To think that a 20mph speed camera on a main road is ridiculous

[Pizzamm]

Just been to Wales for the day to meet my family. I’m driving along a main road near Flint and as I’m going through a speed camera at around 27 I’ve realised there is a sign saying 20 afterwards?! AIBU to think that 20 is a ridiculous speed limit on a main road? There are no indications from the road that this is a 20, it looks more of a 30-40 ( fairly wide road, not overly pedestrian).

if I get a speed ticket for 26mph I’m going to be pretty grumpy 😅

May be go and have a few lessons if the only way you can control your speed is to stare at the speedo . . .

Use the speed limiter and it either won’t go over 20mph or will beep when you exceed 20mph, nearly all cars have them. If you can’t moderate your speed then you shouldn’t be driving.

No it isn't difficult, it's no more difficult keeping to 20 than it is to 30. I live in Wales and there's a main A road near me with a 20mph limit because there are some houses there. There are cameras and I've heard of people being caught, the traffic always stays at 20 in that bit because clearly the cameras work.

My son lives half an hour away from me and there's one village I go through where in the space of a mile it changes 20, 30, 40, 30, national, 20. No problem. In my experience the people who moan about a 20 limit moan about 30 and 40 limits and they get caught speeding. I have no sympathy with them.

Just look at your speedo as you presumably do when driving at any other limit.

My 18 year old grandson lives in Gwynedd. He drove to visit me in England the week after he passed his driving test so that he could do over 30 MPH! 😂

Gosh. Who knew that Wales introduced 20mph zones for road safety reasons, and that it has reduced fatal accidents? Well me, and I live 200 miles from Wales. Loads of news about it.

I do wonder if some of the people complaining about 20mph speed limits are the kind of people who are so oblivious that they do 40mph in a national speed limit and then merrily carry on doing 40 when they get to a 20 or 30 limit. Probably the same kind of people who camp out in the middle lane on the motorway even when they're not overtaking.

My parents and in-laws live in Wales and I totally agree that some.of the 20mph restrictions are absolutely ridiculous and completely unnecessary. It has made some simple journeys absolutely tedious. I am all for 20mph in very built-up areas, but in many places they just seem to be there to.make money. And don't get me started on the 50mph limits on the motorway near Newport...

Errr no...neither of these. But my old car really struggles at 20 in 3rd gear so I have to drive in second which is not a relaxing experience.

Fine near schools, shops or on little lanes; but when it's a straight road, 25 is much better.

And where I live, buses and taxis go at 50 mph on a 30 mph road. Now that is dangerous

Dropping down a gear to one that suits the engine's capabilities and the speed you're driving at is troublesome for you? What vehicle are you driving that doesn't have a suitable gear for 20mph?

We have a 20mph on an A road through our village. I think it makes sense for all road users in inhabited areas. There is less pressure to overtake bikes as we're travelling at much more similar speeds, and it's far safer for pedestrians. Of course not everyone sticks to it but the overall speed is slower. I am in favour of it as a driver.

It has second gear for 20 mph. The car stalls in 3rd at 20mph.

It's not a good gear to drive long distances in!

Sorry, I must be missing something here - if second gear suits your car's engine when it's travelling at 20mph, what makes it unsuitable for long distances? Is there something particularly fragile about second gear in your car? Or does the engine overheat at that speed or something?

20mph is the speed limit in built up areas here, so YABU. 30 feels too fast now, when I'm over the border.

Well start slowing down sooner then.

It's massively better for everyone when we slow traffic. I present as a capable pedestrian. But I'm not great at running across the road any more. My knees are fuckedl. Problem is all you drivers who expect me to hop out of the way. Fuck anyone who won't slow down for the community. It takes a village to raise a child. Right? So stop expecting everyone to jump out of the way of your wankmobile.

Yes and they would decrease even further if we stopped driving altogether. Maybe we should make everyone stay in their houses in a plastic bubble. Safety should not be the only consideration. 20mph is too slow and should, imo, only be used outside schools.

I live in Wales and everyone just does 20mph when they know there’s a speed camera in the area. Lots of roads were 20mph and now are being put back to 30mph because they should have never been 20mph in the first place. It’s confusing for locals so I can imagine it’s worse for visitors.

I got a ticket for driving 24 in a 20 mile zone in London. Took the course- it was all Londoners and Welsh.
There is a significantly higher survival rate for pedestrians hit at 20 not 25 though, so take it in the chin OP 🤷🏼‍♀️

I assume they meant buses just outside London that TfL do not operate. A few weeks ago I got a non TfL bus in Zone 6 (where they also have a tube line) and it cost £9 return (one adult and one 6 year old) for a 20 minute journey to a local leisure centre on a Saturday which would have been around a third of the cost in London. TfL bus travel is heavily subsided and it is shocking how much bus fares are in Essex, Surrey, Kent etc where the majority of routes are not TfL for services that are half hourly at best.

That said, I don't mind driving at 20mph in my part of London. The traffic is bad so it's rare I'd get above 2nd gear anyway regardless of the limit but like someone else said, it does then feel "fast" on the motorway at 70mph if you almost exclusively drive at 20mph or less. The thing I do find odd is that as soon as the same road hits Surrey, the speed jumps to 40mph instantly.

I don't agree with 20 mph, unless it outside a school. I just can't agree that most streets need 20 mph rather than 30mph.

Where I live in London it's impossible to drive 20 mph most of the time these traffic is so bad so the limit makes no odds

Normally I'd agree about unnecessarily high-powered cars, but in Wales ... I've had cars that could barely make it up the hills! Speed limits are irrelevant when your poor little runabout (bought because it makes sense for London) has to grind desperately in first gear at 8mph, pissing off everybody except the occasional unlucky lorry driver who's been overloaded for the gradient.

How do lower-powered automatics cope with steep hills? I've never driven one.

I actually find it really hard to drive at 20mph. It seems to be inbetween gears for me and just seems incredibly slow

Meh, you must've been living in a cave if you have family in Wales and didn't know about the default 20mph. It's been publicised everywhere, including in the UK-wide media.

It's cut road deaths and doesn't take significantly longer to get anywhere as it's only in areas with housing around.

You must be a terrible driver if you can't adjust your speed and concentration to cope with it - it sounds like the limit and a speed awareness course is exactly what you need.

As a London driver I found the 20mph limits excruciating. Driving to work at 5:20am and crawling along at 20 is very painful.

however I recently got a new car that automatically adjusts speed based on the speed limit so I just take my foot off the accelerator all together and let the car do it. It’s actually a lot more comfortable when I’m not actually managing the speed. The 20 is still bad but I have the radio on so just try and relax and listen to that.