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Beware, the 20mph ban will change daily travel patterns
• AT the risk of upsetting road sign manufacturers, I feel I should jump to the defence of Tim Newark. In your letters page, Andrew Myer has accused Mr Newark of scaremongering with his forecasts of extra 20mph road signs (Fewer signs up ahead, October 9). However, on this occasion, Mr Newark was merely echoing the threats the council had expressed in a public consultation brochure.
The council’s exact words were: “We will install 20mph signs at road entrances and at regular intervals along the roadside.” I was quite shocked to see this because, like Mr Myer, I expected a blanket 20mph scheme to result in fewer road signs, not more.
Quite apart from the expense of installing these eyesores, it seems quite bizarre for a council to want to litter a crowded borough with extra street furniture at a time when other parts of London are weighing up the feasibility of Naked Streets. I am quite sure that most people would readily swap a metal sign or two for a tree.
I can fully understand why many residents want calmer streets, and this probably has more to do with quality of life than perceived safety. I agree with Mr Myer that if vehicles crawled through residential areas at low speeds then the environment would feel more civilised; but if this can be achieved only through extra signs or cameras then Islington could feel more like a police state than ever before.
It’s not a great hardship for a driver to crawl at 20mph for the occasional 100-yard stretch. But I am struggling to work out how the average driver is going to cope on longer runs, especially at night when 20mph feels ridiculous. Fortunately, drivers will still be entitled to make sensible progress along the main roads, but during the day it will be a difficult choice – risk of congestion or risk of being criminalised.
The council’s approach seems a bit one-sided, and it could alienate more people than it attracts. Urban driving can be frustrating at the best of times and modern drivers are burdened with responsibilities without rights. Many of these people are professional drivers who form part of our day-to-day supply chain, but the council shows no empathy for them.
Mr Newark made the valid point that stiffer penalties are needed for the worst offenders but the council’s literature does not differentiate between these selfish drivers and the considerate majority.
Has the council underestimated the impact of the 20mph scheme? How much time has it allowed for an adjustment period? No doubt people’s daily patterns will need to change – not just the routes they take, but also the times of day they choose to travel. Will the council be managing our expectations and offering advice, or will it simply take the line: “Obey the new law or else”?
The best anyone can hope for is a compromise, but for this scheme to succeed the public will need to adapt and the council needs to do whatever it can to help the public to adapt. Hopefully, the council officers have now had the opportunity to absorb comments made during the public consultation and I look forward to reading any report they choose to publish.
Ian Shacklock
Monsell Road, N4
• RICHARD Lewis says that “nobody could reasonably claim that 20mph limits are anything but damaging in terms of emissions” (How green are parties? October 9). He has clearly not read Braking Point, a report to the London Assembly on the impact of 20mph speed limits in London.
The report states that “research conducted on real streets under normal driving conditions has suggested that 20mph limits have a positive impact on emissions because they improve traffic flow. This is because drivers travel at a more constant speed; they accelerate and decelerate less frequently, and spend less time stationary, using less fuel.”
Speaking for the many residents who get around the borough on foot, I welcome the introduction of a 20mph limit on all residential roads and urge the council to extend it to the borough-controlled main roads.
All residents, wherever they live, shop and work, deserve to benefit from a safer, calmer street environment with fewer vehicle emissions.
Caroline Russell
Chair, Islington Living Streets |
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