Cute and Yucky

You know how some things really piss you off...

Well that sign is one of them.

That particular variant of the ‘20’s Plenty’ theme is the one propagating around my area. Are these things designed by children? Is this country now leaving Road Safety signage in the hands of toddlers? And what does ‘20 is plenty’ mean?

Plenty for what? It’s like saying a digestive biscuit is enough, which rather depends on how hungry you are. 20mph could well be plenty when children are running around but not when the road’s clear and conditions are good. Drivers are remarkably good at adjusting their speed for the conditions.

In any case, the whole argument that driving at 20mph is safer than 30mph is flawed.

A report - produced by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (Pacts) - claimed that a default speed of 20mph in built-up areas would halve the number of deaths on Britain's roads over the next few years.

That is complete bollocks. In the UK, less than 30% of deaths occur on urban roads and about 15% of deaths are pedestrians and cyclists, so a total elimination of deaths in 20/30mph zones could never halve the overall figures.

Pacts also suggest that 20mph speed limits would make it safer for people to walk or cycle and subsequently reduce the amount of traffic on the roads. I’d love to know how they reached that conclusion.

Also, what Pacts fails to explain are the DfT accident figures for 2006, which show that there were more people killed or seriously injured in 20mph zones than 30mph zones. If you get to the point where a speed limit feels unnatural, it affects a driver’s attention, and that is a far bigger killer than exceeding speed limits, which only accounts for 5% of deaths.


Anyway, look at this scene...


Apart from the 2 misguided souls standing too close to the road (and facing away from on-coming traffic) – where are the hazards? Why are they suggesting that 20 is plenty there?

I’m sorry guys, you can’t cheat the facts no matter how cute you make the road signs.