irritable locals.
This is in the north-east, so one of the areas worst affected and where the three local councils have been most resistant to making adjustments.
Good on you! It only takes one law abiding driver (or commercial/emergency vehicle) to enforce them.
Given the number of roads that are already excepted from 20mph, I suspected that councils would find it difficult to find any more without pissing off local residents (people like driving at 30mph past other people's houses). I'd guess that is what is happening here?
Why italicise that?
If people choose to live on a main road, what's wrong with driving past their home at 30mph or 40mph or 50mph if that's the speed limit?
Main arterial roads should be 40 or 50mph through towns and 60 or 70mph outside of towns.
20 is plenty for residential streets, but arteries are not residential streets.
That does get more complicated in Wales, where the lack of bypasses means very often they are the same thing. Ponterwyd or Rhayader or Aberystwyth, for example.
There are some however classified as residential that really are not. The A44 at Llangurig where the 20mph zone goes past the church, the pub and a garage springs to mind. The village itself is on a back street...
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
The move is sensible, because they know that your average UK driver who does not look beyond the end of their bonnet will be racing up to that sign at 50 or 60mph than stand their car on its nose to slow down.
The real issue there is that UK roads are not designed to look like roads that are safe at the suitable speed limit eg through villages, so there are not the necessary visual cues for people driving through to slow down, and they go hooning through regardless.
That's down to the nature of LHAs being created to build roads, and ignore other interests - such as adequate consideration for pedestrians. It's also why junctions prioritise throughput over safety, and anyone asking for a Zebra crossing across a busy road to a primary school will be told in effect that not enough children under 10 have been killed or crippled to justify it yet.
Beyond the entrance to the estate? That's absurd, why should the main road outside the estate be a 20?
Inside the estate, sure, drive slowly on residential streets. But if you're driving past and not on the estate? Then keep driving past it.
Your whole argument for LTNs and one I can respect and agree with is it separates the residential from the traffic, but that becomes moot if you're making the main road be classed the same as the estate, its not.
Note I said I think 30mph would be appropriate there for the main road, not 20mph. I'd have left the limit at 30 and moved it further out of the village as the built-up zone expands.
(Aside: I didn't mention LTNs, though you are correct about my view. BTW LHA is Local Highways Authority - sorry, should have mentioned.)
The entrance to the estate is better into a 30mph limit on the major road rather than a 60mph because there will be something like 2-4 turning manoeuvres per day per household into and out of that estate road (standard road design assumption), and we know that junctions are where most collisions happen, and that they are significantly more dangerous into higher speed than lower speed major roads.
That's established design practise for safety, and reduced speed limits near junctions are a routine practise by Highways Authorities.
So extending the lower speed limit to beyond the entrance from the estate seems sensible.
Sorry I thought you were arguing it should be 20.
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
We can agree that 20 is preposterous outside estates can we not and it should be a 30 not a 20, right?
Yes. In general I have no problem with 30mph on connecting roads within community boundaries. Subject perhaps to things like arrangements at schools on such roads at arriving/leaving times - of which there are many - and similar, but I think we probably concur on that too.
For active travel, 20mph is in national guidelines (which are quite good these days even though an update is due) as the speed limit where "mixed modes" are OK provided motor traffic is very low volume and treated as a "guest", 30mph is the speed where painted mobility lanes on the carriageway are generally OK (though separated or lightly separated is better), and 40mph is the speed limit at which stronger separation is necessary.
There is lots of other detailed design ideas I would argue for, such as tighter radius kerbs to side roads than is SOP in the UK. Those are slightly different debates. Much of that is to do with setting "felt-appropriate" speed in the driver's head, so that safer behaviour becomes done by habit and culture not enforcement-everywhere (which costs lots of money to install).
This particular theme is where Active Travel England give quite a lot of priority working on culture change within local government bodies.
Comments
Maybe next time you go to Milton Keynes you should drive, maybe that'll improve your view and you'll find it less hellish.
Stick a speed camera in there and people will do 30.
The way we tax cars at the moment is deeply unfair and with VED coming to an end, and ongoing discussions around fuel duty, Labour have an opportunity to invert it.
Wonder if Meloni has gone for 20mph limit (or whatever it would be in Kms)? Betrayal of a vital part of Italian machismo culture, if so.
You are free to make your own choices.
Plenty of people do choose to use and enjoy using segregated cycle paths. If you don't like them, that's your choice not mine.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday."
https://news.sky.com/story/sailing-yachts-like-mike-lynchs-are-unsinkable-bodies-ceo-of-boat-manufacturing-firm-says-13200883
I don't understand people getting "caught out" if they have gone past a 30 sign, either at the side or on the road - or in my case when the 30 sign is displayed on the dash as a further reminder.
(What I want is a bleeper that responds to detecting going over the speed limit, rather than over my preset value.)
But that's another one where "felt appropriate" speed for those who do not bother to keep and eye out does not match the posted limit.
Given that it's a flat road with a 17-18m corridor and a 11-12m carriageway, I'd put it on a road diet and add a two way mobility track one side, and perhaps some parking and trees. It could be a valuable aterial route from Sheffield to Rotherham for cycles and mobility aids (I'm sure I've seen some debate about that proposal.)
BTW why is the bus stop painted about 6 ft out from the kerb here?
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.4034794,-1.4367729,3a,75y,209.49h,60.38t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sHqGW2_x9CuufXPHP0tmwqw!2e0!5s20230601T000000!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu
If Keir Starmer resigns today he will be the UK's shortest ever serving Prime Minister. If he makes it through to Saturday it will still be Liz Truss.
This isn't about personal choice, it simply doesn't work for cyclists and pedestrians in a town/city centre. (A completely separate route is fine for long distance routes)
I find your position on this really bizarre and doctrinaire. Your completely unable and unwilling to consider alternate points of view.
And while I'm on the topic, I've seen some of the worst driving about while teaching her to drive. The L-plates seem like a red rag to a bull for some people. They think nothing of driving right on your tail, or cutting straight across in front of you. And if a learner has stalled their car on a hill in front of you, sitting two inches behind their bumper and leaning on your horn isn't going to help them get going any faster!
It's also a significant part of the reason why elderly people with failing eyesight can feel a need to lie to the DVLA to keep their driving licences; they feel they have no alternative.
That can be seen in stats around, for example, why people do not walk, wheel or cycle, or feel they have no option but to drive their children to school.
It is also visible in the modal shares where infrastructure is built and choice does become possible.
(Disclaimer: this was a historic issue, and may have been solved.)
https://youtu.be/-_4GZnGl55c?si=soK8R9mzfxkMHK-d
"SO - it must have been scuttled!"
Tesla look like they are heading into choppy waters. The Proud Boy Tony Stark is killing the brand by association and the tier one OEMs are finally bringing out superior products. A290, Ioniq 5N, etc. Their product pipeline is stale and just moves far too slowly.
Having a different point of view is not the same as being unwilling to consider it.
As its in just 50m of water the investigation should be quite straightforward.
The same problem arises in Lukas Graham's 7 years, an otherwise good song:
Soon, I'll be 60 years old, my daddy got 61
Remember life and then your life becomes a better one
I made the man so happy when I wrote a letter once
I hope my children come and visit, once or twice a month
Soon, I'll be 60 years old, will I think the world is cold?
Or will I have a lot of children who can warm me?
As someone who is 63 very soon this is not how I see my world. Hope you don't either and have an exciting day.
I would, almost instinctively, slow down by about 1 mph, each time they sounded the horn.
I'm interested in how you characterise the changes in the 20mph default limit initiative.
To me - and I've followed it though I'm not in Wales very often - the scheme introduced already has making-appropriate-exceptions as a feature already, and was a manifesto commitment for parties that received half of the vote.
So what they are doing is wait-and-see what Highways Authorities choose to do with the power to make exceptions, and they will be guided by data as it emerges, as well as local attitudes.
Politically I think that Reform Wales (what are they called?) in particular will try and use this as a wedge issue as their stuff about riots and the Two Tier Kier trope etc loses traction, as they go after the not-insubstantial former UKIP vote and Conservative vote in Wales. Lee Anderson has been noisy about their first Welsh Councillors.
The policy would grant 18 to 30-year-olds visas for up to three years to work, study or volunteer in the UK, with a reciprocal agreement for young Britons'
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/eu-free-movement-young-people-mobility-scheme-pvw0slfhh
As a general rule I like dangerous idiots in front of me so I can watch them, rather than behind me where they are likely to rear-end me.
Not great headline - many more costly drugs are approved by NICE. The issue is that the benefits are judged not to justify the cost. May also not be the end of the issue as it's not unknown for further negotiations after such a decision to find a price at which it is cost effective (although that will depend on whether the maker thinks there's more money in keeping the price higher elsewhere).
I have some personal interest in this, having a parent with diagnosed (mixed vascular and) Alzheimer's dementia. However, I think she's too far progressed for this and is ruled out on other health grounds/medications anyway.
(Aside: I didn't mention LTNs, though you are correct about my view. BTW LHA is Local Highways Authority - sorry, should have mentioned.)
The entrance to the estate is better into a 30mph limit on the major road rather than a 60mph because there will be something like 2-4 turning manoeuvres per day per household into and out of that estate road (standard road design assumption), and we know that junctions are where most collisions happen, and that they are significantly more dangerous into higher speed than lower speed major roads.
That's established design practise for safety, and reduced speed limits near junctions are a routine practise by Highways Authorities.
So extending the lower speed limit to beyond the entrance from the estate seems sensible.
Can I recommend the Ashley Neal Youtube channel, which is very good because he spends much time reviewing particular situations and reflecting on what could have been done better - and he is an Instruct the Instructors Instructor (so to speak). And the comments section is quite knowledgeable and civilised.
It's great for learners, as she will get extra perspectives over your own (and we all have blind spots).
https://www.youtube.com/@ashley_neal/videos
I identify with the "learners get bullied by MGIFers" comment. Around here I see in media reports too many inexperienced drivers (say <5 years) driving to the speed limit not the conditions - we have a lot of dips and hollows in Notts / Derbys which have moisture and ice and they go in at near the limit, and lose control. When I was 17 and 8 months, I spun the family car off a just-about-frozen roundabout, which did not make me popular.
The flipside is using the invariably empty lane for a road merger, don't be the arsehole hanging wheels over the white line to "block" people coming up the other lane in some sort of weird non highway code compliant moral queueing protocol.
I know, I was one of those should-have-been Remainers.
P.S. Something weird was happening with the block quote chain, so I had to delete them.
It doesn't work like that in the modern world, as any business in the tech sector has known for decades.
And it makes little sense to complain about Chinese subsidies for their industry, when the west has (quite rightly) been arguing for subsidies to make the transition to renewables. China just decided to go for ir before we did.
But Chinese domination is hardly inevitable, if a small country like S Korea can still compete in the EV market.
https://insideevs.com/news/730671/hyundai-motor-group-ev-sales/
Both US and European manufacturers are reassessing what they need to do, as they start to realise how far behind they are. For some, it will be too late.
What would Starmer need to do?
If it were realistically a choice between Farage v. Starmer on voting day (not that I necessarily think it likely, but in that hypothetical scenario....) in which box would you place your all-important "X"
?
That used to be 30 (below), and the limit has been dropped to 20 and moved a little further out of the village to be beyond the entrance to a housing estate which looks like it is due for a lot more expansion.
We can agree that 20 is preposterous outside estates can we not and it should be a 30 not a 20, right?
What more could/should Cameron have offered to get that?
Sunder Katwala
@sundersays
·
7m
My hunch is that James Cleverly is likely to make the ballot, against either Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick, perhaps as the slight outsider in the second round
https://x.com/sundersays
Measured objectively, I'm quite clever - but languages defeat me.
I did manage an A in GCSE German, but the listening bit was entirely guesswork.
I see that Oadby is about to get Leicestershire's first Cyclops junction (main change is protected mobility and pedestrian tracks around the junction on the A6), and that LCC (County) even though this is only their first seem to know what they are doing in that they are going for an "all round green" phase for the active travel modes, rather than making them wait 3 or 4 times to cross 2 roads. Unlike Liverpool City Regon who cocked up the lights and mobility track in St Helens, by requiring wheelers and cyclists to make a 180-turn on a radius only suitable for unicycles.
I gave them comments as a sometimes-visitor, especially about the importance of sweating the detail on stuff they have not done before.
Some interesting politics in local forums from the usual motor-orientated suspects, who will hardly be affected: "How DARE they not spend ALL the money on MEEEE".
My photo quota for the day:
This location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/52°36'05.7"N+1°05'04.4"W/@52.6015833,-1.0871305,510m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d52.6015833!4d-1.0845556?entry=ttu
Scheme Page:
https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/have-your-say/current-engagement/oadby-cyclops-junction-scheme
James Cleverly should be Tory party’s obvious pick for leader
https://www.ft.com/content/e7b09e2b-45a2-4405-b196-93d8c8055c0d
The membership would be mad to put Jenrick in over an experienced hand like Cleverly. But...
Son and son-in-law followed my example.
State pension age beckoning!!
30mph is in most circumstances a perfectly reasonable speed in an urban environment. The problem comes when this is flouted. But the correct response to this shouldn't be to say 'well in 30 zones some people go at 40, so we'll drop the limit to 20 so they go at 30' but to enforce laws and adjust behaviours so that the stated limits are adhered to. The alternative is punishing the law abiding but not the guilty.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/22/im-obsessed-with-sea-worms-thankfully-in-25-years-of-working-with-them-ive-never-been-bitten
"Worms are also food for all sorts of fish and birds, and we’re polluting them: we mimicked the levels of cocaine and antidepressants that were measured in the mud in Bristol harbour in a lab experiment and looked at how that affected worms’ behaviour. The worms stopped eating, lost weight and stopped burrowing into the mud."
I've studied Arabic for 4-6 hours a day for two years without a single day off, even when I was driving across Ukraine. I think I will have to do another two years with some extended bouts of immersion before I am confident and comfortable teaching it. I will freely admit that this is not everybody's idea of a good time.
For active travel, 20mph is in national guidelines (which are quite good these days even though an update is due) as the speed limit where "mixed modes" are OK provided motor traffic is very low volume and treated as a "guest", 30mph is the speed where painted mobility lanes on the carriageway are generally OK (though separated or lightly separated is better), and 40mph is the speed limit at which stronger separation is necessary.
There is lots of other detailed design ideas I would argue for, such as tighter radius kerbs to side roads than is SOP in the UK. Those are slightly different debates. Much of that is to do with setting "felt-appropriate" speed in the driver's head, so that safer behaviour becomes done by habit and culture not enforcement-everywhere (which costs lots of money to install).
This particular theme is where Active Travel England give quite a lot of priority working on culture change within local government bodies.