Twenty’s plenty?

Transport chiefs in Edinburgh have come under fire after a £3m drive to roll out 20mph limits across the city has only led to reducing speeds of motorists by 1.3mph.

I tried to comply with this for one day, and after the abuse I got, the amount of folk overtaking and the feeling that it was just too slow on most roads, I haven’t tried to drive at 20 since and have no plans to do so again unless the conditions and road warrants it, which isn’t often. This restriction should be outside schools and certain residential roads only. I don’t believe for a second that the people who came up with this scatter-brained idea get in their cars and drive at that speed.

Paul Keating Like most of these supposed “safety”-based speeding claims, it’s all just total nonsense. The objective for the police of this activity is to collect revenue. They have targets to meet for speeding fines, just like any salesman has a target. It’s another way to implement a tax without actually calling it a tax. A cash grab, on another soft target, namely the longsuffering motorist. If it was genuinely purely about safety then it would be easy to accept. But it’s mostly just about taking easy money for nothing much.

Jon Clark

Everybody (well, obviously not those that promoted it) said that this would be the outcome. Lives saved? Accidents avoided? Er . . . Almost no one complies and those that try are castigated. And don’t start me on the speed bumps.

Euan Cunningham

On narrow residential streets absolutely no problems with 20mph, and sometimes 20 is too fast where there are parked cars on both sides and room for one car at a time in either direction. But 20mph on main roads and arterial routes is crazy, unless road or weather conditions dictate it

Douglas Sykes

Lots of negative comments; but in town, 20 really is plenty. Mildly frustrating on some stretches, but otherwise sensible. I doubt many will agree, mind.

Colin Brown

I actually stick to the 20 limit in built-up areas but unfortunately it’s caused more danger for pedestrians and children as other drivers get frustrated at me doing 20 and tend to overtake me rather than slow down themselves

Digger Boomer The real effect of the lower speed limit is that it gets drivers thinking more about the speed they are driving at and most have slowed down. There will always be clowns who rail against their Godgiven right to zoom through the streets but I think the end result is (slightly) safer streets.

John Innes

I’m struggling to understand how anybody can achieve more than 20 mph in Edinburgh. You would be lucky to achieve 15.

Joyce Warren

20mph speed limits are widely ignored because they are too low. They also lead to aggressive behaviour