There are currently various Speed Limits in Scotland. They range from 20mph “zones” (including much of Edinburgh) up to 70mph on most motorways and certain dual carriageways.

A bill seeking to make 20mph the new “default” speed limit has been rejected by Holyrood’s rural economy committee reports the BBC.

So what is the current “default” limit? Well the national speed limit is 60mph on single carriageway roads and 70mph on dual carriageways. The most common of Speed Limits in Scotland, however, is 30mph. This is the speed limit which applies to “restricted roads“. These are your typical roads found in built-up areas, including town centres and areas with substantial amounts of housing. It is likely that the closest main road to your house is a restricted road. These roads do not have speed limit signs. Instead the speed limit is designated by a system of street lighting. What is that? Its basically a set of lamposts with no more than 185 metres between each one.

It is primarily these roads which were targeted by Green MSP Mark Ruskell in his bill. He states that reducing the limit is :

“the simplest, quickest and cheapest way to save lives, make our streets safer, and encourage more people to walk and cycle more”

BBC NEws, 31 may 2019

With respect to Mr Ruskell, if he thinks reducing the speed limit by 10mph is likely to get more people walking or cycling then he is living in cloud-cuckoo-land. I’m from Edinburgh and I don’t know a single person who has suddenly thought “hmmmm, 20mph? I know, I’ll walk those 5 miles to work instead. Chucking it down? No problem. Files to carry? It’ll build my muscles!”

As for increasing safety, given that we are repeatedly told how vulnerable cyclists are, I can’t comprehend how flooding the roads with more of them is going to “save lives”. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one, moreover, who has nearly been flattened by a cyclist pretending that red lights at pedestrian crossings don’t apply to them and their helmet-cams.

And, regretable though it is, the simple fact is that research from 2017 indicates most drivers simply ignore 20mph limits. Whether this is deliberate or not is questionable. Ask any driver how difficult it is to maintain a steady speed of under 20mph. It is harder than you may think.

Are these signs going to become the norm?

Areas currently subject to 20mph limits are flooded with very “un-Green” road signs. If we are simply going to circumvent this environmental issue by making “restricted roads” subject to 20mph rather than 30mph then that is going to require a massive and expensive campaign to educate the public. Enforcement is another issue. The only practical solution to that is a massive, extensive and expensive system of average speed cameras and we all know how popular those are.

In rejecting MSP Ruskell’s bill, the committee stated:

“After considering the evidence presented, the majority view of the committee is that the default, ‘one-size-fits all’ approach proposed in the Bill is not appropriate, as it does not give local authorities the flexibility to devise 20mph limits that they consider appropriate for their areas.”

BBC news, 31 may 2019

In response Mr Ruskell states that the Committee “puts the motoring lobby ahead of child safety”. What an ignorant thing to say. Lets have 20mph zones outside every school in the country by all means. But even then there will be accidents. The only way to stop them is to ban cars altogether. Given the contempt with which he speaks of the (undefined) “motoring lobby”, perhaps that is what MSP Ruskell really wants.