20's plenty?
Via the bike and ped listserv, i learned about this UK campaign:
Whaddaya think? Any chance of something like that here? Hell, i'd settle for an enforced 30 mph limit on our residential thoroughfares like Roxboro & Alston. Too bad NCDOT is involved, though.
BTW - nice to see Durham police cars on I-85 monitoring traffic speeds. Would be nicer if they actually pulled people over at 75 in the 60 mph zone between exits 173 and 177. Yeah, i'm talking to you, Chevy Suburban, plate $WEL$PNT
20's Plenty For Us was formed in order to campaign for the implementation of 20 mph as the default speed limit on residential roads in the UK.
Research has shown that the vast majority of the public would like 20 mph on residential roads. Recent changes in Dept of Transport guidelines have relaxed the recommendations and in many residential areas 20 mph limits may be set without any physical measures at all.
Portsmouth have taken the initiative and implemented a default 20 mph speed limit throughout their town in all except main arterial routes.
This site aims to provide the arguments for 20's Plenty in a coherent understood form with links to other material that shows how 20's Plenty saves lives and makes very little difference to actual journey times.
Whaddaya think? Any chance of something like that here? Hell, i'd settle for an enforced 30 mph limit on our residential thoroughfares like Roxboro & Alston. Too bad NCDOT is involved, though.
BTW - nice to see Durham police cars on I-85 monitoring traffic speeds. Would be nicer if they actually pulled people over at 75 in the 60 mph zone between exits 173 and 177. Yeah, i'm talking to you, Chevy Suburban, plate $WEL$PNT
Labels: Traffic calming
Since 1949, Durhamites have slept soundly, secure in the knowledge that, in our town, erection can be depended upon. Now, thanks to the power of the internets, we can spread that security all over the world.
9 Comments:
This won't come as a surprise, but I'm all for it. I see residential speeding as way more important than the Sisyphean goal of catching speeders on the interstate. But whatever.
By
Unknown, at 2:41 PM
I'd actually go one further and say that residential speeding is qualitatively different from and about a million times more important that speeding on the interstate.
Interstates (except some running through urban cores) are typically engineered for speeds *much* higher than the posted limit, and are restricted access. Going 75 in a 60 may not be legal, but I don't see how one can make a serious claim that it is (necessarily) immoral. (Obviously it is if doing so puts other drivers at risk...which depends on conditions and traffic volume.)
You cannot say the same about going 40 in a residential 25.
By
Brian, at 3:02 PM
Right.
But given that we live in a town with limited police resources, and our police department administration has said that residential neighbohrood speeding is not a priority, if you're going to take a police officer (an admittedly scarce resource) and put them on the interstate, parked, to deter speeding, don't you think it makes sense to actually go after speeders? My one and only speeding ticket came in 1976 in New Mexico on Interstate 40 for doing 71 in a 55. In fact, there's no way that the deathmobile could even get above 65, so i knew the cop was just making it up.
No matter, every single car going above 55 was ticketed in that location. There were about 15 highway patrol cars, and about 65 or so cars pulled over getting tickets in an assembly line fashion.
I singled out the guy in the suburban, cause not only was he doing 75, at least, but also that lane change thing that people do on southbound 85, as they start getting nearer the 15/501 split.
Shorter point - if you don't have the officers to enforce residential speed limits, don't waste them on the highway.
By
Barry, at 3:16 PM
Shorter point - if you don't have the officers to enforce residential speed limits, don't waste them on the highway.
Word.
By
Brian, at 3:32 PM
The default speed limit in Durham is 35mph unless otherwise marked. This means that while the speed limit on, for example, Trinity Ave is 25 the speed limit on shorter 2-4 block streets where there are no speed limit signs, like Rosetta or Edward is 35 because there are no speed limit signs. And even then, a lot of damned fools treat it like an extension of 85.
It's ridiculous. Lower the default speed limit to 25. Set the speed limit for ALL residential streets to 25. Re-engineer residential streets to encourage such speeds. Enforce the speed limit. It's the city's job. No more excuses.
By
Steve Graff, at 9:26 PM
I'd be fine with 20mph on all roads which are not highways. The difference in time used going 20mph and 35mph is negligible at best for normal traffic.
Setting a default of 20mph would save a lot of gas.
By
skvidal, at 10:56 PM
The difference in time used going 20mph and 35mph is negligible at best for normal traffic.
I know. Which is why i'm mystified at those guys who insist on getting up to 50 on my 200 yard long dead end street.
By
Barry, at 11:41 PM
May be a dumb question,
but do they go by mph in the UK rather than kmph??
By
andy, at 6:58 AM
So it would appear.
By
Barry, at 8:20 AM
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