London --- 20 mph speed limit

[strozzi]

Ken Livingstone wants to impose a 20 mph speed limit on London roads and enforce it with increased numbers of speed cameras. Is this a good idea or as ridiculous as some of his critics say ?

[WendyW]

It is silly .... all it will do is raise money so Mr L can indulge in more schemes. Thank goodness I moved out of London.

[Quizmonster]

It's an excellent idea. Click http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/
pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmtlgr/557/55705.htm and a link will take you to a parliamentary website which says that half of all pedestrians hit by a vehicle doing 30 mph will die, whereas 9 out of 10 will survive being hit at 20 mph. Just think of all the children who'll be alive at the end of the first year after the introduction of Ken's proposal who might otherwise be dead.

Motorists have to grasp eventually that the world wasn't created just for them.

[Squirrel]

I am in total agreement with Quizmonster, it's just a shame the penalties are too soft, or as is more usual, non-existent, on roads in other towns. For example, it seems like nine out of ten drivers almost constantly break the 30 m.p.h. limit in pedestrian areas, and for what? So they can arrive a few minutes earlier, and "Probably won't hit anyone anyway." I know people who speed all the time, but they've never been stopped by police, never been fined, never even been cautioned - even when they go past speed cameras! This 20 m.p.h. thing in London is a great idea, and while being safer, it will also force more people to walk and reduce pollution.

[treaclefight]

as i have rarely managed to do more than 20 miles an hour in london i do not think it will affect me and so wont be arsed to vote even if i was asked

[Andromeda]

A 20 mph speed limit??? As long as it isn't the lower limit! Remember the average speed in London was (until congestion charging) only 11mph! Well, I'm all for completely pedestrianising the whole of central London, so anything that gets the cars off the road is good for me.

Andy

[lisaj]

Andromeda - quite! When he puts the bl00dy traffic lights back the way they used to be, widen the roads back up, and stop putting stupid one way systems in there, then people won't be racing from one blockage to the next in frustration. And until he does this, we'll never get above 20mph anyway, because you've only got 100m before the next red light! I hope I never move back to London because it's simply no fun as a driver (the above), as a commuter (all the drivers are now on *seriously* overcrowded tubes and buses), and as a pedestrian (still too much traffic to be nice on the lungs). As a rat or a pigeon, life's probably ok, but for the rest of us?!?