I still can’t quite get over the fact that a scheme designed to save the lives of children became the latest culture war battlefield.
not even counting the long-term savings to the NHS from people taking up cycling or walking instead of driving, or the savings for many Welsh drivers caused by the reduction in their insurance premiums
Not sure if it belongs here but I thought it showed how hard it is to even change small things.
So why all the outrage? Well, it turns out that much of it was manufactured. In January of this year I did a little digging through four of the main Facebook groups opposing the change to 20mph in Wales. I found that in each case one of the admins was a Tory councillor from Sunderland who has, and this is hilarious, campaigned to have 20mph limits in parts of his home town.
Conservative politican scum baggery ?
Ultimately, the 20mph change was an attempt to rebalance the communities in which we live, so they are no longer dominated by cars. The policy aims to make our neighbourhoods more livable (20mph is three decibels lower than 30mph). It has a positive impact on particulate pollution because cars have to brake less. And it clearly saves lives.
These kinds of laws need to be turned into physical infrastructure (or a requirement for any new repair or development).
Let me guess, it’s the usual war between anyone who thinks of others as a priority versus anyone who think of themselves first?
As someone who drives in Wales a fair bit, it was badly implemented so it became unpopular.
The blanket rule was applied to roads it shouldn’t have been, with a slow and costly process to fix the speed limits on roads that’s shouldn’t have been covered.
It makes sense on all side streets, but it doesn’t make sense on all main roads. Some yes, but not all inside towns and cities. I think this is being unpicked it seems with more flexibility for councils? I don’t really follow Welsh politics, like many people I suspect.
The other issue is enforcement or lack there of. There seems to be zero enforcement so you get into the situation of driving down roads and everyone is still going at 30 ignoring the law. It puts you under pressure to go at 30 and it’s easy to drift up to that speed.
I’m am generally a supporter of the new law but the politicians have to take ownership that the reason it’s controversial is because it was poorly implemented. Its easy to paint the critics as extreme or as part of a “culture-war” but that’s just people taking advantage of actual anger and frustration.
The policy can be popular I think - there just needs to be some minor changes. As an example I can think of 4 roads in the town I drive or walk on that could do with going back to 30mph; thats nothing in the 100s of roads in the area.
It’d even potentially be safer as people are just breaking the law and speeding on these road anyway making it less predictable for pedestrians.
An example is a long main road that climbs up a steep hill in my town. It’s actually a struggle. climbing it at 20mph, and I even get foot pain trying to keep the accelerator at just the right depression to stay at 20mph. The road is wide too so you’re struggling all the time with the accelerator, monitoring your speed as it’s natural to go faster on wide roads and other drivers putting you under pressure to go faster. People are even overtaking each other which can be dangerous as you don’t always see what’s coming down the other way easily.
So I’d be worrying less about the fringe lunatics stirring up anger and more about tweaking the implementation to get the majority on board. That’ll take the support and interest away from the fringe noise makers.
Not killing children is a woke conspiracy to emasculate true, red blooded Americans! I mean British! I mean Welsh! They turned the friggin’ frogs gay!
Because everything has to become a culture war topic when you don’t have any goals and policies and an artificially created culture war is all you have.
After seeing vaccines become a culture war battle front in several countries you should know that absolutely nothing is too stupid.
Visited mid Wales last month. There was nothing wrong with the speed limits. People need to suck it up.
Of course it feels slow in certain areas, and a few really didn’t need the limit cut, but it’s hardly an inconvenience. I don’t think people realise just how little a difference it makes to your journey time, yet the benefits are clear.
Not to mention I’m just up the road from Sunderland. Shall I go give that tory twat a slap? 👍
The number of drivers I see here in Wales that seem to feel that they should be allowed to drive whatever speed they want boggles my mind. It’s so tremendously selfish.
Something that does amuse me is the number of drivers I see do 30 mph in the centre of my town - because it never makes any difference how quickly they get there. The traffic density is such that they simply end up waiting at the next traffic light, roundabout, junction, etc… The lights will change and they’ll zip off and I’ll chug along at 20 mph - only to meet them as they sit waiting. I’ve even had some of them overtake me to get to the red light sooner.
Over entitled children.
Where were you during the vaccination years?
