waremark wrote:Why do councillors think that blanket 20 limits on through routes will be popular (as politicians they would not impose them if they did not think that)?
Sadly I don't think this is entirely how politics works now... we seem to be in an era of politics run to re-elect... so it is all about short term soundbites and apparent solutions...
Putting in a 20mph philosophy allows councillors to say: 'look at us we have dealt with speeding / we have dealt with road hazards / we have sorted it all out' - it is a quick paint job over a rotten core - dealing with symptoms, not the actual issues...
As the case posted by Rod shows, even in that 20mph area the driver would have been too fast at 20mph, the issue was the driver, not the limit - but while we all know that driver training is the only answer to the issues being dealt with, it is not politically expedient - it is a slow, long term process with no quick signs of action, and expensive with no ground swell of support...
you can impose a 20mph limit and anyone who disagrees is tarred as being a destructive planet and child killing tyrrant who just wishes to speed - and you can easily punish people for breaching the limit...
to impose driver training is very very much more challenging - and politicians at any level don't have the desire to do the job properly if they can pretend that they have done it sufficiently...
it is sadly the pattern we are seeing through our whole country...
Alasdair