20 mph speed limit.

[roubaixtuesday]

all the other improvements it makes to the road environment for those not in vehicles.

THIS!!!

 

[Alex321]

Totally get this, completely understand the logic, but what it also says is that there is a threshold death rate that is acceptable. One person in ten is OK to die. The line not shown is the one that says "Not hit by a vehicle traveling at any speed - 10 out of 10 pedestrians survive". Reducing speed minimises the risks, but is that it? Are there also actions put in place to prevent pedestrians being hit by vehicles? Reducing a speed limit is relatively quick and easy but it isn't the only solution and certainly isn't the ultimate solution.

For balance, I responded to the consultation about implementing a 20 mph speed limit in my village, in support. It has subsequently been enacted along with many more around my way and I do my best to adhere when in the car or on the motorbike. On bicycles I have been known to go faster based on my own dynamic risk assessment.

What that graphic doesn't show is that the lower limit also reduces the number of pedestrians hit in the first place, because the vehicle takes half as long again to reach them when they step in front of said vehicle.

 

[figbat]

What that graphic doesn't show is that the lower limit also reduces the number of pedestrians hit in the first place, because the vehicle takes half as long again to reach them when they step in front of said vehicle.

Right, so a smaller proportion of a smaller population get killed - understood, and this can only be a good thing. But if this is the ONLY intervention then that one person in ten still has to die.

 

[Alex321]

Right, so a smaller proportion of a smaller population get killed - understood, and this can only be a good thing. But if this is the ONLY intervention then that one person in ten still has to die.

There is nothing we can do short of completely segregating vehicles from pedestrians that will completely eliminate road casualties.

All we can do is try to reduce them as far as possible .

The UK is already one of the best countries in the world for levels of KSI on the roads per million Km travelled. Which of course does not mean we don't need to try and make it even better.

And nor does it mean that any level of deaths is "OK".

 

[Fab Foodie]

Had a bit of banter with someone in the pub last night. I'd overheard him talking to the barmaid about cramming for an exam and getting a "b". Slightly nosily, I enquires what he'd done, intending to congratulate him on his result. Turned out it was his O-level in whatever back in the day, and he said they used to write in chalk on slates back then. I was even older than him so responded that we'd written in cuneiform on wax tablets and didn't have slates in my day

Wax, WAX! You were lucky to have wax...we 'ad it tough etc. etc....

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Wax, WAX! You were lucky to have wax...we 'ad it tough etc. etc....

Of course, it’s back to tablets and you have to use your fingers now

 

[Profpointy]

View attachment 707287

In a similar vein I was once told that at 30mph if you drive at 30mph if a pedestrian steps out from behind the front of a stationary bus at the same instant you pass the back, not only will you hit them, you will not even have touched the brakes, so will hit them at 30!

I didn't believe this, but when I worked it from scratch it is true

 

[roubaixtuesday]

What that graphic doesn't show is that the lower limit also reduces the number of pedestrians hit in the first place, because the vehicle takes half as long again to reach them when they step in front of said vehicle.

And also makes it much more pleasant for the pedestrians who aren't intimidated by huge lumps of metal whizzing past six inches away

 

[Mike_P]

A side benefit of lower speed limits is it makes it easy for anyone turning out of a side road to do so. Always amuses me when that car that cannot possibly drive that slowly suddenly brakes and turns into a side street. Just hope when they try to turn back out the road is full of speeders.

 

[Drago]

Not to mention less pollution from noise, tailpipe, tyres and brakes. This whole driving a little bit slower malarkey should be viewed universally as a win-win proposition.

 

[Andy in Germany]

A side benefit of lower speed limits is it makes it easy for anyone turning out of a side road to do so. Always amuses me when that car that cannot possibly drive that slowly suddenly brakes and turns into a side street. Just hope when they try to turn back out the road is full of speeders.

We add the Right Over Left rule to this which slows almost everyone down when they pass a road on the right. This is fairly effective in making sure people don't drive too fast in residential areas.

 

[Andy in Germany]

In a similar vein I was once told that at 30mph if you drive at 30mph if a pedestrian steps out from behind the front of a stationary bus at the same instant you pass the back, not only will you hit them, you will not even have touched the brakes, so will hit them at 30!

I didn't believe this, but when I worked it from scratch it is true

This explains why we are supposed to drove at 7km/h past busses showing their hazard lights at bus stops here.

 

[Mike_P]

This explains why we are supposed to drove at 7km/h past busses showing their hazard lights at bus stops here.

Is that a compulsory requirement on a bus in Germany? The only time UK ones tend to do that is when they have broken down.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Is that a compulsory requirement on a bus in Germany? The only time UK ones tend to do that is when they have broken down.

From memory, yes. It has to be said it isn't adhered to very well.

 

[Profpointy]

Whilst I do broadly agree that 20mph is "a good thing" (tm), even though as a driver it can be annoying on what seem to be not-that-residential through routes, one curious but unsurprising effect is it smooths out traffic flow. This actually makes it harder to pull lut at a junction or cross the road as a pedestrian. Noticed the latter in Whitladies Road in Bristol, a shopping road but also a through route.