cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/7658487
For more detailed information: https://www.gov.wales/introducing-20mph-speed-limits-frequently-asked-questions
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/7658487
For more detailed information: https://www.gov.wales/introducing-20mph-speed-limits-frequently-asked-questions
While it sounds good on paper, in practice, they’ve screwed it up. They’re putting the new speed limits in place on every 30mph road in Wales before they’ve put the public transport alternatives in place.
There’s currently no reason for someone to switch to public transport, especially if the buses are going to be stuck at the same speed as the cars, but stopping regularly too. Our roads are too narrow to install bus lanes, and barely have enough room for single file traffic through lots of the towns and villages. The trains are being upgraded, but that’s not scheduled to finish until at least next year, and at the moment they’re slow and very unreliable. It feels like every week the trains are cancelled and an inadequate replacement bus service is put on.
I’m disabled, and have to travel from my town, Aberdare, to the main hospital in Cardiff, UHW, on a regular basis. If I had to leave now, it would take 42 minutes by car, or 2 hours and 6 minutes by public transport. The shortest journey is tomorrow morning and would take 1 hour and 31 minutes, more than double the time of the car journey. The closest inpatient hospital is 22 minutes by car, or over an hour by public transport. The difference the new speed limits are going to make is negligible compared to how slow public transport is here.
All this is going to do is annoy and upset people, and turn them off the idea of using public transport, and push a lot of people towards voting for the parties who were against this. Out of the main parties, that mainly seems to be the Conservatives, so that’s going to be bad for all of us.
The FAQ in OP’s link tells you that it is not all 30mph roads, but rather all restricted roads, with a link to a map of all 30mph roads that are staying 30mph as well as the option to see which restricted roads will change to 20mph. “Restricted Roads” is a classification of roads in law that is defined by the lamppost density, so this change won’t affect larger and more rural roads where lampposts are more sparse.
Then they’ve screwed up the marketing. Everything they’ve been pushing out makes it appear that it’s all roads. Not that there’s much of a difference. There’s a grand total of two roads in my area, and five in the Aberdare area that will apparently stay as 30mph.
The Tories originally supported the proposal which is quite hilarious seeing how much stink they are throwing currently.
I do agree public transport needs more funding but they are in a pretty tricky situation where the Gov has very little money to improve the service (partly due to Wales transport funds being spent on HS2) and at the same time bus usage is down and not recovered after lockdowns. I hope the 20mph limits will encourage more onto busses, but I am not confident.
The Tories are bullshitting to gain support? That’s not like them 🤔🤥
At this point it sounds like me on my E-bike would be the fastest thing on the road. It does 25mph/40kph
Which would mean that you would also be speeding, since e-bikes in the UK are required by law to be capped at 15.5mph (technically 25kph).
I’m in the US, but fair point
Ah, that makes sense. For what it’s worth I think you guys are on the right track with e-bikes; allow more powerful motors but give them a different classification.
What are things like on that side of the pond? The “20’s plenty” campaign is well underway over here, do you have similar movements in the US?
We are basically ignoring that they exist. There’s a law being floated in CA that would prevent teens under the age of 16(?) from driving them, but I suspect that will die in the State Assembly.
and i think the 20mph limit would also apply too - so even if the cap were lifted, you can’t go breaking the speed limit just because it’s a bike.
Bingo. But they don’t care who they hurt in the process. “Fuck cars = fuck lives”
It’s a regressive tax on people to generate revenue disguised as a public safety measure
Surely it only generates revenue if people decide to break the law?
That’s… how speeding tickets work, yes.
Thus, it is a tax on commuters, who tend to be people who can’t work from home, and also tend to be poorer, making it regressive… Which is why Tories came up with it.
My point being that they won’t generate any revenue if people actually follow the rules of the road. Revenue only when people break the law is not how taxes work.
Might wanna dig into what classes of people pay the overwhelming amount of traffic citations to see why certain groups prefer this method of revenue-raising over just normal taxation.
Might wanna dig into what forms of transportation the very poor use! Hint: it’s not driving.
Traffic safety laws protect the most vulnerable members of society: the very poor, very young, very old, and very disabled (all populations that can’t drive and are more likely to become trapped in their own homes when streets are unsafe for those outside motor vehicles).
so it could be describes a tax on commuters who choose to drive over the speed limit - fuck them hower poor they are. poor people are capable of committing crimes just like non-poor.
poor people can also drive slower, or take the bus, train, (and many can ) bike, walk . . .
personally i find bike/bus/train way cheaper than car.
recycle the revenue into bus service and its probably neither progressive or regressive,but sways people out of cars, and reduces the danger to people not in cars.(however poor they are)