Mark Drakeford’s Ulez-style War on Motorists Sparks Backlash as Locals Blast “Stupid” Plan to Impose Blanket 20mph Speed Limit Across Wales
Mark Drakeford’s Ulez-style war on motorists has been branded “stupid” by locals who warned it could hurt businesses as fears grow that the plan to impose a blanket 20mph speed limit across Wales could inflict a major economic blow. The Mail has the story.
The Labour First Minister of Wales insisted [on Friday] that the policy imposed from Sunday will save the NHS £92 million a year by reducing the number of deaths caused by car-related crashes.
He has also insisted companies must ensure their workers can do their roles without breaking the reduced limits.
But the measure, comparable in scale to Sadiq Khan’s own hated Ulez expansion across Greater London, has been branded as “absolutely insane”. Cabinet Minister Penny Mordaunt [on Thursday] night warned that the policy would damage the economy, while locals [on Friday] warned that it would hurt their trade and cause commuter traffic from next week.
And the RAC today issued an urgent warning to drivers not to rely on their sat navs for the speed limit on Welsh roads because they will not have updated by the time the measure comes into force.
Speaking to MailOnline, taxi driver Keith Mcintyre who works at Courier Wales warned: “It is going to be manic. There is going to be more congestion. It is a stupid idea. Companies are definitely going to lose money.
“Taxi drivers they are going to be hit especially on Fridays and Saturdays. What was a five-minute trip is going to take them 10 minutes, so they aren’t going to be able to do as many trips. What’s worse is they’re are bringing the speed limits in on roads that don’t already have bus lanes, so buses are going backed up traffic as well.
“I live in Barry and I expect my journey time into Cardiff which normally takes 15-20 minutes will take half an hour on Monday.”
Worth reading in full.
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I suspect there will be FOI requests in September 2024 requesting NHS costs for car-related crash deaths.
In Spain, low speed neighbourhoods contributed to MORE deaths, not fewer. Just more of the ‘Got to do something, and this is something’ mob who never think about the consequences of their stupid actions. Until, that is, it become plain that it is counter-productive at which point they will of course ‘double down’ with some additional folly to add into the mix. Why can’t these people just leave us the hell alone.? What kind of narcissist do you have to be to imagine that you always have the solution to every problem there could possibly be.
The Scottish government is proposing licensing for dog walkers. Everything needs to be controlled and monetised by the State.
The mere sight of this tortoise-faced, totalitarian fuckwit makes me want me to heave. I can only hope he ends up sharing a cell with his son.
“Off my case, turtle face!”
Better still a grave with his wife.
You get the politicians you deserve.
I should rephrase that by saying “We get the politicians we deserve”. This was not an attack on you as I hate these eco socialist scum probably even more than you do.
Meanwhile, in my neck of the woods, solar-powered car anyone? This is very clever. It would’ve been interesting to see what the Top Gear trio thought of this creation.
”Students from the Solar Team Eindhoven unveiled an off-road car powered by solar energy, the Eindhoven University of Technology announced on Thursday. The car, which is called Stella Terra, is according to the developers the first of its kind in the world.
The Stella Terra, which derives its energy from solar panels mounted on the roof, is independent of charging stations. This solar car can reach a top speed of 145 kilometers per hour and weighs 1200 kilograms. On a sunny day, it promises a range of 630 kilometers.”
https://nltimes.nl/2023/09/16/eindhoven-students-unveil-road-solar-powered-car
Sounds great
No doubt they had fun doing that as an educational toy! Not the first one in the world with any built in solar panels on a car, though. Toyota did that on a version of their Prius model: https://www.motortrend.com/features/the-2023-toyota-prius-primes-battery-could-take-three-weeks-to-recharge/
In reality, it’s a small surface area, at an awkward angle as well, so at our latitude it’s a gimmick, with a small amount of available energy overall. What might be useful for using solar panel output is one of the plug-in hybrid models, if they have enough solar panels on their building’s roof, either with a suitable balance between it being parked there and the generation hours, or if they also have local battery storage at home so as to be able to transfer some of it into the car. The last option is probably not that good with efficiency, though.
First of its kind? What about all the solar PV cars they race across Australia?
Great. How would that work during winter in Northern Norway. or anywhere that the sun goes down for several months?
Wow. Just wow. News flash: the old joke about “making the speed limit 21 and the drinking age 55 would save even more lives” was NOT meant to be taken literally as prescriptive advice! (So when will the other shoe drop?) Rather it was meant to satirize the histrionic “if it saves even ONE life, it’s worth it” crowd. You know, the very same crowd that gave us those awful lockdowns and stuff like that. And now this. SMDH
“if it saves even ONE life, it’s worth it”
Agreed, that’s why we suddenly have thousands of defibrillators in public places at enormous cost. The overwhelming majority will never be used, yet still have to be maintained. Should a poor soul collapse nearby, you can bet that everyone will suddenly have something to do other than take responsibility for trying to revive a person potentially in their final throws of life. As a paramedic described it to me one, she said lay people do one of two things in that situation. Panic and s*** themselves or walk away pretending they saw nothing.
So true
If everybody ignored it, fun would ensue.
Exactly. Turn a problem into an opportunity!
I was talking to an acquaintance the other day about the 20mph limit in most of London. He said that it doesn’t matter because “the average speed is 20mph anyway.”
I asked him what would happen to the average speed if one could not go faster than 20mph. Glazed look.
Maths. Tricky business for most.
Actually the average speed is more like 10 MPH. In Bristol I usually achieve 7-8 MPH average, and that is only because the odd burst at 30 gets the average up. But they want to fine you if you get to 21 for a few seconds? Ridiculous.
The phrase that comes to mind is “oxygen thief”.
I simply cannot understand how people of this plain lack of good sense are permitted anywhere near either government or indeed a pair of scissors.
I’m afraid it’s because of a lot of brain-dead voters who still think the priority for Wales is keeping the “evil tories” out, even if that means putting a load of jobsworth communists in power.
Get those angle grinders ready folks …
Some signs have already been altered by people expressing their opinion on the new speed limit.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk1809887/20mph-speed-limit-sign-vandalised
Bad link, Error 404
Removed then, it might encourage the others!
Sorry there should of been / after uk
It’ll kill the tourist industry. Who on earth would want to go to Wales to crawl around it at 20 mph. It takes forever to get anywhere already.
Isn’t this happening all over England as well? Our City Council is ‘rolling out’ what it always calls its ‘popular 20mph scheme’ which, when completed, will make 30mph roads the exception in the city.
Devolution has turned out to be an utter dog’s-dinner, allowing power-mad little non-entities to do as they wish. Ditto with the London mayor.
What is it about targeted action these people don’t understand, like Great Barrington for covid? Put 20 zones outside school areas and parks where children play by all means. Put 20s on the housing estates if you must. But not on normal roads. Here’s a thought regards being hit at 30mph. If pedestrians stay on the pavements and cross at the crossings, they won’t be hit. That’s why they’re there.
Leave schools as they are – see it as darwinism in action.
That would make too much sense though.
If Sadiq Khan’t is right (he isn’t) and pollution kills 4,000 Londoners a year how many Welsh people are going do die from increased pollution when the new limits lead to more congestion and cars being driven inefficiently because they can’t get out of 3rd gear?
Life is not just about small businesses nor is it just about the economic effects. It is also about a balance if risks and personal choices.
we must do our best to reverse the excessive risk aversion which is being used to impose authoritarian control by an elite which is largely unaffected by rules.
What do people in Wales expect when they vote for half wits like this? We have our own half wits in Scotland who wanted to pour concrete in gas and oil wells in a kind of scorched earth policy so no one could ever get the gas out in the future. Then we have all the half wits at Westminster who voted Net Zero through with not a single question about cost/benefit asked. GREEN = IMPOVERISMENT. ——It is about LESS of everything, and NOTHING whatsoever to do with planets. To the eco socialist (all western governments) our lifestyles are “unsustainable”. Whenever you hear that word run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. You can start by not voting for the half wits, and if there is no one to vote for except eco half wits then vote for NOBODY.
Just what did the sheep fanciers expect when voting in their ‘government’ 🤣
It’s not the policy that’s insane…
ULEZs aren’t a ‘war on motorists.’ Aside from the obvious agenda of greater surveillance and control of movement (by car or otherwise), they are coercion to buy new cars (because the old one’s don’t comply) to prop up the car manufacturers, just like the scrappage scheme was 15 years ago and the decimation of the rail, tram and trolly-bus networks was in the 1960s and 70s.