Blogathon 27/15 – no, it’s the lack of speed that kills

Like a number of cities around the UK, large parts of Bristol now have a 20mph speed limit.

I’m neither pro, nor anti, these reduced speed limit zones.

I haven’t seen any peer-reviewed evidence that lowering speed limits has a beneficial effect on the death and/or accident rates.

I do, however, understand the logic that a person being struck by a car at 20mph is *likely* to receive less fatal injuries than if struck by a car at 30mph.

But on my journeys to and from work, through the Bristol traffic, I have made a number of observations about how people behave in the 20mph zones.

• In the 20mph zone, cyclists:
  Take more risks
  Perform shoulder checks much less frequently (if at all)
  Cut between cars, buses and lorries in a reckless fashion (because they know they can outpace the motorised road user)
  Ride in a manner that they would not emulate if the speed limit was 40mph
• In the 20mph zone, pedestrians:
  Jaywalk more (they wander, trance-like, between near-stationary rows of traffic, neglectful of cyclists and joggers who are also dodging between the same near-stationary cars, buses and lorries)
  Open car doors to load their goods and/or children in the full face of oncoming traffic (because the oncoming traffic is moving so slowly, obv)
  Are neglectful of risk from everyone else, because everything else is moving so slowly, they believe it’s within their ability to control it
• In the 20mph zone, vehicle drivers:
  Don’t seem to do anything differently (but they do it slower)