inb4 pitchfork raising amongst the anti-car rabble
You can't enforce a speed limit by simply placing a speed sign and hoping everyone is going to magically follow them. More cops or speed cameras isn't going to work either.
My city is currently working on a plan to lower the speed limit from 50kmh to 30kmh (30 mph to 18 mph). The entire thing is a multi-year program because it essentially means redesigning those roads from scratch.
A road which has been designed for its speed limit doesn't even need a speed sign - the driver will naturally be driving at that speed already because anything faster will feel unsafe to the driver.
It's not flawless but sticking up signs has a reasonable effect. I'd say at least 50% of the people who drive on the local 20mph roads near me abide by the speed limit (that has not active enforcement) and this prevents quite a few others from speeding.
(I agree on the road design point though...)
That's just wishful thinking. You probably wished they didn't so you could make that point, but they 100% work :)
They have the benefit of not slowing down emergency vehicles too!
I don't know why you think anti-car people would raise pitchforks at that. In fact this was my criticism of the proposal when I lived in Wales; there seemed to be little attempt to alter the street environments to match the lower limits. I want effective 20 mph zones and that can't happen just by changing a few speed limit signs.
My prediction was that it would backfire: motorists behaviours wouldn't change, so the speed limits would be flouted even more than they are now. Councils wouldn't enforce it consistently, giving credence to the view that it's simply a revenue-generating scheme and/or a way for police to punish people arbitrarily. This is already the case for parking offenses; Cardiff motorists can park on double-yellows with almost complete impunity. Then, populist backlash, law gets repealed, making it even harder to get support for real street safety measures in the future.
>a-french-anon
20 miles per hour is 32km/h, 2 above the french residential limit of 30km/h
If you look at the data for speed limits vs deaths they show pretty convincingly that what drivers think are "completely normal speeds" are actually "reckless driving".