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Campaigners say IAM RoadSmart is trying to 'undermine' 20mph speed limits20mph sign (CC licensed by EdinburghGreens via Flickr)

Campaigners say IAM RoadSmart is trying to 'undermine' 20mph speed limits

20’s Plenty For Us points to WHO recommendation that 20mph is the right speed limit where vehicles conflict with pedestrians and cyclists
by Alex Bowden
Sat, Jul 08, 2017 14:21
37

Not for profit organisation 20’s Plenty For Us has accused road safety charity IAM RoadSmart of attempting to ‘undermine’ 20mph speed limits. The campaign group has taken issue with IAM RoadSmart’s recent claim that “widespread confusion over 20mph may be undermining a more general trend to slow down.”

Responding to recent government speed compliance statistics which indicated that 81 per cent of car drivers exceeded the speed limit on 20mph roads, IAM RoadSmart’s director of policy and research, Neil Greig, said that there was a problem, “getting drivers to comply on the ever increasing number of roads in our towns and cities with a 20mph limit.”

IAM RoadSmart is against “blanket 20mph limits” and wholesale changes in the urban limit from 30mph to 20mph.

A policy document states its position as being that distributor roads should always remain as 30mph or above and that the key requirement of any 20mph zone must be that it is “self-enforcing” through signposting that makes sense or traffic calming features.

That document adds: “Research suggests that drivers use the clues from the environment around them to judge the correct speed. Where limits do not match the environment uncertainty and confusion are generated which can raise stress levels and provide an unwelcome distraction from safe driving and lead to a wider disrespect for limits.”

Rod King MBE, the founder and campaign director for 20’s Plenty for Us, took issue with IAM RoadSmart’s position.

“IAM RoadSmart would be more credible if they called on all speed limits to be obeyed rather than trying to undermine 20mph speed limits where people live, work, shop, play and learn. The call for default 20mph limits with exceptions is echoed by many health and road safety organisations, including WHO saying that 30kmh (20mph) is the right speed limit where vehicles conflict with pedestrians and cyclists.”

King also took aim at the government report, arguing that the 20mph roads included were not representative.

“The nine 20mph roads detailed in this report have very little in common with most residential and high street roads where communities set 20mph speed limits to make them safer and more comfortable.

“Even then, this report shows that compliance on these nine roads is improving. IAM RoadSmart keep complaining about “blanket 20mph limits” yet most authorities are using discretion to exclude such roads as this report references or add the appropriate engineering or enforcement to gain compliance.”

20mph
IAM RoadSmart
20's Plenty for US
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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37 comments

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alan sherman | 6 years ago
1 like

I'm a bit torn on this. On the one hand the residential area I live in has a 20 limit. I agree. But the main road between Hammersmith and shepherds Bush in London had just sprouted 20 signs. It is a main road. Also 20 puts cars and cyclists in more conflict sometimes. When the 20 limit was introduced in Richmond park it made the cars hold up the cyclists which had led to lots of dodgy cyclist overtaking.

20 never feels right in a car too. It seems somewhere between 1st and 2nd gear.

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pablo | 6 years ago
1 like

It been proven time and time again people drive to the road condition not the posted speed.The only way to slow people down is to slow the road

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morgoth985 | 6 years ago
10 likes

Memo for IAM Roadsmart.  I don't know what research you're looking at but maybe a quick peep at the KSI stats might help.  Drivers do not use clues from the environment to judge the correct speed.  They use clues from the environment to judge what speed they think they can get away with.  The number of fatalities and serious injuries resulting from excessive speed would seem to hint that maybe their judgement isn't 100% sound.

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FluffyKittenofT... | 6 years ago
4 likes

I'm surprised to find I think the IAM have a partial point, at least with that 'self-enforcing' bit.

Road design that intrinsicly makes high-speeds difficult or hard to attain is surely preferable to just relying on signs? Things like getting rid of stupid motorway-slip-road-style junctions in favour of more right-angled turns might help. I'm sure there are other things that can be done that don't rely on concious obedience to signs.

At the same time, a bit of enforcement _might_ manage to establish a social norm of lower speeds in cities, which seems to be 20isplenty's position. Not really sure myself.

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oldstrath | 6 years ago
9 likes

So according to this bunch of apologists for killers, it's the business of drivers  to judge the "correct speed", rather than actually to obey the law.I wonder if they'd be equally happy to allow burglars to decide what is the correct number of houses to burgle?

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jh27 replied to oldstrath | 6 years ago
0 likes

oldstrath wrote:

So according to this bunch of apologists for killers, it's the business of drivers  to judge the "correct speed", rather than actually to obey the law.I wonder if they'd be equally happy to allow burglars to decide what is the correct number of houses to burgle?

 

Unfortunately it is often down to the motorist to judge the correct speed.  No reminders are required for 20mph zones.  The signs on the entry to a 20mph zone are often in the junction where the motorist has a lot of other information to take in.  Even in zones where reminder signs are required (e.g. 40, 50 mph zones), they are often obscured, faded or missing (maybe were never there to start with).  Simple solution would be to make 20 the default.  Obviously, the best 20 zones have the speed limit painted on the road at regular intervals.

 

[rant]My personal opinion is that most roads should have a 20 limit.  The average speed of a motor vehicle in a town generally less than that, it would mostly just reduce the amount of time motorists spend waiting at trafic lights and junctions.  Building cycle lanes and shared use paths everywhere is not feasible, and we have a hard enough time getting them built where it is feasible.  Yes we should have 8-80 cycle infrastructure, but the truth is we do - it is called the road, and it is where all cyclists are generally required to cycle, by law.

 

I don't think that putting in obstacles is the correct answer, as things such as speed bumps generally have much more effect on cyclists than they have on motor vehicles.  Motorists will often speed up to thirty, then slow to ten for the bump and then speed up to thirty again.  Motorists should learn to use second gear - obviously tricky if you are in an automatic that has no manual override, but these are quite rare these days.

 

At present, I find that when I cycle on the road, the speed limit is me (that is when I'm not the only thing moving, as often seems to be the case).  The roads where I live generally not wide enough for a car to pass a cyclist without using the oncoming lane, unless they are cycling in the gutter - and the traffic levels often preclude overtaking using the oncoming lane.  If we ever get to the levels of cycling that we as a nation require, then 30 mph will become largely unchievable in most towns and cities*, except for cyclists and motorcyclists (who can share lanes more easily), and at very quite times of the night/early morning.  So why not just bite the bullet and introduce 20 limits now?

 

* heck, 30 mph is rarely achievable at the moment, at least, not for very long[/rant]

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brooksby | 6 years ago
5 likes

I think that Mr King may have hit the nail on the head, there; IAM Roadsafe rather sounds like apologists for the status quo (but I'm sure some of their best friends are cyclists, or something...)

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