Letter to Highways re Smart Motorways

[Yugguy1970]

We were in Horwich this weekend, airbnb in a 3 bed semi on an ordinary estate.  It's an old industrial town with narrow streets and a 20mph speed limit in a lot of these.  In that context it makes a lot sense, with small, double-parked streets, lots of unmarked junctions.

[Roy124]

28 minutes ago, Yugguy1970 said:

We were in Horwich this weekend, airbnb in a 3 bed semi on an ordinary estate.  It's an old industrial town with narrow streets and a 20mph speed limit in a lot of these.  In that context it makes a lot sense, with small, double-parked streets, lots of unmarked junctions.

Sense,  yes, but necessary?  I suspect 30mph is unlikely but someone might try it , but they would probably ignore the 20 anyway.

[Cyker]

10 hours ago, Roy124 said:

Cyker, the blanket 20 I was referring to was London.  I quite agree that you hardly seem to be moving.

I have only driven there once and the majority seemed to stick with 20.  Generally too busy, even on a Saturday,  or too narrow. 

My previous driving in London was to aim for a gap as fast as possible and ignoring any vehicles abaft the beam.  As far as I was concerned,  it was my gap and they were not in my way.

Unlike Parisiennes they seemed to yield. 😅

To be fair, most of London seems to be 20mph already so not sure if anyone would notice  

I don't like them using 20mph as a blanket speed limit tho' - The whole point of a 20mph speed limit is to emphasise danger zones and to encourage drivers to be more cautious.

The thing is, they are not actually much safer, and no driver can run at a heightened level of caution all the time - It's exhausting - so mass 20mph zones will just dull everyone's wits.

Where these 20mph zones have been mass deployed, I find drivers don't concentrate as much, and even I find myself being more easily distracted after being used to the sensory stimulus of driving at 30mph. When they turn a wide straight road into a 20mph with no other alterations, it just feels like a hypnotic sluggish slog traversing it.

Also, pedestrians are MUCH more likely to run out in front of you - At 30mph the ground noise and perceived motion is enough to make pedestrians think twice about crossing in front of you, but at 20mph the road noise is maybe a quarter of the volume, and it looks like you're moving very slowly so many of them will 'chance it'.

I've noticed a marked increase in incidents where I've had to brake fairly sharply because of people doing that; It's worse in the Mk4 because the car will often do it at the same time I am, and the AEB feels really horrible when it triggers!

The only thing that is absolutely true about 20mph vs 30mph is that, in a collision, you're far more likely to have a life-altering injury rather than being killed.