20 is plenty...

This time last year the Welsh Assembly - they liked to be called the Sennedd but I think Assembly suits them so much better - changed the law so that a default speed limit dropped from 30mph to 20mph. This decision was, and still is, one of much discussion.

From what I recall they argued that it would result in fewer road deaths and injuries with the added benefit of saving the NHS some money. Is it just me who remembers the adverts from years ago? Hitting a child at 30 results in an 80% chance they'll live...

The decision by the Assembly government resulted in the largest petition put to them with, I believe, around half a million names at last count (mine included). When you consider there are only 3 million people in Wales. That's about 16% of the population, if replicated at the national level that would be 11 million people.

I think there are a few reasons it might be so unpopular. To a lot of people, it seems to just have been forced upon road users without much consultation. The widespread knowledge of the new law seems to have only come once it was a done deal. This will always breed contempt towards it as well as those who bring it into being.

The roads in Wales are already particularly well managed. I cannot think of a single residential area in my city that wasn't already a 20mph zone, with plenty of other roads also having the limit where reasonable.

The only roads that didn't were the main roads that connected the city. Some of these roads are residential too, but they were all wide open roads with natural crossing points that were and still would be acceptably safe at 30mph. The strange thing is, following the backlash, a more known consultation was started.

I took part in this on my council's web portal. It was ridiculously convoluted, you had to go across each individual road and street you thought should be made 30mph again. I managed four before the cumbersome system defeated me.

The thing I will find funny, and I'll be really surprised if I'm not too far off the mark, is that all these main roads I mentioned will be put back to 30 again. Totally wasting all the time effort and money that it took to do it in the first place.

The ultimate irony to me though is that I've noticed issues post-20mph law that has made the roads more dangerous.

For instance, tailgating is now very common. I feel like on every journey I have vehicles following me too close and that would collide with me if I had to brake heavily. The amount of aggressive, bullying tailgating is happening ridiculously often compared to it being a non-event before. You have pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists taking more risks when crossing the road or pulling into traffic.

All in all, a very poorly thought out, explained and implemented idea. Within a year of it's coming into being it is already in the position of potential rollbacks.

Welcome to the Welsh Assembly. Provincial government fools, thanks devolution.