Government ministers are keen to improve road safety but not to alienate motorists by introducing a 20mph speed limit on residential roads and near schools; they will also suggest that new speed cameras should only be placed in areas where crashes occur frequently. However, it is local authorities that ultimately decide speed limits. The sign above is seen all over Glasgow, where Scotland's local authorities seem to be setting the pace. Sensible, but we'll all end up walking...
'The authorities charged with enforcing our present road traffic legislation have generated an enormous amount of anger among motorists by the aggressive, clumsy and occasionally incompetent way in which they have implemented it. Speed cameras can be of benefit – but when their placement is "sneaky", designed to ensure that the maximum number of motorists are fined rather than to enhance road safety, or when they are placed at the precise point when the speed limit on a road drops from 50mph to 30mph, the result is to ensure that motorists despise rather than respect the laws of the road. They simply seek to evade them when they think they can. That does not help reduce the number of car crashes. If anything, it increases them'. (Source: Telegraph Online Mar 2009)
* Today's Telegraph Online article: 20mph limit to cut road deaths
