It’s hard to admit that you’re wrong. It’s even harder when admitting you messed up means redoing an entire country’s worth of traffic signs and repealing a law. But sometimes these things must be done, as the Welsh government has learned the hard way.
Last September a law was passed in Wales which ruled that all restricted roads, which are mostly roads in built up urban areas, would have a default speed limit of 20mph instead of the previous standard, which was 30mph. According to the Senedd, this measure was implemented in an effort to ‘reduce the number of collisions and severe injuries… encourage more people to walk and cycle in our communities, [and to] make our streets safer.’ All sounds pretty reasonable, right?
Wrong! According to the near 470,000 people who signed a petition calling to rescind the 'the disastrous 20mph law', there is little evidence that the new limits will actually help prevent harm. The appeal, which was the biggest petition in the parliament's history, reminds the Welsh government that it ‘was put there BY THE PEOPLE OF WALES, We are your boss!’ It states plainly its goal: ‘We demand that this foolish idea be stopped.’
Some also voiced concerns that the policy would simply mean more people going over the limit, thus making these roads less safe for law-abiding drivers.
All that petitioning took place a little while ago, but on Tuesday (April 23), Ken Skates, cabinet secretary for the Welsh government, addressed the Senedd and announced: ‘We’ve started by listening. I have been clear in all my conversations that we will put communities at the heart of our thinking and will listen to people.’
He followed this by saying that although some of the now 20mph zones will be reconsidered, they would likely remain in areas with high populations of vulnerable people, such as children or the elderly: ‘We continue to believe 20mph is the right speed limit in places such as near schools, hospitals, nurseries, community centres, play areas and in built-up residential areas.’
‘The principal objective of the policy is to save lives and reduce casualties on our roads. What I am doing now is listening to what people want for the roads in their communities, and pressing ahead with refining the policy and getting the right speed on the right roads.’
And that brings us to now. The government has promised it will work ‘in partnership with key bodies’ and begin ‘a genuine programme of listening to people’ in order to get optimal speed limits on every road. Consultations will begin this summer with changes expected to be made by September, so until then unfortunately you Welshmen will have to deal with going very slightly slower in densely populated areas. Godspeed, drivers. Godspeed.
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