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City drivers forced to slow down

Motorists will be forced to drive at 20mph or less in Norwich as part of a radical shakeup of road policy announced yesterday , which includes opening a bus and cycle lane to lorries.Norwich will become the third city in the country, after Portsmouth and Aberdeen, to have a 20mph blanket limit after councillors agreed to the principle of a £300,000 sign-based scheme across 240km of residential roads... (READ ON)

Comments

gavnorwich said…
Hmm...what exactly has been delivered? Labour says there's no money in the budget this year, the police say they can't enforce it, especially as they are looking at a budgetry problem themselves. Add in the increased pollution from cars travelling slowly (if drivers heed the 20mph limit, if it gets implemented, if it gets enforced)
30 May 2008 at 09:35
Rupert said…
Look. 20mph speed limits for the unclassified (i.e. not A-roads, B-roads or C-roads) residential road network will save lives. Of course, not everyone will always obey these speed limits: But it's surely safer to have a 20MPH zone with a small number of cars breaking the limit and going at 30MPH than a 30MPH zone with everyone going at 30MPH (or, as it is in some areas, 30MPH with some going at 40!). By bringing down the speed limits on our residential streets, by changing the driving culture so that it is no longer acceptable to race through these streets at 30-40mph, we will prevent deaths and injuries that otherwise would accrue to our children and ourselves.
As for the misleading claim that 20mph speed limits would lead to additional pollution: It is time that this claim is dealt with once and for all:
Firstly, while it is technically true that cars driving steadily at 30mph perform better than cars being driven steadily at 20mph, one does not drive steadily at 30mph on unclassified residential roads -- at least, not if one is driving safely! To reach 30mph on most residential roads requires plenty of acceleration and deceleration: and that burns up lots of fuel and wastes lots of energy and generates lots of pollution. Pootling along safely at 20mph will generally be by comparison fuel-efficient.
Secondly, and this is really the crucial point: It is the unsafety of many of our roads that is the biggest single obstacle to more people cycling and walking around our fine city. Every person who feels safe giving up their car and taking to a bike or to their feet instead means a major cut in carbon emissions. 20 mph speed limits will incentivise cycling and walking, and that will be much more significant than minor differences in motor vehicle emissions at different speeds.
20mph speed limits for residential roads are not just vital for saving lives. They will improve our environment too. Those two reasons combine to explain why they are a strong Green Party policy commitment.
Norwich City Council has voted to introduce these limits. Doing so can now take place, during the next civic financial year, the budget for which will be agreed later this year. Labour _agreed_ this at last night's Council meeting. Their remarks last week about 'there's no money in the budget' were just a cheap initial attempt to distract attention from our remarkable successful initiative on this issue.
4 June 2008 at 08:41
Barkingside 21 said…
Perhaps I can add my two pennyworth.

Round here the residential roads do not have much traffic at all, unless they are a rat run and then they've got humps already. The local schools do not generate speeding because of congestion. Most, admitedly not all, drive at below 30mph in these roads already. The vast majority of any car journey is not on residential roads, only the start and/or end.

The problem will be, as it is now, the occassional nutter with a hot rod.
4 June 2008 at 19:37
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