Welsh Govt and police forces issue joint statement on enforcement of 20mph speed limit
Wales’ four police forces and the Welsh Government have today issued a joint statement on how the new 20mph default speed limit will be enforced when it’s rolled out next month.
The Welsh Government, South Wales Police, North Wales Police, Gwent Police and Dyfed Powys Police have been working in partnership with other organisations such as local authorities, community speed-watch groups, schools, and community groups, to raise awareness about the new limit.
Police officers and policing partners say they will warn and educate drivers as much as possible as the new speed limit comes into force.
Initially while drivers are getting used to the new speed limit which comes into force on September 17, they will be offered roadside engagement sessions (where available) with the fire and rescue services, as an alternative to prosecution.
The Welsh Government have said that anyone speeding excessively will be fined.
Policy
GoSafe will provide an enforcement and site selection policy, as agreed with Welsh Government and other highway authorities.
They will also publish a list of all enforcement locations on their website, including those in 20mph speed limit areas.
In a joint statement, the Welsh Government and Wales’ four police forces said: “We want to support the policy intentions of Llwybr Newydd to promote safe and active travel in communities, recognising that traditional traffic calming will only be used as a last resort for 20mph compliance.
“The Welsh Government has provided its annual funding contribution of £2,555,500 to GoSafe this year, plus an additional £600,000 for 20mph roadside engagement. Next year, the annual funding will be increased to £2,800,000 overall to support GoSafe to help keep roads safe in Wales.
“We look forward to working together with our partners to help deliver all of the benefits of this policy: saving lives, reducing injuries and increasing well-being.”
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Right or Wrong – this is going to be a mess for One main reason 🚫 Lack of preparation and publicity in rushing it out in a un phased way. No Media preparation- especially in border areas where TV access comes from outside Wales linked to poor understanding of which routes are 💢30 and which are 💢20 … The Scottish Gvt got into its recycling of bottles mess on an issue of great Green significance without fines …just imagine what ARTD and folk will make of this road safety issue ⛔️ My own time as a Police Authority and Fire… Read more »
Indeed, media anglocentrism is perhaps Cymru’s biggest challenge.
Welsh Government as usual are ahead of the game. Well done.
I shall be setting my car’s speed limiter at 18 mph since my impression is that Police intend to come down hard on the slightest deviation above 20mph. I can’t afford to take any points even though I’m very nervous about impatient tailgating and so my usual – necessary – local journeys are going to be torture, watching for police checkpoints and hoping I won’t be forced to slow or stop at all quickly with some (albeit understandably) impatient driver right on my tail. This isn’t driving – it is slowly being driven mad!
If there are police checkpoints it’s unlikely you’ll be bothered by tailgaters, who would be committing the conspicuous offence.
You are sanguine. I am not.
It says under the pic of an unprepossessing policeman and policewoman sighting their speed-gun at us, ‘The new 20 mph default speed limit will be rolled out in September’. ‘Rolled’ – as in, ‘the tumbrils are rolling’ for drivers in Wales. Originally a primitive ox-cart used for agricultural purposes, this vehicle became fashionable during the era of the French Revolution (meaning ‘a turning’, usually rapid, in political circles); now, our cars are conveying us towards the cut-off point when our pernicious existence as anti-social motorists in opposition to the State shall cease. Another Revolution is being performed, as the wheels… Read more »
People are quite adept at spotting traffic enforcement. Even if they are stopped, they will watch the video and return to driving as they were once out of sight. Short of having a tracking device in every vehicle, this is unenforceable. Once the initial push is done, watch as tempers flare over the few that abide by the new limit. I doubt that this will be the success it is hoped to be. 20mph limits all round where I live. Most drivers exceed this regularly. Seems to me the focus should be on reducing the neccessity of using the car.… Read more »
What many don’t seem to know is that all new cars will have automatic speed limiters initiated in the next few years, making it impossible to exceed the limits.
Driving is, with increasing automation, being taken out of our hands. The ultimate destination our private motor cars are being directed to is the scrapyard, whether ICE or EV. For most people motoring as we know it is finished: Quite soon we will all be passengers, the cars we use effectively run as taxis as part of a mass-transit network. Prescriptive travel is replacing the Freedom of the Road. I beg leave to regret any such reduction of our freedom. Ordinary working and retired people are being progressively deprived of an important degree of liberty and autonomy within the Law… Read more »
“Brexit showed that, however long the Will of the People lies fallow and dormant, in time it naturally arises to reclaim the Land.”
You should put a snappy slogan defending motorists rights on the side of a…..er …bus.
That gave me a good laugh! Thanks!
“The civilised luxury of living with as few inconveniences and annoyances as possible is being destroyed by ruthless wreckers and barbarians. ”
Quite so. It’s strange to think there was ever a time when one could access their local area without dragging a tonne of metal and however much explosive material along with them. Now we face Hobson’s choice of either that inconvenience, or the even greater inconvenience of trying to use public transport (or, dread to think walking in an environment designed exclusively for motorists).
OK. Good send-up. I still like cars; you don’t.
Good grief. What a long winded right-wing straw man. Raising spectres and bogeymen. What rot.
I care not a jot for your complacent, condescending and illiterate tripe. I am not a ‘straw man’ (whatever that may be, it does not sound complimentary). If you ever do come across the fallacious argument of that name, you will finally realise that neither does that apply to my perfectly rational case. But one becomes accustomed to unjustified abuse, snippy ad hominem slights and simple inability to comprehend an actual argument. I believe in reasoned objection as opposed to dismissive assertions of someone preening themselves on having adopted the unquestionable [Read: ‘Unthinking’] half-truths and spin of a current political… Read more »
This has been attempted with electric bicycles … which appear to be easily altered.
I believe that the policy objectives which meet with your approval, that is, reducing the necessity of private motoring, are effectively being served by the actual government policy of reducing the possibility of actually driving anywhere. So don’t despair! You will soon be able to hold your family picnic or barbecue on any deserted high street or major thoroughfare, while your children play there unmolested by traffic.
A very infantile response.
I’m thinking of organising a ‘Poke a Prig’ day.
I will be setting my limiter to 20 mph as from today 😄
I was in a small town this week walking the pavements in a 20mph zone. Not every car was complying with the 20mph limit some were doing 30mph or close to it. Due to the discussions on this issue on NationCymru I took notice of how it felt being a pedestrian. The feelings of being passed by cars doing 20mph and less compared with those doing 30mph was significant. As a pedestrian walking the pavement the slower car speeds made me feel safer, less anxious and more relaxed (and less irritated). I doubt if it’s only me that experiences this.… Read more »
I suppose I am glad that the billions spent introducing this measure have lessened your anxiety. I note, however, that cars still do cause you some anxiety. I am most anxious for us to find some means of ameliorating the serious condition of Vehicle-Induced Anxiety (VIA). Perhaps, rather than expecting the rest of society to address this sort of unfortunate medical condition by grinding to a halt, so as not to disturb you further, it would be more advisable if the survivors of daily hustle and bustle, such as yourself, were to be prescribed large doses of Mogadon?
Sounds like you’re resigned to the change.
There’s Prozac but take care if you’re driving.
Maybe walk or cycle in town, the roads will be safer.
Or take the bus.
Resigned but indignant, I should say. I think this crazed age is totally impervious to satire, but a least my little exercise in that line soothed my ire a little.
It is just as you say. Anybody who stands in the way of your right to drive anywhere you like, at whatever speed, regardless of the impact on those pesky perambulating proles, should be duly run over. All the better if driving should harry the backwards aboriginals, for that will clear living space for mankind’s ultimate form. Auto Über Alles!
And again: You hate cars; I like ’em. I suppose I asked for this knockabout with my provocative satire, but even so, saying I want to run over pedestrians is surely tending more towards the ad hominem end of the scathing humour spectrum? ‘Auto Über Alles!’ is good, though, but I still prefer ‘vorsprung durch technik’. One thing I have been persuaded of by these little sallies is that the classic history of crazy mass behaviour, ‘Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds‘ by Charles Mackay, is in urgent need of a revised edition. I daresay we would each expect the… Read more »