So many advantages of cutting speed on roads
I NOTICE that Birmingham has introduced some 20mph zones.
We should be doing this here in Coventry with active control – actual speed cameras and red-light speed cameras, not average ones or ineffective displays showing your speed with no consequences for speeding.
In a recent holiday in Scotland I noticed that there were many villages with 20mph limits. They seemed so calm. So, we should also be introducing this in Warwickshire villages.
This has many benefits to drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and, above all, residents.
For drivers it will reduce fuel consumption. They might even be able to continue at a steady speed rather than speeding, accelerating and braking from one traffic light to the next (less stress too?). It would also make it easier to pull out of side roads.
It would reduce accidents and severity of accidents.
How much extra time would be needed with this reduced limit?
A drive from the outskirts of Coventry to the city centre of 4 miles – all the way at 30mph (extremely unlikely) would take you 8 minutes, at 20mph it’s 12 minutes. So, at most, a saving of 4 minutes. It’s more likely the average speed now is 20mph or less anyway, so negligible savings. For a village of about a mile, for example, Long Itchington it would take one minute more. No big deal!
It would reduce air pollution, the worst occurs when you accelerate and when you brake (from brake pad particles) maybe even reducing the need for expensive roadworks disrupting the lives of residents and destroying mature trees and green areas like we’ve got in Spon End.
Cyclists would be safer – maybe more would use the bike and no need to keep expanding cycle paths.
Pedestrians would be safer as serious accidents would be reduced
so fewer deaths and serious injuries.
Residents would also benefit not only from the reduced air pollution but also from much quieter streets and less vibration and damage to homes.
I slept in the front bedroom of a house in a town centre with a cobbled road where cars were driven slowly. I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep but the cars were so quiet they were the best nights’ sleep I had had for ages.
Of course, with active control, it will be decried as a money spinner but we need to improve the environment for all of us and, after a while, we would all get used to it.
J Bates, Coventry
Worn out
I READ with disbelief the plan of moving the retirement age to 68.
That is all very well to the people sat in their offices etc but what about the manual workers who are physically worn out by 65. I know I had had enough by then.
I suppose the idea is to finish people off before they retire through exhaustion.
K.J Clarke,
Coventry