Comment on 85% Of Car Drivers Break 20mph Speed Limits, Reveals U.K.’s Department For Transport
Tweak@feddit.uk 10 months agoThe data shows 70-90%. However, about half are no more than 5 mph over the limit.
It also details the caveat that almost all of the 20 mph roads measured are free-flow areas without traffic calming, and it doesn’t represent the majority of 20 mph roads where traffic calming is present and traffic will naturally be slower. So, basically they’re measuring compliance in 20 mph zones that don’t really feel like 20 mph zones.
Compliance is much better for 30, 60 and 70 mph limits.
C4d@lemmy.world 10 months ago
So it’s ok to comply with laws when it feels right?
Tweak@feddit.uk 10 months ago
Well, if it wasn’t for otherwise good citizens breaking laws they know to be wrong, those laws would never get changed.
C4d@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I don’t think that law is going to get changed by repeatedly breaking it.
I also don’t think it is a bad law. The probability of a pedestrian being fatally injured at 20mph is lower than at 30mph; older studies showed a nearly tenfold reduction; not sure what the figures would be now with the trend towards larger and heavier vehicles (and the offset by pedestrian-friendly design - EuroNCAP score for this). For residential and pedestrian heavy areas I think 20mph is appropriate.
It is also worth bearing in mind that several areas in the UK have already committed to 20mph for residential areas.
I think the more likely outcome is going to be changes to roads and enforcement.
Here’s a .pdf factsheet from RoSPA that looks at 20mph zones.