Cardiff: Some main roads to revert to 30mph from 20mph
Cardiff: Some main roads to revert to 30mph from 20mph
Ocean Way is the one I'm thankful for. Almost everyone drives at 30 on there anyway despite the 20 limit.
Well now that it's 30 they'll drive 40. Not sure how that is better, people don't stick to the number on these no matter what speed it sets.
That's not my experience in Cardiff at least. Ocean Way simply feels like a 30 road - it's not residential, there are rarely pedestrians because the road doesn't go anywhere you'd want to walk to, and no parked cars on the road. I am one of the people that drove 20ish and held everyone else up, but it felt unnecessarily slow even to me.
Honestly, it depends on the size of the road. A road I once drove regularly in a small settlement that is at 30mph. It's quite hilly and already too easy to speed on, it's a common speed trap. It also has parking spaces at the side. Fair enough.
But then they widened it? So not only is it easier to accidentally speed on it, but many cars are hanging out of the parking spaces onto the main road. There was no need to widen the road.
The solution a lot of the time is simply just make the road more narrower. Could make the footpath bigger and maybe even add a bike lane depending how much space you gained. People don't speed as often on narrow roads.
The blanket 20mph rule is silly anyway. 20mph makes sense going through built up busy areas, but there are some areas that are 30 that are on the outskirts of a village or a road next to a hamlet or such which are fine remaining at 30.
The problem is money. The amount of opposition the government got for allocating the spending for just changing the signs was huge.
Instead, any effort and capital should be going towards public transport and alternatives to car infrastructure, but there never seems to be enough money about.
