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Police will enforce planned 20mph limits (From Oxford Mail)
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Police will enforce planned 20mph limits
7:50pm Tuesday 21st April 2009
THAMES Valley Police said it would fine drivers who break the proposed new 20mph speed limits on Oxford’s roads.
Previously, Chief Constable Sara Thornton said the force would follow national police guidelines not to enforce 20mph zones because they were not statutory speed limits, although it would lobby for a change.
As the Government yesterday launched a major new 10-year road safety strategy to encourage councils to introduce 20mph limits, the Department for Transport said it expected police to enforce them.
DfT spokesman Isabel Field said: “If a police officer saw someone speeding in a 20mph zone we would expect them to deal with it in a way that they would deal with any other speeding offence.”
Police spokesman Rebecca Webber said: “Thames Valley Police has not said it would not enforce the 20mph limit if the limit was being regularly broken.
“If an officer sees someone breaking the 20mph limit and has proof of the speed being travelled, the officer may deal with that driver appropriately, by either education or enforcement.”
Previously, the force said it would obey guidelines to only enforce 20mph speed limits on roads which had been physically engineered to reduce speed.
A decision on whether to go ahead with the 20mph limit in Oxford will be made by Oxfordshire county councillors on Friday.
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Your Say YourOxford
snapperdownunder, Auckland, NZ says...
8:53pm Tue 21 Apr 09
Quentin Walker, Oxford says...
9:57pm Tue 21 Apr 09
ORAC is back, oxfordshire says...
10:24pm Tue 21 Apr 09
IF anything is in the road when I am forced to try to drive at this pedestrian speed then I will run it totally over and make sure it's dead.
Marxist new labour again, they must be removed from power NOW!
DanOxford, Oxford says...
10:43pm Tue 21 Apr 09
The statistics backing a lower limit are LIES- see http://www.safespeed
.org.uk/lie.html for details.
Notice how the Police say they WILL enforce a lower limit AFTER the consultation.
I've said it before, I'll say it again- this unwarranted, unjustified and unworkable lower limit WILL be enforced, but by average speed cameras paid for by YOU.
Massy, Oxford says...
11:33pm Tue 21 Apr 09
brianbbleys, bbleys says...
7:28am Wed 22 Apr 09
Floflo, Oxford says...
9:19am Wed 22 Apr 09
Zimmer wrote:If you cannot judge 20 mph what makes you think you can judge 30 mph?
Another 'Cash cow' is born. The drivers of Oxford will be so distracted looking at their Speedometers to check they are not breaking the 20mph (difficult in the modern motor vehicle) that I would suggest pedestrians and cyclists take extra precautions to avoid vehicles which will be driven carelessly as a result!
At least at 20 mph you travel a shorter distance when checking your speed.
Lovebike, Cowley Road says...
9:19am Wed 22 Apr 09
yentiw, says...
9:34am Wed 22 Apr 09
William Bonnie, Boot Hill says...
9:43am Wed 22 Apr 09
Sid Hunt, says...
11:35am Wed 22 Apr 09
DanOxford, Oxford says...
12:26pm Wed 22 Apr 09
Lovebike wrote:yes- if you're a selfish cyclist who lives on the Cowley Road and who cannot see that other people have other transport needs, such as the disabled, the elderly, people with children, people who live an impractical walking or cycling distance from work, shopping and leisure facilities, people who need to carry large items... as you're clearly unaware of anyone else's circumstances, you may like to consider how most people no longer live, work, socialise, marry and eventually die within a 5 mile radius of their birthplace since the industrial revolution.
This is good news. Please can the police get down to Cowley Road and enforce the limits there?
You may also like to consider that, in Oxford, inside the ring road has been increasingly given over to students, immigrants, the wealthy and many, many people born outside of the area. The everyday, working people on average earnings are pushd further and further out and are then targetted for whatever punitive measures the Council and various NIMBY's can dream up to serve their own ends.
Like most car drivers, I can see that cycling has a place (for example for poor people or people who don't cut their hair, wash or wear clothes that fit because to do so would be 'capitalist'...)but the fact remains that their is NO evidence to justify a lower limit, and the vast majority of people drive because they have to, not because they are on a mission to destroy the Earth or run small fluffy animals and children over.
Floflo, Oxford says...
12:36pm Wed 22 Apr 09
Evidence that this will make our roads safer - yes, there is lots.
Summarised by "only one in 40 people who are hit by a vehicle at 20mph dies, compared with one in five at 30mph".
Tom Cranmer, Oxford says...
12:38pm Wed 22 Apr 09
Oxford Stan, Oxford says...
1:49pm Wed 22 Apr 09
Sid Hunt, says...
1:51pm Wed 22 Apr 09
landcruiser, wantage says...
11:20pm Wed 22 Apr 09
..are you by any chance Martin who used to work for the Oxford Journal?
DanOxford, Oxford says...
11:49pm Wed 22 Apr 09
Floflo wrote:http://www.safespeed
DanOxford. Slowing from 30 to 20 on any journey from ring road to Centre into Oxford will put a theoretical maximum of two minutes on a journey (you can do the sums - distance = speed x time). This does not stop any driver doing any of the activities you mention. Evidence that this will make our roads safer - yes, there is lots. Summarised by "only one in 40 people who are hit by a vehicle at 20mph dies, compared with one in five at 30mph".
.org.uk/lie.html
WHERE is the conclusive evidence?
The Government have repeatedly LIED about road accident stats to justify increaed enforcement which equals increase revenue from motorists.
Your example is meaningless and typical of the stats repeated with little supporting evidence.
What people are hit? By what type of vehicle?
A fit person hit at 30mph by a small car is going to have a better chance of survival than a child or frail elderly person hit at 20mph by a large 4x4.
I suppose the researchers lined up representative pedestrians and hit them one after the other with different vehicles at precisley 20mph and then repeated the experiment at 30mph?
Pedestrians should not be in the road. I predict that if we reduced pedestrians in the road to zero, we would see a reduction in pedestrians hit by cars. Money would be better spend educating pedestrians and cyclists in road safety than forcing drivers to compensate for their stupidity or carelessness by slowing down to inefficient speeds.
This week alone I have had three teenagers walk in front of my car and one man in his fifties cut across me as I was turning because he was talking on his 'phone while cycling. I was doing 15mph or less on each occasion.
Same old nannying mentality- legislate against the majority because of the actions of the minority, who then compensate by acting even more irresponsibly.
If 'safety' is the main priority, then perhaps ALL pedestrians should wear a crash helmet and day-glo body armour before being allowed anywhere beyond their own front garden- surely the inconvenience couldn't be objected to as it would improve 'safety'?
New limit: County councillor Ian Hudspeth
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Zimmer, Oxon says...
8:41pm Tue 21 Apr 09