20mph in Wales - why???

[Flpwer]

I don't understand why Mark Drakeford has done this - surely this will just cause more road rage??? Is this a money-making ploy because they know a lot of people will probably drive over it as 20mph feels so unnatural.

Yep. Accidents will increase as the tailgaters pull off some daft moves to get past people diligently sticking to 20.

The BBC News last night made me laugh, they said pollution will increase....until we all buy electric cars! (Insert head in hands emoji)

Because it is a good idea to keep the little children from being killed.

So here is another brainwave from the Welsh government. They are increasing the size of the parliament by a third costing the Welsh taxpayer another £18 million a year. Because they have done such a good job with your NHS and other public services, they think you should pay more to have more of them. While you cheer your groundbreaking, inventive, imaginative 20mph speed limits.

Those who support this kind of nonsense deserve the government they get.

STOP PRESS:

I've been out today and can report, In our village everyone drove at <20. Nobody drove into the back of anyone, nobody exploded
in road rage. People drove up to 60 on NSL roads, and up to 70 on the A55. No road rage seem. My car seemed slightly more efficient at 20, judging by the miles/kWhr reported. Journey time about the same

Nothing to see, move along....

This is what happens when people blindly vote for the same part over and over again without actually reading their manifesto, it did actually say in there that they would do this so if you voted for then this is what you asked for.

You are spot on Hecate. It's a one party state in Wales. Wales NHS can go to pot while Welsh Labour waste millions unnecessarily. Is there ANY evidence of carnage on Welsh roads?

They hate you and want to restrict your freedom.

There are plenty of far more effective ways that road road safety could be improved than this stupid idea. Enforcing existing speed limits would be a good start. People who ignore 30 mph limits are not going to magically become law abiding just because the limit has fallen to 20 mph.

Compliance with speed limits is very poor in North Wales, especially on the most dangerous roads such as country lanes where most fatalities occur. Police enforcement on these roads is practically non-existent. This new law will do absolutely nothing to address this problem.

In just over a mile along one road this evening the limit went from 20 to 30 to 20 to 40 to 20 again. Ridiculous

Mark Drakeford lives rent free inside these poor little Tories heads,

Increasing the size of the Senedd makes sense although when the Tories keep making more and more unelected peers to sit in the HOL to give the nod at best ill thought out and at worst bordering criminal legislation, the hard of thinking, as some of the PP's here are making themselves out to be, seem to cheer that along and all they can ever do is bang on about how the NHS is failing in Wales, take a look at the English NHS since 2010 but do it while paying for your prescriptions and hospital parking 😂😂 mugs

I'm pretty sure that the WAG wouldn't have the power to do that.

"mutter mutter... God-given rights... bear arms... make Wales great again... mutter mutter..."

Honestly the Welsh roads are lovely to drive on compared to the English but their speed limits are all over the place sometimes their signage is off too I'm constantly checking the damm satnav for the speed limit they either go too far with signs all over the place to play the game of guess the speed limit

Have a look at what the Irish government are proposing:
https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/politics/full-breakdown-key-plans-change-30940741

In UK terms this would mean that:

• Single carriageway A roads would drop to 50mph
• Minor rural roads would be 40nph (the conversion is actually lower still)
• Urban roads would be 20mph, except for arterial roads which would remain at 30.
• Where streets are shared with pedestrians it's 12.5mph.

Some Welsh councils actually came up with a reasonable list of exceptions. Others were too busy sulking.

Its an utter nightmare.. I drove across Snowdonia today and the road switched from 30 to 30 and back again seemingly at random. Without repeater signs in the 30 limit exemptions it’s really hard to keep track of which speed limit is in force. Yes the locals will get used to it but visitors will be fair game for the cameras.

Drakeford is out to destroy Wales.

I think it only makes sense in areas with extremely high footfall like school vicinities etc.

Speed limits seem odd in many areas lately. I was recently driving back from London to Brum at 3am and variable limit was 40mph on a totally empty motorway. Went from 70 to 50 to 40. Barely another car in sight.

Well it didn't affect the buses much yesterday.

I have to say I'm more worried about move to closed lists voting system than the expansion of the Senedd. BBC article even says there will be no by-elections - vacancies created during a term will be filled by people already selected in a party list. My worry is it will lead to even more group think and a closed shop at top of the political parties.

I always drive 5mph under the speed limit because a) it is a limit, and b) I don't want to break the law! I know they have discretion to enforce above a certain percentage but that's hardly the spirit is it. "Oh well I only broke the law a little bit." Plus it was in the paper the other day that the Tories are keen on the idea of removing the tolerance percentage anyway so it's best if I stick to under the limit as the law intends us all to do. If it has been decided that 20mph is the absolute maximum safest speed for a road, who am I to declare myself as knowing more than the road safety groups who come up with these limits?

How about we can be against paying for more freeloaders in both the Senedd and the HOL?

And as for free prescriptions personally I'd rather pay for things that are cheaper than the cost of a prescription so that money can go where it's needed. I also don't think we need to spend millions putting wifi in A&E waiting rooms.

Just because people don't agree with what's happening in Wales it doesn't make them pro Westminster either but when devolved things like healthcare are decided by Drakeford of course we have the right to complain if we live in Wales.

I always drive 5mph under the speed limit

So, now you will drive at 15mph?

If it has been decided that 20mph is the absolute maximum safest speed for a road, who am I to declare myself as knowing more than the road safety groups who come up with these limits?

If you are genuinely that concerned about safety above all other considerations, I can tell you that the absolute maximum safest speed for any road is 0mph. It will be difficult to drive at 5mph less than that, unless you reverse everywhere.

Wouldn't be advisable doing this in your driving test.

It's like that where I live and I'm nowhere near Wales! People get used to it.

The A55 by Caerwys attracts a lot. It's a long straight road, but there appears to be at least a crash a week during the summer. The Aston Hill gets its fair share of crashes too. Neither are 30mph roads though.

There was a big crash locally, on a 30mph road. But it was 2 knob heads racing at 60 mph and trying to overtake on a single carriageway. Doubt they'd have been paying attention to 20mph either.

Please don't do this. The speedometers in cars are already set with ample safety margin in the vast majority of cases. If you drive at an indicated 15 mph you will likely be doing no more than about 12 mph in reality. People behind you will be rightly annoyed, and the roads will be less safe as well as being less effective as a means of transportation.

I get you OP - I’m also in rural north wales and already I’ve noticed a difference in some drivers. The main areas I’ve noticed changes in driving is all the places were the speed limit changes from 60/70 to 20 and vice versa - very late braking, very fast acceleration out of the 20 zone - as if they are trying to make up the lost time.

The only freedoms it restricts are impatient drivers, the rest are fine