Lowering Sheffield speed limits to 25 mph

[Bedders]

just like a live version of this forum then, innit?

 

you said it mate!

[Tony]

What is the average traffic speed in Sheffield at peak times currently?

 

ISTR 16 mph or 19 mph, which is a city wide average so it includes the faster roads as well.

[Number Six]

ISTR 16 mph or 19 mph, which is a city wide average so it includes the faster roads as well.

 

So how would reducing the speed limit make any difference if, on average, people are already going slower than the limit you propose?

 

It'd make no difference at peak times, and just slow people down (or be ignored) the rest of the time.

[metalman]

 

The private car has no place in the 21st century city.

 

So what if you want to get out of the city?

[HeadingNorth]

So how would reducing the speed limit make any difference if, on average, people are already going slower than the limit you propose?

 

It's well established on congested motorways, that reducing the maximum speed limit can actually improve the average speed. It eliminates, or at least cuts down on, the stop-go-stop-go effect caused by fast-moving traffic continually catching up with slow-moving traffic.

 

Whether the same would be true in a city, I don't know. I doubt it. I really don't see any benefits to reducing the speed on the major artery roads to 25mph, let alone 20. On the other hand, I'd happily see 20mph for all housing estates.

 

Which brings up another point, of course. Some of our main arterial roads have housing on them; this city was never designed and planned out, it just grew organically.

[GordonBennet]

So what if you want to get out of the city?

 

I would still permit private cars on motorways and A roads, just not in built up areas.

[Tony]

What he says ^^ and

So how would reducing the speed limit make any difference if, on average, people are already going slower than the limit you propose?

 

It'd make no difference at peak times, and just slow people down (or be ignored) the rest of the time.

 

Obviously simple maths tells us that there is a world of difference between average speeds and maximum speeds.

 

Out of interest how often do you travel at 30mph on the average residential street? How often is it safe to do so?

[Cyclone]

So how would reducing the speed limit make any difference if, on average, people are already going slower than the limit you propose?

 

It'd make no difference at peak times, and just slow people down (or be ignored) the rest of the time.

 

That's an average including faster roads. Introducing a lower limit on residential roads would reduce the average still further, without affecting the average at rush hour significantly.

[Cyclone]

I would still permit private cars on motorways and A roads, just not in built up areas.

 

Maybe you can explain how you would actually get home then, unless you live on an A road? And how you'd get the bulky items from B&Q home if you were about to say something stupid like use the bus.

Where exactly would your car be abandoned as you reached the end of the A road, and what use all the countryside B roads if you're not allowed to drive on them.

 

Motorised transport is what allowed people to stop living close to their place of work, ban the car from everything except trunk roads and you'll destroy the economy and ultimately force everyone to work within walking or cycling distance of home (although you don't like cycling, so I guess walking only).

[Number Six]

What he says ^^ and

 

Obviously simple maths tells us that there is a world of difference between average speeds and maximum speeds.

 

Out of interest how often do you travel at 30mph on the average residential street? How often is it safe to do so?

 

I'm not sure what your point is about max and avg speeds being different.

 

My point was that my experience of driving in Sheffield is I go down the Parkway at 70mph / 50mph / 40mph where appropriate, then get in to the city centre and crawl along at less than 25mph.

 

I need to arrive in the city when I do so that I can be at work on time. Reducing the speed limit on the Parkway would just mean I need to leave earlier.

 

Reducing the limit in the city would have no effect because I rarely get above the limit proposed anyway, and in the brief moments I do it is over far too short a distance for it to be any danger to anyone.

 

Obviously if you drive around when there is less traffic you'd just be going slower but not really benefiting anyone.

 

I don't often look at my speedometer when I'm driving, I look where I am going. I drive at a speed that feels safe to me. As I have only been fined speeding once in 18 years (on the M1, on a cool, dry summer evening with plenty of light and hardly any traffic - I was doing a little over 90) I drive down our street (narrow) at about 10mph I suppose. I drive down the road that leads to it (quite wide, residential, 30 limit) at about 35mph or 40mph in the evening I suppose, and about 20mph or less if it is school chucking out time. I drive on the motorway at 90 ish if it's empty and I'm in a hurry (still - I just check my mirror more often) and whatever speed the lorry in front of me is going if I've plenty of time. If it's wet I go slower. In other words, it depends.