NO ITS NOT. I’ll explain in detail about my take on it and I’ll give my responses and some better and I believe more cost effective ideas.
(Awaiting image)
I got this through sometime this week, where I live (Fishbourne Village – on the outskirts of Chichester) are planning a 20mph zone which sounds like a good idea. Now, I’m a pedestrian, train user (I LOVE to use my free travel pass), cyclist and car driver and I’m apposing to the 20mph scheme. Now the very nature of having traffic suddenly slow down to 20mph sounds appealing you would think, especially when I walk or cycle around. Firstly, lets point out a few things, firstly, who keeps to speed limits anyway? Secondly, why does everyone prefer to park in side roads or on pavements in Salt Hill Road rather than on Salt Hill Road? The answer relates to the first question, traffic is going way too fast already! I hear it all the time, I see it all the time and a 20mph is not going to fix that. In fact, it will probably make matters far worse.
Even so, has anyone actually driven in a 20mph zone? I don’t suppose those that support the campaign have and it comes down to one big problem and that is your concerntration will drift. At slow speed, drifting concerntration because you are going soo slow your mind can’t cope with it is one point because its bored at travelling at that speed as nothing is happening. Therefore, you may end up taking risks and that increases the likelyhood of an accident and in my non academic self (shame on me – but really, I don’t know where to start for this argument) because of figures that are distorted by various factors, here is one small snippet of an argument that seems to support my view that accidents DO increase on 20mph road.
https://www.goldsmithwilliams.co.uk/news/accidents-increase-on-20mph-roads
Another search on a less crediable website shows this article from the “The Press” based in York and it seems to match some of my arguments:
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9874263.Accidents____may_be_more_likely____on_20mph_zones/ (Which was posted in August 2012, I looked at this in August 2016)
One key point to highlight:
“The reduced limits could be lulling pedestrians into a false sense of security, so they take less care” (Quote from the article above).
But if a driver is alert, then yes, the idea of a 20(mph) zone then works. That just requires education. Then if we educate drivers properly, we wouldn’t need a 20mph zone in the first place.
Besides, it WON’T fix a big problem, I can see 20 zones working on side streets where they are 30, however, the fact they lead to a dead end and has more obstacles than the CBT test course, you are most likely doing 20mph in the first place, so whats the point? To force that driver going too fast for the conditions? Well the law is against that, its called “driving without due care and attention”. No matter how much you try to slow that driver down, no matter how much you restrict the speed limit, they will not listen.
For the amount of money put into a scheme of reducing the speed limit by putting up signs that say 20, lets look into other traffic calming measures that work, lets look at stopping Salt Hill Road becoming a rat run first – that is happening because Chichester is soo badly clogged with traffic and Fishbourne roundabout is soo dangerous, lets look at that first. Once we looked into that and fixed that problem, the issue then might go away. A good start would be chicanes and where would be a good idea to add a chicane? How about outside Fishbourne station? How about a few parking spots to encourage more train usage? Instant obstacle guaranteed to slow down the traffic, add a meter and you might even make money from it. Create a box junction beside the parking bays and done. You can sort out a traffic problem by forcing the traffic to slow down, all this without adding a speed limit. What about creating pinch points? Short cycle lanes? Or how about even more interesting, SPECS? Not only would these slow motorists down, but for those that don’t, you make money from them. Therefore offsetting their installation costs.
