I spent an afternoon with some very angry Welsh people recently. They weren’t complaining about their rugby team’s laboured performance against Portugal, nor one of the wettest ever summers. What was really grinding their gears was the introduction of a 20mph default speed limit on “restricted roads”. Despite an attempt last week to overthrow the new law in the Senned and polls that suggest most Welsh people are against it, the Welsh government introduced the new rules this weekend.
Full disclosure: I wasn’t with them in person, but rather on a Zoom call. Alongside several disgruntled Londoners and an angry bloke from Cornwall, we were all on an online speed awareness course.
For the saintly among you that have never done one, it’s what you do to avoid a £100 fine and three points on your driving licence when you have transgressed the speed limit. These days the course is digital. Ten years ago, I had to attend one in person at a God-forsaken business park in Swindon, near where my offence had occurred.
The course is like a suspended sentence. Transgress again within three years, and you have to take the penalties. Accrue 12 or more points and you can be disqualified. A decade ago on the A303, I had driven at 55mph in a restricted 50mph zone. This time round, on my first drive home from my new school, I clocked 26mph in a 20mph zone. I was simply unaware that this stretch of road had a 20mph limit, whereas the road I had been on was a 30mph. Obviously, this was my fault. My head was full of my new job, rather than my speed.
Other Londoners’ disgruntlement was focused on constant switching between 30, 20 and other limits in outer London. In inner London, reaching 20 would be miraculous. We shared resignation.
Not so our Welsh friends, particularly those from around Cardiff. They were raging at the alleged unfairness and impracticality of the new laws, regarding it as an attack on their civil liberties. No matter how often our patient instructor showed us how just 1mph less can save lives, they were not having it, despite the risk of “failing” the course: Cardiff was “chaos”. This was even before the new law’s universal introduction.
Why are we so resistant to road safety measures? I’m old enough to recall the resistance to mandatory seat belt-wearing, both in front seats (1983) and rear (1991). Currently, normally law-abiding citizens are raging either about LTNs (Low Traffic Neighbourhoods) or Ulez (Ultra Low Emission Zones).
Yes, it is not always that easy to observe 20mph. I only have to brush the pedal of my humble Prius and I might exceed that limit. Actually, why are our cars designed to travel so fast? My new rule of thumb is to not overtake cyclists, especially Mamils (middle-aged men in lycra) who appear to have 21mph set as their bike’s cruise control.
So, if a reduction to 20mph from 30mph really will reduce collisions by 40 per cent and save 10 lives per year, what’s the objection? Surely, even our intent will save lives? That said, it will take time to change habits. Our honest instructor’s sign off was: “do as I say, not do”. He then admitted sheepishly he had just received six points himself.
