To do 20mph in a 20mph area in Birmingham?

[Marmablade]

Visited a friend yesterday. For at least 20 minutes of the journey I was driving in areas with 20mph signs and the occasional flashing 20mph 'slow down' sign (activated by other drivers not me)

3 times I got overtaken by people who went passed very quickly with engine noises suggesting they were accelerating hard.

1 time I heard a horn beep. I wondered if it was for me so double checked the next sign said 20 not 30 incase I'd missed it. It said 20. Then a minute or two later there was more beeping behind me and he was gesturing for me to speed up. I pointed at the 20mph sign we were passing and he decided to overtake me at speed just before a sign which flashed up 20mph.

I had set my cruise control to 21mph as when I passed a 'record your speed' flashing sign that speed flashed as 20mph.

Literally no one else was doing 20 but I'm unfamiliar with the area, wasn't in a hurry and definitely don't want points. Also, if it says 20mph that's the speed limit and I kept over to the side in case people did want to overtake. I don't think it's fair to use your horn to speed someone up who's doing the speed limit but AIBU?

FWIW 20 felt painfully slow. I passed quite a few schools but it's the weekend so obviously not open. I checked to see if it was only 20 when lights flash but I didn't see any time restrictions. Once I got to a 30mph zone I did see a '20mph when school lights flash' so it's obviously a deliberate attempt to slow down traffic all day every day. The problem is is people then set their own speed limit which seemed more like 35/40 which is surely counterintuitive?

Joke’s on them because Birmingham has a lot of speed cameras in speed restricted zones, speed traps too.

Perhaps if it was literally only you doing 20mph, you misread the signage.

I did see speed cameras but only in the 30mph zones ironically.

Trust me. The 20mph signs are clear.

I don't think you can have read the OP properly @TheStoic.

All the residential roads around us are 20mph, not everyone takes notice, I do. There's no need to be tearing around back streets.

I live in the Midlands near 20mph zones and am almost always the only person driving at the correct speed. It’s not you, OP.

I don't think you can have read the OP properly @TheStoic.

If the signage was clear and the OP can’t have been mistaken, how could she possibly be unreasonable?

P.S. In my own area (rural) the roads are mostly national speed limit which everyone seems to take to mean 90mph

You’re right, OP. The roads around our local high street are all 20mph, but barely anyone seems to observe it.

20mph is indeed painfully slow. It’s silly of the council to set unreasonably slow limits and then expect people to abide by them!

@TheStoic because everyone on the road at that time was behaving differently to me so I didn't know if there was some weird unspoken rule locals know!

Same here in Bristol. It says 20, so I do 20! Get the people right up my bumper and overtaking etc - but mobile speed cameras are out there.

@TheStoic because everyone on the road at that time was behaving differently to me so I didn't know if there was some weird unspoken rule locals know!

I don’t think the law works that way. You were right, they were wrong.

Most of Edinburgh is 20mph. Learner drivers stick to it, virtually nobody else does. The effect has been to ensure that everyone sticks below 30, which is a good thing, I suspect that is the real intention. I've been behind police cars when I've thought that I should drop to 20 and watched them as they disappear into the distance. Occasionally I come up behind someone doing 20 and its fine, I wouldn't overtake or beep and I haven't seen anyone else do it (not even on the wide, empty road on which I was once overtaken by a gesticulating taxi driver when I was doing 30, in a 30 zone, coming up to a school).

I don't think the law works like that either yet the 3 people who overtook me do so wondered if I was in the minority sticking to the rule of the law.

Since I got ticket/points on license I am fairly religious about speed limits... I get tail-gators & weird overtaking in all mph zones lately. People quite aggressive that somebody is actually going speed limit.

The problem with speed limits is that usually they apply 24/7. We're probably going to get a 20 mph in the town centre here soon. That makes sense at busy times when there are school children milling around but not at 6 in the morning.

This was during the day but because the weather was so lovely there was hardly any pedestrians. Realistically it would probably have been safe to do 30mph but that's not my call and is no defence to speeding tickets!

The main road through the village I live in is 30. People still drive through as if they were on the track at Silverstone though. As for the zebra crossing, might as well just not be there.

People will drive like Speedy Gonzales, not matter the speed limit.

There are more and more 20mph zones popping up in Birmingham.

In the last couple of weeks in Edgbaston and around the university the speed limit has recently changed and it takes the locals a while to adjust - no excuse to harass other drivers though.

Also between the cricket ground and the bottom of Kings Heath is a huge road that is 20mph that feels like it should be a 30.

I sometimes feel that other drivers are pressuring to go faster as they don't agree with the low limit.

Happens to me as well OP. Except it’s all speed bumps as well. Someone accelerated past me at speed on one of these roads and hit one of these bumps that even I winced at the crunch.

People are idiots.

There was another thread saying it’s unreasonable to do 70 in the middle lane of the motorway. My take is that if you want to break the law go ahead but in the uk unless you are an emergency vehicle with sirens it is against the law to drive 70 mph. They are not going to take my points for me or pay my speeding ticket. I’ll drive at the limit, thanks.

• to drive over 70 mph.

YABVU, you should have been driving at a much faster speed to get out of there.

Lots of streets in Birmingham have been switched to 20mph over the past 18 months or so, but most people don't observe that new limit. The road going from the cricket ground up to kings heath is a good example- when it was a 30mph road, cars regularly drove down there at 45-50mph, so they switched it down. Cars still go down at 30-40mph. The police could make a fortune on this and other roads I could name if they just went out with a portable speed gun. Likewise the traffic wardens could take it in if they ticketed all those parking on the pavement around cannon hill park, and other places easy to name. I have no idea why they dont- it would be very easy money.

My road is one which has recently switched to 20mph. They out the signs up in our neighborhood piecemeal, and have said that it's not enforceable yet ( wtf?). I have never seen anyone going at 20 here. In fact, I know for a fact that the majority do >30 because we have a led speed display sign on our street which shows how fast people are going!
Birmingham is car city- cars rule here, and it's very odd.

There are more and more 20mph zones popping up in Birmingham.

And across the UK.

As warned of by the instructors on my Speed Awareness Course back in 2014.

Wait till they put average speed cameras on them (as they have already done on the main 30 mph roads - like the Hagley and the Bristol Rds ...)