20mph speed limits declared "Utter Bollocks"...

......by me, and "not the answer" by the RAC.

A BLANKET 20mph speed limit is not the answer to solving the problem of Lancashire’s danger roads, according to the RAC.
Lancashire County Council said that the project would halt the thousands of people killed or seriously injured.

As stated here, thousands of people are not killed or seriously injured on Lancashires roads. The term "Lancashires danger roads", even coming from the opposition, are scaremongering at best.

But the RAC Foundation, one of the country’s top road safety organisations, poured scorn on the project.
Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the group, said: “This is a bold move but raises questions. Just how practical will the scheme be to police, and what will the true benefits be?
“It must be remembered that not all residential areas are alike with casualties amongst child pedestrians much higher in deprived neighbourhoods than in more affluent districts.

These are the wrong questions. The real question is why is the council lying about accident figures to further this agenda?

“The evidence suggests there is a strong case for targeting speed limit changes rather than introducing blanket cuts.”

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE. There is no need to spend 9 million quid when the country is broke, on persecuting drivers even more.

County Coun Tim Ashton, who is in charge of highways, said he wanted to tackle the critics ‘head-on’ He said that the scheme would be policed by neighbourhood road watch teams to make speeding ‘as taboo as drink driving’.

As one commenter noted in my last post about this, there is a big difference between speeding and driving dangerously. If you lower the speed limits you create even more speeding drivers. You then create more reasons to issue fines, but don't do anything to solve the problem you are targeting.

He said: “It is quite radical but we need to do something drastic to reduce the number of deaths on our roads.

What we don't need is more legislation that will penalise sensible drivers and we certainly don't need to throw 9 million pounds at this non-problem.

Tim Ashton: "I just had a happy wank"

The Telegraph have now opened a poll about the proposals and it doesn't look good:

Go here to have your say.