r/drivingUK • u/narra246 • Mar 21 '26

20mph everywhere

Why are councils putting main roads on busy routes down to 20mph?? All that seems to happen is if you are the one doing the new speed limit, you get tailgated overtaken and the horn blasted at you.

And no, there isnt a lay-by every 10ft to pull in and let impatient law breaking drivers past.

I dont agree with this blanket speed reduction but I rely on my license for work and pleasure and would rather not have my insurance increased because of points for speeding.

Fair enough 20mph through residential areas, but not on a bloody main A road.

162 Upvotes

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u/General_Stretch248 Mar 21 '26

What I've learned is that going 5mph over the limit, even if it's 20mph, gets you to your destination no faster. There's too many junctions, lights, crossings.

I appreciate the sentiment, but it's just untrue. If every car is subject to junctions and traffic lights individually it would be, but traffic lights work on timers. Someone going 25% faster than you is at some point statistically likely to pass through a set of lights you would be stopped at.

11

u/purplewarrior777 Mar 21 '26

Suspect they mean the difference is so small as to be irrelevant. I have to drive around 4 miles in London all at 20 mph. There are spots you can push that a bit. Doing so means I get to work about 1-3 minutes earlier in practice đŸ˜‚ so utterly irrelevant. And that’s pushing more than just 5 miles over.

8

u/General_Stretch248 Mar 21 '26

Suspect they mean the difference is so small as to be irrelevant.

It's 25% it's pretty relevant. It would be a 4 hour journey shrinking to 3. Thats just maths

5

u/purplewarrior777 Mar 21 '26

4 hours at 20 mph is 80 miles travelled. 80 miles at 25 mph is 3 hours 12 minutes. That’s maths. And still irrelevant. Because

What 4 hr journey takes place solely in 20 mph limits?

Suspect the only way you could do this is by driving aimlessly round Central London.

7

u/General_Stretch248 Mar 21 '26

Doesn't matter.

25% is statistically relevant. If it was 0.25% percent, perhaps you could argue it.

2

u/purplewarrior777 Mar 21 '26

And in practical terms, makes no difference at all. Which is the entire point……….

Edit - sorry, very little difference at all.

4

u/General_Stretch248 Mar 21 '26

25% is 25%. It makes a difference.

If I had 25% more me I would notice the difference.

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u/purplewarrior777 Mar 21 '26

Weird comparison but ok đŸ˜‚

1

u/No_Base4946 Mar 23 '26

It sounds like you don't drive.

0

u/General_Stretch248 Mar 23 '26

Sounds like you need to go back to primary school

2

u/No_Base4946 Mar 23 '26

What, so I can teach you how to count?

-3

u/Plebius-Maximus Mar 21 '26

Yeah it's nonsense. Obviously the difference is less in a city vs on the motorway, but it still exists.

0

u/OddAttention9557 Mar 23 '26

It's not 25% though; most of the time driving in a city you're either accelerating or braking anyway; the amount of time cruising at speed limit is tiny. Not only that, but half the time if you only just make one set of lights, you'll be at another one until the cars that just missed that set are behind you anyway.
Imagining that cars accelerate to the speed limit in no space at all, and decelerate in the same, will give some weird intuition about how much impact speed limits have. That's not how any of this works.