The City is proposing to slow us down. They want to slow us to 20mph to make safer residential areas in Bristol. This may sound oppressive to the more impatient drivers, but the real effect on journey times is minimal.

My area of Southville is part of a 'Greater Bedminster' pilot scheme that includes Windmill Hill. I hope it will bring some real benefits to safety and the local environment; however, when I look at the consultation document in detail I feel there is some significant room for improvement.

Having given the area a clear boundary, the document then complicates the issue by suggesting leaving certain routes through the area at the current 30mph limit. The fact is that these key routes are also key cycling and walking routes, and go past some of the seven primary schools within the area.

The trouble with traffic measures is that they are generally planned by highway engineers, who – however well-meaning – tend to think in terms of roads and traffic flow, and have very different criteria from those of us who occupy the streets for shopping and walking to school or to work and who regard them as social territory.

So if we are going to make radical moves such as this, much as many European cities are doing, then let's have the courage to go the extra mile and simply declare whole areas to be 20mph, rather than confusing the issue with a mix of limits that results in a plethora of signs as one moves from one street to another.

The small move of reducing the speed limit by 10mph will largely be regulated by consent. Local drivers who respect the limit will automatically slow those who choose to speed through the area with little care or thought for others. There will be no traffic calming bumps that tend to punish small wheels more than large ones.

Apart from the obvious safety benefits to pedestrians – and children in particular – there is an opportunity for us to have a look at other potential street and movement improvements within the area.

This coincides with an imaginative announcement from Government proposing to change the law to allow cyclists to ignore some no-entry street signs, legitimising what increasingly happens in much of London and elsewhere.

As a result a trial is being set up in Kensington and Chelsea and should certainly be emulated in Bristol. I confess to having on occasions been economical with the highway code on my bike, but I am not alone. It is an irony that Kensington was the area in which David Cameron was embarrassingly caught cycling the wrong way up a one-way street – although his car could not follow him! Maybe in a small way this has enabled this proposed change in legislation.

The 20mph proposal makes counter-flow cycling so much safer, and speeds up cycle trips, helping to convert people from four wheels to two – a prime aim for Bristol's Cycle Demonstration City programme.

However, even if the proposal does currently fall short of the ideal it is to be welcomed as a move in the right direction – not as an anti-car move but very much as a positive move towards a healthier and more environmentally friendly city.

My plea to the council is that it should have the courage to take the bull by the horns and avoid a confusing mix of speed limits within one residential area.

More information can be found on www.bristol.gov.uk/20mph where views can be expressed – especially if you live in the area.