Call for more 20mph zones as research shows children "can't see" faster vehicles

Most days I commute to work through a 20mph zone that passes two schools

It's on a downhill so I am doing 20mph+ on the bike. And every day cars overtake me. I have seen a group of hi viz wearing vigilantes using a hand held speed camera to enforce the 30 mph further up the same road but there is no enforcement in the 20mph zone

It is usually cars that overtake and not commercial vehicles or buses.

Worth also noting in addition that drivers field of perception narrows down as speed increases above 20mph at 50mph you become more focussed on the road in front and traffic in the distance. All down to evolution as we evolved to operate at running speeds (20mph is about the fastest a human can manage) and the ability to observe and crash into things at up to 20mph is surviveable for a normal standard issue body.

The kids ability to judge speeds and distances is also a well made point. Very few kids can co-ordinate to catch or hit a ball thrown across the street, on a consistent basis, until they get the hand/eye coordination bit sorted. No surprise then that they have difficulty judging traffic speeds and distances. For some adults the ability is more developed - compare the practised jay-walker with the rabbit in the headlights who freeze in horror and then step backwards into your path. Watch the couriers 'flow' through traffic, compared to the slow and steady riders.

As Fringe says though, not much point in having 20mph zones if they're not enforced and from what i've read lots of police forces aren't interested in enforcement - even less so after the Tories pretty much veto'd installing speed cameras on residential streets. Maybe what needs to happen is streets need to be reclaimed by their residents and the environment changed so that it forces drivers to slow down - not neccessarily with speed bumps and not necessarily at great expense, but in ways that get the message across that motorists have to share the roads with other people – Sustrans have done a lot of work on things like this and I saw something about a group of residents doing something along the same lines in, of all places, the Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326361/Stop-cars-speeding-DIY-w...

It feels hellishly slow in a car but I'm all for a 20mph speed limit for most residential areas. Bring it on. There'll be lots of motorists bleating about 'speeding cyclists' travelling at over 20 mph though!

Meanwhile in Scotland a report just released highlights that 1 in 10 children have been injured last year in motor accidents. The research also highlighted that the children said that the cars were travelling too fast!!!

This surely should reinforce the cause for mandatory 20mph speed limits in all of our urban areas which no doubt raise the hackles of the motoring bodies and the drivers!

While young people need to be taught how to cross the road - bring back the Tufty Club I say!! The tuition of drivers - car, HGV, PSV, PCV needs to be radically overhauled to include the necessary skills of dealing with vunerable road users and hopefully make our roads safer.

I teach kids to ride bikes and have to say I would be all for this too 20mph in residential areas. Not an area of research I've considered before, but on reading this I will now be looking for any anecdotal evidence in line with the above findings.

There are definitely a growing number(in my experience) of drivers who won't even bare being held up for 5 seconds for the sake of anyone, no mater how vulnerable the other road user is.

Is this a symptom of the 24/7 society we have created?

i'm all for 20mph across the board, but where i live its been 20mph since feb/march this year and still most people seem to be driving faster than 20mph. and no one seems to be policing or enforcing it.

much like mobile phone use whilst driving and jumping amber/red lights behavior, it just seems to be getting worse. or maybe im noticing it more?