The towns in these new trials are not just normal everyday villages with sleepy residential streets which we can happily slap on 20mph signs with few problems. These are major trunk roads with the vast majority through traffic. Like I said in my post above, ALL traffic heading north and south between Edinburgh and Carlisle will pass through either Biggar or Langholm, two of the places mentioned for these 20mph trials.
It's not an official trunk road but the A91 at Muckhart has a 20mph limit. It's a major through road carrying traffic from Fife towards Stirling. All the limit succeeds in is pissing people off. Other towns and villages along the same road have 30mph limits. You've been happily driving at 60mph in the country and 30mph in the villages, it's pattern we're all used to. When you come to the twenty, it just seems incomprehensible, like nails dragging down a blackboard, your mind is all perturbed at this alien and incomprehensible spanner that's been put in your A to B works. Regardless of all the arguments, it just doesn't make logical sense from a drivers pov. Which is why the vast majority of traffic I've seen doesn't stick to it, some over 40mph. Traffic volumes are still too high and unpleasant to encourage walking and cycling, then once you're out of the village you're back on twisting 60mph country roads carrying the same volume of traffic anyway only faster. (A cyclist was killed on the A91 at Gateside this summer). On the other hand the very same A91 passes through Cupar, where it has a 30mph limit, but on the busy shopping streets traffic naturally travels at around 20mph, below the speed limit, because this is a place where it's narrow, busy, lots of people, parked cars and no central line, the environment screams that this is a place where traffic should slow, and magically it does, and as a driver it doesn't feel weird, you don't feel as though you're having to hold yourself back. (As a side note, I don't know if I want them to make this an official 20mph limit, it might make people think they can speed up!)
So, even if you can find that magic formula, you achieve that elusive 20mph with actual measured speed of vehicles, not theoretically on a sign post - it's still not a pleasant place to cycle or walk, to cross the road, or when the pavement narrows, if you're looking after kids, if you want to sit and eat a sandwich, if you want to chat with your friends..... because traffic volumes esp lorries is still very high. They still make noise, pollute, amber gamble, split towns in two. The vast majority of though traffic probably wish they didn't have to go through the town and all that palaver too.
If the people of Langholm and Keith Davies think that a 20 limit will solve all their problems then I think they are very wrong. Sure, you're better of being hit by something going at 20mph than 30mph but it's not just speed that makes roads unpleasant places to be. You don't just put in a 20mph limit like a sticking plaster and hope that somehow all that traffic just melts away and the street will become a lively pleasant place where you can shop in peace, cafe culture, your kids can play. If only things were that simple.
Nope, I'm of the opinion that roads should be fit for purpose. I'm not anti-car. No one argues the M25 or the Edinburgh bypass is anti-car. Through traffic has a purpose, and we all need to do it at some point, hopefully in as pleasant and stress-free a way as possible. Residential areas should reduce the amount of traffic passing through as well as speeds. I don't want to be driving through villagers' space as much as they don't want me to be there either. Which is why I support Dutch methods of classifying roads according to their purpose and designing for that, rather than the other way around. I've driven hundreds of miles around the Netherlands and practically the only times you have to go into a town centre is if you have business there, and when you are there, you still don't have to pass through the quieter residential streets. I just don't understand why the British public is so vehemently against bypasses, when even the smallest of Dutch villages have them, making life more pleasant for everyone, villagers and drivers. They've also just got such an incredibly dense motorway network, there's just no need to drive long distance on small single carriageways through towns, and they're still building more! Jeez I could go on forever about how we need more motorways across the whole of the UK. Langholm itself says they can't build a bypass, it's too difficult or its too expensive. There are countless examples of mind-boggling Dutch engineering and design, and they don't start things with "here's the list of reasons why we can't do this". The truth is the people of Langholm don't want to lose their golf course (in a country with the most golf courses per head in the world). They're choosing a little recreation (which frankly a lot of people are not interested in) over the future of their town. They adopted Neil Armstrong, but cannot themselves think big, beyond their narrow horizon, beyond "it's what we've always done".
)...they all seem to have come from numpty city college...
