pwa wrote: ↑19 Jul 2021, 5:30am
I think there is good reason for the Welsh Government to move cautiously and methodically with this.
Only if you are resolutely opposed to apriate speed limits - and trying to delay the implementation.
They know, and we know, that it will be controversial when the 20 limit paint starts to appear on tarmac in each and every neighbourhood at the same time, so it is wise to have all the studies in place to justify the changes.
The studies have been in for a long time - the relation between speed and safety is welll established and entirely uncontroversial. Doing yet more small scale "pilot" schemes within the principalty as if there was nothing to learn from the rest of the world won't add a jot to the sum of human knowledge. However, there will certainly be statistical anomolies within the data and these are certain to br searched out and latched onto by opponents of 20mph-just as they have done with every other small scale pilot study over the past couple of decades.
To do otherwise would simply give ammo to the opposition.
This argument is absurd beyond belief.
If you surrender to the opposition then they don't need any ammo.
So far, opposition has been muted.
That is because low speed limits are overwhelmingly popular - whatever you might read in the righwing press.
When Warrington eventually (after a simarly long drawn out process of obstruction by officials) implemented bourough wide 20mph limits there was not a single objection to any of the traffic orders. The only complaints were from those living on streets that were missed out from the scheme.
I live close to one of the pilots and opposition feels like a bit of muttering, nothing more. If we want to make progress, it is useful to keep it that way. And presumably the pilots will be used to draw up guidance for councils on where to implement the new 20 limits and where to make exceptions and retain a 30 limit.
And that exactly describes the process of subverting the policy altogether.
An initial policy to set a national urban limit of 20 mph is downgraded to a set of guidelines to be implemented piecemeal by local authorities - ie exactly the situation that applies at the moment.
And without the officials openly admitting to obstructing the elected government.