Your chance to have a say on 20mph limits

“http://tinyurl.com/9t5mvhk”

“@Claren
I used to work on Stapleton Road & there was zero evidence of people sticking to 30 mph never mind 20 mph on Stapleton Road, Robinson Road or Fishponds Road. Maybe they do on smaller streets.....but they are often so narrow with parking on either side it would be difficult to go much faster.”

“OK, I'm not a Clifton person, I'm writing from Easton where we've had a 20mph pilot for a while and it makes a real positive difference in day to day life.
I have 2 young children and it was really stressful walking the streets and trying to cross the road before but now it's much easier.
Perhaps some older people or people with some types of disability would benefit from this reduction in traffic speed too.
Yes, some people forget it's now 20mph and some people deliberately ignore it but on the whole traffic has slowed.
It's nice not hearing the familiar sound of a car accelerating hard in a small street so much.
As a car driver too, I can honestly say I've not noticed my car journeys taking longer. At all.
It's good to give people a forum to air different opinions but I can't help reading some of these comments and wondering just why people are getting so upset.
I work part time too so am in a rush but the benefits of this certainly outweigh the costs.”

“I would support a 20mph speed limit if the council were to remove the majority of traffic lights. Then the traffic may be able to achieve 20mph”

“@DM_Fishponds - "BCC's survey questions were biased. They were engineered to solicit the answers that BCC wanted. I complained about it at the time."
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Er...I gave three sources, all of which showed that introducing 20mph limits has strong public support. Are they all biased? Is the British Social Attitudes Survey result that 71 per cent of respondents were in favour or strongly in favour of speed limits of 20 mph in residential streets due to bias? Are the results of the UWE review due to bias?

Look at it another way. Why are none of the main contenders for elected Mayor of Bristol campaigning against the introduction of 20mph limits? If they could capture significant votes by doing this wouldn't at least some of them be onto it like a shot?”

“I live in Portishead, The Marina has a 10 mph speed limit, This is a total joke, My KA has a speedometer which starts at 10 mph, That means if the needle moves, I am breaking the speed limit. I tried to stick to the speed limit one day, And a runner passed me. So Bristols 20 mph speed limit isn't too bad at all. And you don't have sleeping policemen every 50 yards.”

“I think there is a place for reduced speed limits, namely around schools between 8am and 4pm. Not all single carriageway roads in Bristol 24hrs a day – that's just completely bonkers! For example, in my area Filton Avenue and Gloucester Road should remain at 30mph as they are major routes. The survey green_man mentions does seem like it was written to get the desired response. Of course people would like to see THEIR OWN roads with slower drivers. But if you ask them if they themselves would like to drive at 20mph around all the other roads in their area I bet the result would swing the other way. What we need is a public vote for something this big and impactful on peoples' lives. Of course, we all know what a 'consultation' means in BCC speak – it means they will ignore the result and just do what they want to do anyway. BCC, and particularly the Lib Dem nutters running it, are a bunch of lying, incompetent fools.

The whole problem with the proposal is that it is flawed. It will not reduce the speed of dangerous drivers – they already break the 30mph limit anyway. And 30mph is a perfectly safe speed to drive at through residential streets. Didn't a government campaign a few years ago try to persuade us to drive at 30mph? Apparently, if you hit someone at that speed (unlikely anyway as there would also be a bit of braking involved) there is an 80% chance they will live. Now I have seen campaigners stating that an impact of 30mph has a 50% mortality rate. That's just a lie to stoke up emotions and make people support another attack on car drivers in Bristol for no reason other than the vindictiveness of the council.”

“Lookout for the congestion charge, I'm sure that will be next after changing the layout of all main roads, causing gridlock, or is that the plan!!”

“and GARY HOPKINS jumps sides FROM LABOUR who will he jump to next ?”

“I live in Ashley Ward (Jon pain in neck Rogers stomping ground) & we are a 20 mph pilot area. When it was first introduced I attempted to comply but soon realised that I was pi**ing off those behind me & this resulted in several very dangerous (& illegal) overtaking. So I stopped. Week on week I see maybe 1 person driving at 20 mph everyone else from the police to First Bus drivers carry on. The only time I drop from 30 to 20 on the stretch of road where St Werburgh's Primary School is situated.

We weren't consulted about the pilot unless St Paul's Unlimited spoke supposedly on our behalf despite the fact that they are not representative & the so-called representatives don't speak to those they claim to represent - yet for some inexplicable reason BCC think that SPU are representative.

I don't see how the 20 mph can be enforced & would prefer to see much more effort put into dealing with properly dangerous road users especially those using mobiles whilst driving & cycling & the annoying prats pumping out music at high volume with the bass turned up to max.”