If the current polls are to be believed it seems unlikely that the 20mph will hit Labour in any meaningful way at the general election.
this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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That’s a shame that they have fluffed such an important safety issue. Scotland has it and it really doesn’t affect journey times that much and the roads feel much safer.
Scotland hasn't changed the national speed limit everywhere from 30 to 20, they've just extensively put in 20 zones in places where its appropriate - and also they've generally been good at installing the traffic calming measures that 20 zones are supposed to have, to make them "feel" like 20 roads.
What Wales have done here is ham-fisted. They've changed every 30 road to a 20, even many roads that shouldn't be 20, and they've done so without installing traffic calmin measures. So you have roads that were designed for higher speeds, where competent drivers feel like they should be going faster, except because of the rule change drivers are being criminalised for driving to their trained intuition. Furthermore, the DVLA's recently released statistics proved that non-compliance was a big issue in 20 zones where traffic calming measures are not installed.
Not every 30 road should be 20, and roads that should be need to be adapted appropriately.
Worth noting that this is inaccurate.
There are still many 30 roads across Wales, I can speak personally for much of South Wales. This whole 'Blanket' trash that the Tories are coming out with seems to be catching on for whatever reason.
Not every 30 road should be 20 agreed, which is why not every 30 road is 20. Though I would absolutely agree even with the many exemptions that already exist, there are a fair few places still that are currently 20 and have little reason to be.
There have been a few exceptions, but that doesn't mean it isn't still a blanket change of the national speed limit - one that has not been fully thought out for every road being changed. The Senedd is also effectively pushing responsibility for this onto cash-strapped councils, who lack the funding to do it comprehensively.
You don't understand what "National Speed Limit" means. That term refers to 60 (70 on dual carriageways) and is what is indicated by a white circle with a black line through it. What you're talking about is a default for built-up areas, which is very different.
National speed limits
The following speed limits apply to all single and dual carriageways with street lights, unless there are signs showing otherwise:
- 30 miles per hour (48km/h) in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland
- 20 miles per hour (32km/h) in Wales
For 30 limits (and now 20 in Wales), in a practical sense National Speed limit means there is no obligation for repeater signs.
I've also read that technically the white circle with a black line also historically applies to 30/20 limits, but I can't be bothered to dig through the .gov.uk pages to find that, and in practice that's not what they do anyway.