Lewisham wide 20mph roads

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JRobinson
Posts: 1104
Joined: 5 Jan 2010 12:40
Location: De Frene Rd

Re: Lewisham wide 20mph roads

Post by JRobinson »

I've driven on lots of roads at 30mph, and lots of roads now at 20mph (and lots with higher speed limits too) - I've never hit and killed a pedestrian, at 30mph or 20mph or any other speed.

my own personal pedestrian death rate has not decreased because I'm driving slower.
apparently, my car is giving out more pollution when being driven at a slower speed, so therefore it's possible that I might be contributing to the possibly earlier death of several people at some distant point in the future.
stuart
Posts: 3632
Joined: 21 Sep 2004 10:13
Location: Lawrie Park
Contact:

Re: Lewisham wide 20mph roads

Post by stuart »

JRobinson wrote:my own personal pedestrian death rate has not decreased because I'm driving slower.
apparently, my car is giving out more pollution when being driven at a slower speed, so therefore it's possible that I might be contributing to the possibly earlier death of several people at some distant point in the future.
I doubt you have 2.4 children either. But your chance of killing or seriously injuring someone in your lifetime whilst driving is finite and not insignificant. More significant is the chance that someone in your family or a close friends will become a victim. You can almost count on it happening.

That significance is significantly reduced if you and others max out at 20mph on suburban roads. It doesn't matter if you are the guilty or innocent party on impact. The impact is just the same.

As for pollution - look back with my previous discussion with Mary when she could not produce evidence that pollution would increase. To be fair I can't the other way. Its difficult and here is the problem. Driving steadily at 30mph produces produces less pollution per mile than 20mph. But you can't do that in Lewisham. You are constantly accelerating and braking. Braking from 30mph wastes more energy than 20mph. Which uses more fuel: accelerating to 20mph or 30mph? I'm sure you have got the message that which is best is dependent on the pattern of your driving.

Frankly if you don't want to kill more people that way don't drive a VW diesel or more than 50 mph anywhere!

Stuart
perryman
Posts: 117
Joined: 4 Mar 2007 01:45
Location: perry vale

Re: Lewisham wide 20mph roads

Post by perryman »

Aunque no tengas nada, tienes la vida, dónde lo hay todo.
I've got this:
"In areas with no (speed) limits, take those lives, where you still can."

I think it is nice that we hear all viewpoints in our community, even if we might not at first totally agree with them.
JRobinson
Posts: 1104
Joined: 5 Jan 2010 12:40
Location: De Frene Rd

Re: Lewisham wide 20mph roads

Post by JRobinson »

I thought about translating the Russian but have realised that it's spam, a google search/translation just brings up loads of posts on different forums (fora?) with exactly the same whole message, but from what I remember it's something that Konfusious (sp?) said - about people who don't love to talk doing something or other.

[edit to add, google translate give this: {Or As Confucius said - "People in ancient times did not like to talk much they felt shame for himself not keep up with his own words."}]
Andwar
Posts: 64
Joined: 19 Mar 2007 13:16
Location: Sydenham

Re: Lewisham wide 20mph roads

Post by Andwar »

I just thought the council had a load of spare white paint to get rid of. Just like when they have a load of concrete and mini-roundabouts spring up in unexpected places.

The big question is if you manage to drive faster than 20mph in London then you are doing well.
alywin
Posts: 920
Joined: 27 Aug 2009 12:33
Location: No longer in Sydenham

Re: Lewisham wide 20mph roads

Post by alywin »

I too recall that it used to be that you only drove fuel-efficiently once you got past about 25 mph or so and were in 3rd or 4th gear, so if you were driving at below that speed you were churning out comparatively more pollutants, and thereby most likely contributing to the early death of other people anyway. Perhaps that has now changed, and car manufacturers are producing cars which can drive at lower speeds with less pollution? I certainly hope so.

Back last century, when I still had a car, I remember driving along the North Circular when a temporary speed limit was in place, due, I think, to resurfacing and the risk of chipping or something, so a reduction from perhaps 50 to 20 mph. I remember how difficult it was to resist the pressure and stay at that speed, when drivers behind you were using all the tactics mentioned previously to try and get you to speed up, so I understand the problem.

20 mph zones, on the other hand, are a different problem. When I was living in a different part of Bromley, we had letters through the door telling us that since we had a higher than average accident rate in our little block of roads Bromley were going to implement a 20 mph zone to improve things, and were going to use various different approaches (none of which worked, in the end, just caused more parking problems and possibly made the whole situation worse). Of course, once we had a speed limit and our accident rate was reduced, obviously another chunk of roads in the area would then have a higher than average rate, and would need to be dealt with, and so on, and so on, ad infinitum.
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