Round Brum, they are introducing a swathe of 20mph zones and roads.
No problem with that myself.
But what is odd - and seems ludicrous on the surface - is that when you get to roundabouts (or islands as Brummies wrongly call them) the speed limit is explicitly raised to 30. Then as you come off the roundabout ... back to 20 again.
Why, FGS ? even if you could approach the roundabout at 20 without slowing, are you seriously going to accelerate up to 30 as you go round ?
Seems to me a waste of time, metal and (obviously) money.
I'd guess because the other roads to the roundabout are still 30mph? Likely more major roads than the 20 mph ones.
Best one round here is a road which runs down the side of the common. Pretty sensible to have a low speed limit on it as lots cross the road to get to the common. The first half of the road - to the only traffic lights
- is 30. Second half 20. Only obvious difference is the first half is a bus route, which turns off at the traffic lights. Meaning buses are safer at speed than cars. ;-)
The unforeseen consequence is often it results in no gaps in traffic that allow people to cross the road and therefore pedestrians tend to take more risks with moving traffic.
Around my way they have been forced to impose 20mph limits around schools to let the school run mums double park or stop on crossing zig-zag lines to disgorge the kids.
Plus it seems to me an ultra low speed could detract from observational skills of drivers and pedestrians. OTOH the fact remains that if the speed limit is 30mph and drivers flex this to
35mph, if an impact occurs this is likely to be fatal.
Where should we be going in terms of pedestrian safety?
Putting more of the onus for safety on the road users that step out / pull out in front of a moving vehicle, rather than putting it *only* on the driver of the moving vehicle. "He was driving too fast" is seen as a worse sin that "he shouldn't have been there in the first place because it wasn't safe to cross".
*All* road users have an equal part to play in reducing road accidents. Yes, the driver of a car driving along a road has their part to play in slowing down and being prepared to stop when they see a potential or actual hazard, but equally that hazard (pedestrian about to cross, car waiting to pull out of side road) should learn to assess whether they should stay where they are until the car has gone past and it is safe for them to cross / pull out.
Sadly, the response to every accident is to slow the traffic down further or to invent artificial hazards (speed bumps, chicanes etc) which take some of the driver's attention away from looking for real hazards.
The best speed limits are self-imposed ones: ie no fixed one-size-fits-all speed limit but drivers who react according to the circumstances at that instant.
In particular round here: teaching pedestrians not to stay on the side of the road that is the *inside* of the bend, when there are no pavements and there are 6ft or more hedges on both sides. Make them appreciate, that is, that the further you can see, the further you can seen *from*.
Sure that means they have to keep crossing the road and maximises the distance they walk. But it will help them stay alive.
I remember that case well. The pedestrian had a miraculous escape. I never heard the outcome of how it happened. Was there a driver in the bus at the time or had its handbrake failed?
There are roads that should be 20, but they are too narrow to overtake anyway. But large areas just have blanket 20 restrictions.
I try to do 20 in the wide designated areas here, many of which feature gradients. I have to change down to 2nd. I expect this and the necessary extra braking will raise the tyre and other particulates and any other noxious gas levels.
We are also plagued by large signs on the main roads saying things like "273 accidents in the last 5 years on this road". Just more useless signage and more junk to hit when having to swerve in a dire emergency.
The driver got his pedals mixed up, got a two year ban and suspended sentence plus unpaid work. The pedestrian, contrary to press reports, didn't walk into a bar, it was closed. He had a couple of fractures and bruising.
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