RodK asked:
Q: How would it be for the cyclist trying to negotiate the cars parked in the cycle lane?
A: the cycle lane is a nonsense anyway. Look a little further down the street and you'll find a bus stop blocking it, go a little further down and it disappears entirely.
Q: How would it be for the 75 year old or child wanting to cross the road to get to their shop?
A: They should use a pedestrian crossing, or cross at the lights. If there's no crossing, they should campaign for one - I'm sure there's a pressure group to help them, somewhere. And making the speed limit 20 mph doesn't suddenly make it OK to mix pedestrians and cars in the road without any control.
Q: How would it be for the group that has just come out of The Queen Vic?
A: Advanced drivers are trained to look at pubs as a potential hazard, but what are we actually talking about here? Drunk people lacking enough control to walk on the (quite wide) pavement? See previous point.
Q: How would it be for the driver coming out of the petrol station and finding their view obscured by those planters?
A: What's that got to do with the speed limit? Are you saying it's safe for them to drive out without looking if the speed limit's 20 instead of 30?
Q: How would it be for the people sat in the pavement cafe that we can see?
A: How would what be? Are you saying traffic at 20 mph is silent, or doesn't emit fumes?
Q: How would it be for the person just getting off the bus and crossing in front of it?
A: see previous point about pedestrians in the road. They have a responsibility, too.
Q: How would it be for the bus driver having to pull out and filter into the stream of traffic?
A: I imagine they managed on the day before the 20mph limit was introduced, and for many years before that.
Q: How would it be for the people living above the shops?
A: they chose to live there, presumably, knowing it was a main road.
Q: How would it be considering its casualty record?
A: Ah, at last a sensible point. I wonder if that was actually taken into account, and whether strategically sited pedestrian crossings might have been just as effective?
Q: Whilst some of these may well be negligent road users there is still a duty of care to avoid them.
A: Yep, and every driver understands that, not just advanced ones. Some may be better at exercising the care than others, that's all. Did you see the pedestrian by the bus stop crossing the road while firmly looking at his phone?
Q: And lets face it the A38 sounds grand but it has long ago been bypassed by the M32. And with regard to its primary function, in that particular place and time it would appear that there are as many people moving outside of cars as are moving in cars. All those shops also give a sense of "place" for people.
A: There patently aren't. Over half a mile or so the number of people on foot, and a single cyclist, barely add up to double figures. I'm not going to attempt a count, because the traffic is not representative given that it's moving along with the Google car, but at a guess there are well over 50 cars visible along the same stretch.
Q: I am sure that you will agree that whilst "advanced" drivers would see all the above as potential hazards, many drivers would not see them as such at all. And there are many who would see those large 30mph signs as you come out of the side roads as invitations to go 10mph faster.
A: Yep, that's what speed limits are for. Slower speeds where appropriate.
Q: I am not saying this road should or should not be 20 or 30 but it is not you or I that decides but the local traffic authority.
A: a minute ago (it seems only a minute) you were extolling your qualifications as a traffic engineer. Now you want to step back...
Q: What is clear is that Bristol City Council as that Traffic Authority have decided that it should be a 20mph limit. They have done that without any lobbying from 20's Plenty for Us.
A: So the entry for "Bristol" on
this page is a misprint then?
Q: They have done it with the ability for that particular road and limit to be objected to and would have had to consider any such objections rationally and reasonably. Either they had no objections from the 400,000 residents, or they did and decided that they were not reasonable.
A: No doubt there were some objections, but how many of the local residents (not the entire population of Bristol that you chose to use) actually knew the measure was imminent?