20mph Speed Limits in Portsmouth

I can see the introduction of 20mph limits in parts of Portsmouth being at best a complete waste of time, and at worst cause an increase in accidents and convictions.

The emphasis by the police and the council will be in detecting drivers exceeding this unrealistically low speed limit, and ignoring all the other bad types of driving and road use that goes on. When drivers cause accidents it is usually due to lack of observation, concentration, anticipation and control. These factors are now totally ignored by the police, so the standards of driving have plummeted over recent years.

Most accidents involving pedestrians are actually the fault of the pedestrians themselves. Stepping out into the road without looking, ear attached to an iPod or mobile phone, all really basic stuff we were taught as kids. Cars hurt when they hit you, make an effort to avoid them.

I know Portsmouth quite well and I expect the limits to be concentrated around the narrower streets which are full of compact terraced housing and rows of parked cars on each side. Even if the limit was 100mph down these roads, drivers still wouldn’t go much faster than they currently do. There is simply too much too look out for such as on-coming vehicles to negotiate space with, badly parked cars, tight side roads and so on. In these sort of road drivers don’t travel quickly. But what they do need is 100% concentration on what is going on outside of their vehicle. An unreasonably low speed limit will be a distraction with the drivers eyes consumed with the speedometer and hidden speed traps. This cannot be good for safety.

Driving too slowly can also give a false sense of security for pedestrians, as they may start to take risks with cars that appear not to be perceptually moving, or can be heard to be moving. A certain amount of speed is required to make your existence known.

Road Pricing Petition

Just a quick post to follow up my comments on road pricing. There is a petition on Number 10′s website, where you can sign up to scrap this daft idea. Here’s the link:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

There’s already over 55,000 signatures on it, so add some more!

Road Charging

The latest government idea to try and save the environment, or so they claim, is to introduce road charging. They will charge every driver per mile of driving some value depending upon how congested that particular road is considered at the time. For example driving along the M25 at 8:00am may cost £2 per mile, whereas driving along a remote country lane at 11:00pm may cost 10p per mile.

The scheme will require a lot of technology, the use of the GPS system to track the cars, and in-car recording devices. Needless to say all this technology will not only cost money (for the motorist naturally), it will be as reliable as any technology of this nature is. In other words, it will be as flakey as a 1970′s made British car.

So will this idea reduce congestion? In one word, no. Do they seriously believe people want to be sitting in a traffic jam on the M25 at 8:00am in the morning? They are there because they have no alternative. They have to get to work, or have to deliver something. The public transport system does not give them an alternative. It is either too expensive, too busy, or more usually far too time consuming and doesn’t even go the way you are going. Charge these drivers even more and they will have two choices: pay up and suffer or stay at home and not work (if working from home isn’t an option). Neither will do anything for the economy of the country, or much for the environment.

It is so obvious that it will do nothing for the environment, it is a joke the government is trying to pass it off as a green idea. It is nothing to do with green, just greed. It is purely another tax on the motorist and more income for the government. It will not reduce congestion, but just fill the coffers for more wars.

This scheme will also target the honest and law-abiding. Those who don’t want to pay will just drive un-insured and un-registered cars, breaking the law to avoid these charges. It is already happening with the congestion charging zone and as a result of the explosion of speed cameras. There are also serious civil liberty issues with it. The government will now be tracking your every move. Quite frankly it is none of their business where and when I go somewhere. Do you want me to peer through the bedroom window of 10 Downing Street while Tony and Cherie get down to action? I’m sure they don’t, so don’t spy on me.

If the government was serious about reducing congestion they could do so in a matter of months. They could free up clogged urban roads by sorting out badly timed traffic lights. They could removed speed bumps and chicanes. They could remove pointless bus lanes, and road narrowing. They could put more trains on the tracks, more bus routes to remotes areas. They could increase speed limits to what they orginally were several years ago. They should clamp down on poor motorway driving, and remove unlicensed drivers. They could provide more off-road cycle routes. They could run the Underground for 24 hours. None of these things are particularly expensive, or require massive civil engineering work. They are just common sense ideas to free up the movements in this country. The environment will benefit significantly.

Taxing things does not reduce their use. It didn’t work on smoking or drinking. The government know a cash cow when they see one, and the current trend is to hide it behind the green banner. It is cynical and deceiving.