British motorists say they’ve been brought to their knees by dogmatic councils and woke government officials who have stealthily brought 20mph zones into their neighborhoods driving up the cost of motoring and causing journey times to swell.
Representatives of the Alliance of British Drivers (ABD) have accused authorities of ‘weaponizing’ safety fears to shut down debate and said it is laughable that under new regulations 15mph capped e-scooters are faster around cities than cars.
However, pro-slow activists ’20’s Plenty for Us’ have called for more local authorities to follow suit and welcomed the news that 28million Britons now live in areas with 20mph zones.
From next week, the default speed limit in Labour-run Wales in residential and built-up areas will drop from 30mph to 20mph – despite heavy opposition and projections the scheme will cost the country’s economy £9billion over 30 years.
In London, fresh off the back of his controversial Ulez expansion, Labour mayor Sadiq Khan has also announced plans to make 140 miles of London main roads 20mph zones – 37.9 per cent of its Red Route network.
CARDIFF: From next week, the default speed limit in Labour-run Wales in residential and built-up areas will drop from 30mph to 20mph
Traffic crawls along a busy road in Cardiff that’s been switched from 30mph to 20mph
Following the example of Wales, the devolved SNP government of Scotland and Devon and Cornwall council are also exploring the introduction of one size fits all low speed areas.
The case FOR 20mph zones
Rod King MBE is founder and director of 20’s Plenty for Us – a group who work to assist the setting of 20mph speed limits as a norm
He told MailOnline: ‘Common arguments you hear against 20mph speed limits is that they increase journey times and that they increase traffic in the area.
‘These simply aren’t true. They don’t cause a huge increase in journey times, because in most urban and village environments it’s how you’re stopped at pedestrian crossings and at junctions and traffic lights that affects your time – not your speed.
’20mph speed limits are safer and people want to feel safer in the places they work, shop or take their kids to school.
‘Where people are working, the presumption should be 20mph, and in summer places where it is decided that a higher speed is safe and appropriate that should be assessed by local authorities.’
And cities like Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool have all seen much of their transport networks follow the trend and move towards blanket 20mph zones.
The rollout of a new 20mph speed limit for residential roads in Wales by First Minister Mark Drakeford has been branded ‘absolutely insane’ and the Welsh Conservatives have already tabled a motion to scrap the policy amid warnings it will cost at least £33million to implement and cost Wales’ economy up to £9billion.
Wales’s emergency services have also warned that the blanket 20mph limits starting this Sunday will slow down response times, effectively putting lives at risk.
And a interactive map on the Welsh Government’s website to show locations of the 20mph roads crashed this morning amid high demand, but later came back online.
The Welsh Labour leader has said that cutting the speed from 30mph to 20mph on residential roads would protect lives and save the NHS in Wales £92million a year.
Most roads in Wales that are currently 30mph will become 20mph, but councils have discretion to impose exemptions. Mr Drakeford said the change is the ‘right thing to do’, citing a fall in urban road deaths in Spain after it made a similar move in 2019.
But drivers in Cardiff say the Welsh Labour Government’s 20mph rollout will only make traffic worse – and that they are ‘going nowhere fast’.
In fact, some workers in the Welsh capital are convinced that bikes are now the fastest way of tackling a gridlocked city centre.
But from the 17th September most 30mph will be reduced to 20mph across Wales – making journey times for drivers even longer.
First Minister Mark Drakeford (pictured with King Charles III and Queen Camilla in Brecon on July 20) said the reduction will protect lives and save the NHS in Wales £92million a year
Groundworker Kevin Khan, 52, said his journey from Caerphilly into the city centre already takes an hour due to traffic
Groundworker Kevin Khan, 52, said his journey from Caerphilly into the city centre already takes an hour due to traffic.
He said: ‘They need to stop it but they won’t. It’s just dictator Drakeford imposing his will on us again.
‘It’s terrible decision. Traffic is already so bad that we’re going nowhere fast. I spend my mornings stuck in it. It’s a huge pain in the a***.
‘I can’t see that it will make anything safer. What will make people safer is if they learn how to look properly before crossing a road.’
Businessman Jason Pritchard, 32, needs to drive to carry tools and workers for his dry lining company in South Wales and said the limits will be ‘a nightmare’.
Drivers warned not to rely on sat navs when Welsh roads switch
Drivers are being warned not to rely on sat navs for the speed limit on Welsh roads when a cut from 30mph to 20mph is imposed from Sunday.
The RAC said motorists should ‘pay full attention’ to signs rather than electronic devices after the change is made.
Its head of policy Simon Williams said: ‘It’s vitally important that drivers are fully aware of the arrival of the 20mph limit in Wales, and pay full attention to all road signage.
‘And, until sat nav systems have been fully updated, they shouldn’t rely on them to know what the speed limit is on any particular stretch of Welsh road.’
Mr Williams said compliance with 20mph limits is ‘quite poor’ and it would be ‘more effective to target areas where they are most needed’ such as on residential roads or in areas where there is high footfall.
He added: ‘Even if compliance with new 20mph limits is poor, it should lead to an overall reduction in speeds which will have a positive effect on road safety.’
Father-of-four Jason said: ‘I agree with it around schools and places like that but I don’t see the point on some of these main roads.
‘From 30 to 20 is a big jump and will double journey times for some people and traffic is already bad enough.
‘I leave early in the mornings so I can beat the traffic, I leave around 6am and my journey from the Rhondda takes about 30minutes, but on the way home I get stuck in it all and it takes an hour. That’s only going to get worse now.
‘I’d like to get the train to work and some of my employees already do, but you can’t when you have tools to carry or you might have to go elsewhere to pick something up – and it’s not like I can cycle either.
‘I don’t think it will make much of a difference to safety either. I think you will see more frustrated drivers and that can be dangerous.
‘The more time I spend in my car costs me more, makes my day longer, and takes me away from my family.’
Electrician James Gregg, 27, of Burnham on Sea, was working in Cardiff and commuted in his van.
He said: ‘I need the van for work and it takes me all over the South West and Wales there are more of these 20 zones and drivers need better signage.
‘I think reducing all 30s down to 20 is ridiculous. I think it will only mean people spend more time in their cars.
‘In some areas where they put the 20 limits are pointless.’
Rugby club worker Stacey Chappell, 37, of Ely, Cardiff, said: ‘The reduction is bad for traffic which is bad enough anyway. You’re stuck in traffic and people on bikes are going faster than you.
‘I can’t get a bike because I have to take my children to school and carry stuff with me and I don’t think I would get one anyway, I wouldn’t feel safe.
‘You can’t get public transport because it is so unreliable and so I feel I have to drive.’
Food courier Sridhar Yellu, 27, says traffic is so bad in central Cardiff already that he couldn’t do his job using a car – and his electric bike is a far quicker way to travel.
He said: ‘I work within a three-mile area but if I had to do it with a car I would get stuck in traffic.
‘My bike has a top speed of 15mph but it is much quicker for me to pick up from a restaurant, deliver to a customer and get back again, than if I had a car.
‘If I used a car to make the same journeys then everyone’s meal would get cold by the time I got there.’
Food courier Sridhar Yellu, 27, says traffic is so bad in central Cardiff already that he couldn’t do his job using a car
Chris Kenward, 31, says he expects more people turn to the benefits of electric bikes
Grandmother Suzanne Stephens is in favour of the new 20mph policy as she thinks it will save lives
Chris Kenward, 31, works at Cardiff’s Electric Bike Shop, and says he expects more people turn to the benefits of electric bikes with the speed reductions.
He said: ‘If you add a motor to your bike you can get to work and do your daily commute without breaking a sweat, that’s one of the advantages.
‘There is currently a 15.5mph speed limit on the bikes so although they’re not quite as fast as a 20mph limit they are not far off.
‘We are seeing more interest now in cargo bikes which you can fit two children’s seats to the back of so more people are doing the school run in them which may increase with the new limits.
‘The more bike lanes in Cardiff will speed up bike travel around the city but some of them at the moment are not very well looked after and even as an experienced cyclist it can still be scary riding in traffic.
‘The roads are already busy and traffic is bad around the city centre – and that’s before the introduction of 20mph.’
The Welsh Government has defended the decision, saying it will save lives, and grandmother Suzanne Stephens, 59, agrees.
She said: ‘I’m all for it. I drive all the time but if it makes it safer for people then I don’t have a problem.
‘I do the school run but even if it takes a bit more time then I don’t mind. Safety and safety of children is all that counts.’
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in Catford, south east London, on the first day of the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) to include the whole of London
Lower limits will be launched in Greenwich, Lewisham, Southwark, Wandsworth, Merton, Bromley, Lambeth and Kensington and Chelsea
Traffic on Millbank in Westminster passes by a 20mph sign after the limit was imposed in 2020 on all roads within the Congestion Charge area which are managed by Transport for London
TfL announced plans to cut speed limits in Camden, Islington, Hackney, Haringey and Tower Hamlets last November. These came into effect in March.
Meanwhile in the capital, angry there are fears drivers stuck in London traffic fear new speed limits could ‘endanger’ children.
Mayor Sadiq Khan has unveiled his latest raft of restrictions on motorists with a further 40 miles (65km) worth of roads in the capital set to become 20mph zones.
The limits will hit eight London boroughs and come into affect by the end of 2023 – months ahead of the original target of May 2024.
Transport for London bosses say the measure is intended to ‘save lives’ and help make a large area of the capital ‘safer and more attractive for people to live and work’.
Lower limits will be launched in Greenwich, Lewisham, Southwark, Wandsworth, Merton, Bromley, Lambeth and Kensington and Chelsea from this month.
It is the latest in a wave of 20mph crackdowns as part of Mr Khan’s ‘Vision Zero’ goal that aims to eliminate death and serious injury from the capital’s transport network. Once the new zones are installed, TfL will have delivered 87 miles (140km) of 20mph roads across the capital.
Workers and passers-by on Putney Bridge complained to MailOnline about the pollution on Fulham High Street, which was at standstill even in the middle of the day.
People reported feeling dirty when they get home from work, and many had to change routes because the roads were clogged.
Traffic slows to a crawl on Fulham High Street near Putney Bridge
Cab driver Anthony Gallagher said 20mph forces people to shell out extra money on fuel, wasted by standing still
One woman’s commute is supposed to take 12 minutes but instead takes 45 minutes.
The full list of London roads set to be capped at the 20mph speed limit by the end of 2023
A232: West Wickham High Street (scheme to go live in September)
A205: St John Wilson Street, Well Hall Road (scheme to go live in October)
A4: Cromwell Road, Brompton Road (scheme to go live in October)
A3220: Pembroke Road, Holland Road, Warwick Road, Redcliffe Gardens (scheme to go live in October)
A20: Eltham Road, Lee High Road, Lewisham Way (scheme to go live in November)
A202: Queens Road, Peckham High Street, Camberwell Church Street, Camberwell New Road (scheme to go live in December)
A2: New Cross Road, Old Kent Road (scheme to go live in December)
A201: New Kent Road (scheme to go live in December)
A100: Tower Bridge Road (scheme to go live in December)
A200: Jamaica Road (scheme to go live in December)
A3: Clapham Road, Kennington Park Road (scheme to go live in December)
A3204: Kennington Lane (scheme to go live in December)
A203: Stockwell Road (scheme to go live in December)
A23: Camberwell New Road, Streatham Hill, Streatham High Road (scheme to go live in December)
A214: Tooting Bec Road (Scheme to go live in December)
A24: Clapham Common South Side, Balham High Road, Upper Tooting Road, High Street Colliers Wood (scheme to go live in December)
A205: Woolwich Common, South Circular Road, Catford Road, Stanstead Road, London Road, Thurlow Road, Christchurch Road, Poynders Road, Dulwich Common (scheme to go live in December)
One dad of two, who does not own a car, said he worries for the safety of his wife and two children who cycle to school.
He said drivers stuck in standstill become angry, and they make mistakes or speed once they’re freed from the jam.
A private bus driver said the children he takes to school are often late because of the traffic.
He said he is fed up with the traffic restrictions and complained that the standstill is hitting his finances by forcing his drivers to turn down jobs.
Anthony Gallagher, who runs his own company Gallagher’s Travel, said the 20mph limit was an extra tax.
He said it forces people to shell out extra money on fuel, wasted by standing still.
The owner of the 15-strong fleet of vans said: ‘It’s a nightmare, an absolute nightmare. My busses do school runs where it ones takes 25 minutes, quarter of an hour, and it now takes over an hour.
‘The whole area is like this until 11.30 in the morning, it’s completely blocked up. Then it all starts again at 1.30pm.
‘It takes an eternity to get anywhere.
‘The kids are arriving late [to school] because of the traffic, they’re supposed to get into school at 8.10, sometimes they don’t get into there until 8.30 or 8.45am.’
Venezuelan bike salesman Carlos Raminez, 38, said he worries about his four year old son and two year old daughter because his wife transports them around in a three-wheel cargo bike.
He fears people become aggressive drivers when they’re stuck in traffic.
Even as a cyclist, the car traffic is increasing his commute – he estimated it adds at least 10 percent of time to any bicycle journey.
The bicycle shop owner is strongly against people driving cars without passengers, and believes the UK should implement a system like Venezuela to reduce cars.
He said in his home country, car registrations have numbers that dictate whether they can drive on one of two days.
He has run his outlet, Gloria, on Fulham Road, for three years.
He said the traffic had worsened: ‘The more traffic the more danger. With the traffic, it’s not even space where a bike can go, people even go on the pavement, but it’s quite bad doing that.
‘The only time it’s not like that is at 6am. Whenever my wife goes I’m worried about her with the kids.
‘I think it’s the same if you come here from Wimbledon as it is to go all the way to Gatwick Airport.’
Venezuelan bike salesman Carlos Raminez, 38, said he worries about his four year old son and two year old daughter on the roads
Henry Dunhill revealed the area had always been choked with traffic
Henry Dunhill, a sales representative at Clarion events company, said the road is notoriously filled with traffic.
The case AGAINST 20mph zones
Ian Taylor is a director of the Alliance of British Drivers and claimed the way new 20mph limits were targeted at the public was dishonest.
He told: ‘I know some authorities claim people clamour for it, and it is with consent, but I fear they only phrase their questions in such a way as to guarantee the answer, weaponizing safety concerns against motorists. In other words, you can’t always trust some of these surveys.
‘For example, if you make the whole thing hinge around Do you agree with measures that would reduce road deaths and casualties. Nobody’s going to answer no, and you know everyone’s going to answer yes.
‘The question then is :do all these speed limits actually reduce road casualties, accidents and deaths?
‘The answer is, not particularly you’ll always find somewhere where they do. But there’s other places where they don’t. In fact, sometimes it even goes the other way.
Every few years a politician who wants to get elected stands up and says we’ll end the war on motorists. But, in fact, what we’re finding is it is actually not only not ended.
‘It’s actually intensified.’
The 24-years-old lives in Shepherds Bush and the roads are always clogged on his commute home.
He said: ‘It’s well known that it is the most congested road in London.
‘The smell, the dust, the noise, it’s everywhere.’
Shopkeeper Malik Dawood said business is booming because people are waiting in congestion.
He said: ‘There is all the time traffic, there is too much traffic.
‘For others, I think, it is difficult, because they complain about traffic to me.
‘Particularly the cab drivers, they have no idea where they are going to park.’
A 20mph zone has also enclosed the whole of Manchester city centre to make the streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
However motorists claim the traffic often crawls at walking pace.
And when drivers do speed up there seem to be few enforcement cameras to penalise them.
Usman Qureshi, 35, runs a confectionary and drink kiosk.
The Malih News owner said: ‘I don’t think it’s a great idea as the traffic need to be moving to stop them polluting the air as they are stuck in traffic.
‘There does seem to be more traffic recently – perhaps it’s the new speed limits.’
Plumber Colin Bate, 34, drives his van from his home in nearby Stockport to jobs in the city centre.
He admitted: ‘I haven’t noticed it and I drive in a lot
‘Perhaps the signs aren’t big enough.’
He added: ‘It’s a good idea to make it safer for people but it doesn’t seem to be needed as you often don’t go above 20mph in the city.’
A 20mph zone has also enclosed the whole of Manchester city centre to make the streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians
Usman Qureshi, 35, thinks the new 20mph speed limits in Manchester are a terrible idea
Motorists claim the traffic often crawls at walking pace in the busy city centre
Taxi driver Paul Campbell, 63, says the new speed limits are good for him as he’s on a meter
Taxi driver Paul Campbell, 63, said: ‘I’ve obviously noticed as I work in here in the city centre.
‘It’s good for me as I’m on a meter but most drivers either ignore it or just don’t know it’s there as when there aren’t traffic queues, they whizz past.
‘They are definitely going more than 20mph.
‘But a lot of time in the centre, it’s doesn’t affect you as the traffic can struggle to make it anywhere near 20mph.
‘However that’s not the main issue for me. They have changed the speed limit on the Mancunian Way from 50mph to 30mph which is crazy.
‘So now traffic backs up either side causing jams and of course more pollution. This is one of the way thorough fares across the city so it’s a mad decision.’
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