London peeps

[Skub]

When you do drive for miles to get to a country road,you'll be doing 20mph this Autumn.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/m ... qjH-lNZq0o

[asmethurst99]

The mad Mile in Epping has been 40 for decades
Surrey hills is a nice part of the world but it’s the wrong side of London for me.

[Skub]

I'm laughing at this guy..“We get joyriders in 4x4s coming at midnight, charging up and down the byways".

As if changing the posted limit will suddenly make joyriders law abiding.

[Count Steer]

I'm laughing at this guy..“We get joyriders in 4x4s coming at midnight, charging up and down the byways".

As if changing the posted limit will suddenly make joyriders law abiding.

They seem to think that because they can't police the roads they'll reduce speeding violations by reducing the speed limit to 20.

Not to mention the 20mph signs won't be on the byways.

The run from Box Hill to Newlands Corner is going to need an overnight stop in Abinger.

[MingtheMerciless]

Surprised the 4x4's can tear up the byways as they are normally fall of badly ridden Santa Cruz MTBs and EMTBS

[Scootabout]

Anyone got a link to some reliable info about that? The article in the Birmingham Mail seems pretty disjointed and has no references. Having said that, it wouldn't totally surprise me. Much of Surrey has a blanket 40 limit already.

[Mussels]

I'm struggling to work out if that's a spoof news site or not, the reference links just go to the homepage but most of the stories are too dull to be anything other than a local rag.

[Trinity765]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/put- ... -wz2lkmlxj

[Count Steer]

It's probably not as daft as it sounds really. Coldharbour is a tiny hamlet (pub, a few houses) nestling in the Surrey Hills accessible by narrow winding lanes with no pavements etc etc. It's also the start of one if the longest byways for miles around (Wolvens Lane). You only have to walk along the byway to see how it gets used - and thoroughly abused.

There's another going up to the North Downs from Abinger Hammer and it's like something from Mad Max up there on occasion. It's v difficult to reclassify BOATS but I imagine there will be considerable pressure to close them because of the way they're being used. I wouldn't want to live near one!

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

It's pretty easy to put a TRO on a BOAT rather than reclassify it, but it would have no effect as no one is going to police it.

[MingtheMerciless]

Our local BOAT's have had gates, posts and signage installed that mean they're only available to 4x4's during the summer months. It has noticeably cut down on the 4X4's using them.

[Count Steer]

Our local BOAT's have had gates, posts and signage installed that mean they're only available to 4x4's during the summer months. It has noticeably cut down on the 4X4's using them.

They reduced the usage on one of ours by filling in all the 'interesting' bits.

Problem here is there are very few of them so everyone and their dog heads for the main 3. The result is that they're overused, overcrowded, an awful mess in places, downright dangerous at times and lots of venturing off the actual route making new circuits. All of which adds to the pressure to close the few that exist. As always though, it's the few that will kibosh it for the many. (The TRF riders can be by before you realise they're there. The Dorking - Dakar boys you can hear coming in convoy from 5 miles away).

[Cousin Jack]

Cornwall is in the process of changing 700
village 30 limits to 20, and I have heard rumblings of a blanket 20 on all rural roads (however they get defined)

[Skub]

Cornwall is in the process of changing 700
village 30 limits to 20, and I have heard rumblings of a blanket 20 on all rural roads (however they get defined)

We'll be blown off by cyclists.

[Hot_Air]

Unfortunately, this 20 mph has achieved a lot of media coverage (including yesterday’s BBC Today Programme). Consequently, I can see it spreading to other UK areas.

Albeit, Kent County Council found lower speed limits didn’t have the result they expected: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/0 ... g-walking/

[Skub]

Unfortunately, this 20 mph has achieved a lot of media coverage (including yesterday’s BBC Today Programme). Consequently, I can see it spreading to other UK areas.

Albeit, Kent County Council found lower speed limits didn’t have the result they expected: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/0 ... g-walking/

It won't let me read the article without accepting a free trial.

[Mussels]

I wish I could find a meaningful study on the effects of reducing speed limits, everything published seems to be very selective about which stats it uses and only ones that support their ideals.
Some of the people on here have posted very insightful results of studies, often in support of restrictions but agencies still treat the public like idiots that don't need to know silly little details

[Hot_Air]

@Skub The Daily Express also ran the news story: https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/ca ... ng-walking

Kent County Council introduced the 20mph zones in Faversham and Tonbridge as a trial in September 2020 in an effort to encourage more cycling and walking. And now, an independent report into the impact of the zones found that “overall, car usage remained virtually unchanged following the introduction of the 20mph limits,” The Telegraph reported.

A number of residents added that they increased the amount of driving they did. Others, however, admitted they drove less. The limits were introduced to create a 20mph zone across much of Tonbridge town centre.

The local authority was able to impose the speed reductions without prior public consultation under an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order. But an interim consultation of 1,123 residents found that 74 percent objected to the idea of a town-wide scheme and four roads were reverted back to 30mph zones.

The report from transport consultants Agilysys also found that a “willingness to exceed 20mph limits/zones increased slightly in Faversham and greatly in Tonbridge” (from 17 percent to 30 percent).

“Despite this, a large majority in both towns stated that they would be willing to always drive to the set limit and this actually increased in Tonbridge. “There was a mixed picture on whether respondents felt that there was more consideration for other road users because of the 20mph limits, and a quarter of Faversham and half of Tonbridge residents said that there was more aggressive driving.”

Earlier this week Matt Boughton, the Tory leader of Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council, told The Telegraph that the decision to make some of the 20mph limits permanent was pushed through by Green Party councillors at the county council’s transport committee last November.

Cllr Boughton said: “I think the frustration was that Green councillors were elected when they knew the consultation results but they wanted to keep all the roads on 20mph anyway.

The article suggests other councils (e.g., Sussex) are also considering the 60-to-20-mph-reduction for rural roads.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Cornwall is in the process of changing 700
village 30 limits to 20, and I have heard rumblings of a blanket 20 on all rural roads (however they get defined)

We'll be blown off by cyclists.

Do we get to pick which cyclist?

[The Spin Doctor]

I had a look at the Surrey Hills area crash map www.crashmap.co.uk and it confirmed what I suspected...

...the vast majority of crashes causing injury do NOT occur on minor rural roads running through the country.

They actually occur on the main roads crossing rural areas and in the smaller urban areas - any main road that's not a motorway or trunk road, and any built-up area with under 10,000 population is classified as 'rural'.

It's likely the 'nuisance' problem is also greatly exaggerated.

I recall a couple of instances when I lived in Kent.

There was a campaign started by a local in a nearby village to monitor the "hundreds of cars speeding through the village morning and evening". The police put down speed monitoring equipment and after a couple of weeks had found most drivers were at or about the 30 limit. A few were doing 40-ish, but there were two going through at about 7am going through at double the limit, and two more coming back about 7pm at the same kind of speed. They put a team out with a radar gun just before 7am and pulled the two drivers doing 60, plus a few more doing 40-ish, and warned some others who were borderline. Then they put the team back out just before 7pm and nabbed the same two drivers going the other way. So the reality was that there wasn't really an issue at all.

And my favourite. Another local in a nearby village started another vociferous campaign to have traffic calming installed. He was on in the press, on the TV, making a real song and dance about the menace of speeding drivers in rural areas. Then he got nicked for way over the 30 limit in the next village along. He went rather quiet after that.

I suspect that'll turn out to be most of the local problems. A few bad apples (and sadly bikers with loud pipes do themselves no favours even if they're not speeding) and locals in a rush to get home.