It seems that people need to be told to slow down when driving along a road, with hazards such as parked cars and pedestrians etc, just as some people don't realise that you have to slow down when there's a bend in the road or when it's raining. If these same people are so bad at driving in the first place then they probably won't stick to 20mph limit.

Isn't there already a 20mph limit in the City Centre?

Not that you'd believe it watching some of the buses and coaches - largely those belonging to Stagecoach, I have to say. I thought I was going to die on the U10 last night.

Just because some idiots choose to drive at 45 mph along the arterial roads is not reason enough to impose a ridiculously slow 20 mph limit on them - 30 mph is sensible.

Not a democratic bone among them,where is the ballot?

I did an unscientific test the other day.

I drove Banbury Rd, Parks Rd, Longwall St, The Plain and then Iffley Rd at 20 mph (there were no other cars around).

What struck me was just how slow 20 is!

Seriously - this will being more gridlock to an already gridlocked city. At rush hour it'll make little difference but outside of this, it's going to be sheer chaos!

When someone is knocked over at 20 - and it will happen - what then? 10 mph? Someone walking along with a red flag and whistle?

It's insanity.

I know,it's slow on my bicycle.

Such a low limit as 20 mph will increase Oxford's traffic jams and pollution, keeping cars and buses on the roads for longer and forcing traffic to use lower gears, which produce more pollution.
Councillors should recognise that the ideal is to keep traffic flowing smoothly.

I ask my MP to raise the licence to kill issue in parliament.

Seems to me that you should be able to travel at killing speed but if you do kill you go directly to jail for 10 years with no parole.

Traffic would move smoothly at 20 mph, instead of rushing uselessly from traffic lights to queue at 30 mph. We could remove traffic lights and there'd be less congestion!

Remember, you're all pedestrians sometimes and 20,000 cyclists ride into and out of the city every day as well. Drivers are a minority of road users in the city, in fact.

20 mph is relaxing - unless you nad an aggro bloke in a BMW up yr behind.

this is absolutely ridiculous and contravenes the Government's own advice that 20mph limits should only be introduced when existing average speeds are 24mph or less (begging the question: why bother?)


When I was a kid, we were taught that if you were run over, it meant you were in the road which was a dangerous place to be.

Why is is that all these self- appointed 'special (self) interest' groups are listened to above actual experts on road design, transport, the law and maintaininga sensible balance between safety and getting from A to B?

We have an eastern Bypass designed for 70mph speeds restricted to 50mph because a woman broke existing laws and crammed children into her tiny car, now we are all set to crawl around wide streets such as Banbury and Woodstock Road, all due to the kind of interfering, sanctimonious busy- bodies who have flourished in recent years under our Nanny State government.

Unable to chastise people through religion any more, these personal crusaders delight in banning, taxing and finger wagging at people simply trying to get to work, do their shopping and pick their kids up.

Notice how the 'Green' lobby are all centred around easily accessible areas such as St Clements, Carfax, St Mary's and Iffley Fields, so have no concern for those living further out or in Oxfordshire's many villages and smaller towns.

James wrote:
Traffic would move smoothly at 20 mph, instead of rushing uselessly from traffic lights to queue at 30 mph. We could remove traffic lights and there'd be less congestion! Remember, you're all pedestrians sometimes and 20,000 cyclists ride into and out of the city every day as well. Drivers are a minority of road users in the city, in fact. 20 mph is relaxing - unless you nad an aggro bloke in a BMW up yr behind.

More nonsense- you still have to slow down/ speed up at 20mph for traffic lights, pedestrians, people joining the road and all the other normal activities encountered by any road user.

Car drivers may be a minority (has this been proven?) buy Oxford has extensive cycle lanes and we've even provided spaces for pedestrians- they are caled pavements and helpfully run alongside the roads.

20mph is NOT relaxing when you are constantly shifting between first and second with an overheating engine not getting enough air flow- ask anyone stuck in a slow moving motorway traffic jam.

This is just more Nanny Nazism based on the 'Speed Kills' lies that were used to justify the expansion of revenue raising speed cameras:

The top 7 contributory factors as reported were:

Causes of accidents:

Inattention: 25.8%
Failure to judge other person's path or speed: 22.6%
Looked but did not see: 19.7%
Behaviour: careless/thoughtless
/reckless: 18.4%
Failed to look: 16.3%
Lack of judgement of own path: 13.7%
Excessive speed: 12.5%

Conclusions
It's absolutely staggering in 21st century Britain that we're being fed lies and propaganda about road safety. Mostly it's well meaning but misguided people who sincerely believe that they can save lives by convincing us not to drive too fast. If the emphasis was on responsible driving and safe speeds for the prevailing conditions it might just work. But while it's all directed at speed limit compliance it doesn't stand a snowflake's chance in hell of working.

Please can we have sensible road safety policies based on truth?


http://www.safespeed
.org.uk/lie.html

20mph is NOT relaxing when you are constantly shifting between first and second with an overheating engine not getting enough air flow- ask anyone stuck in a slow moving motorway traffic jam.

Or ask anyone that knows anything about cars and they'll tell you that your engine IS getting more than enough air flow and that you should NOT need to be shifting between 1st and 2nd gears at 20mph.........

b wrote:
20mph is NOT relaxing when you are constantly shifting between first and second with an overheating engine not getting enough air flow- ask anyone stuck in a slow moving motorway traffic jam. Or ask anyone that knows anything about cars and they'll tell you that your engine IS getting more than enough air flow and that you should NOT need to be shifting between 1st and 2nd gears at 20mph.........

Yes, but we are talking Mr Self important businessman here.

They need to be constantly on cruise as the little veins in their fat corpulant necks start to shake and tremble.

It's to do with their lack of patience owing to a complete abscence of an inner life that leads these people to get all pompous and annoyed behind the wheels of their "Hey I'm such a successful guy" penile substitutes.

I actually saw Dan the other day vehemently shaking a copy of the "daily telegraph" at an unfortunate traffic light which was stupid enough to be showing red. Couldn't hear much but it sounded like:

"Do you know who I am? I bet your bloody foreign made aren't you? I'm very important you know, especially in Tin. Bet if I wore a turban, you'd change soon enough wouldn't you? Its so UNFAIR.Mummy,Mummy this light is not letting me pass."

Dan is irresponsible.

And that guy in the picture is a pranny,i wouldnt even let him shine my shoes.

Mr Ison wrote:
And that guy in the picture is a pranny,i wouldnt even let him shine my shoes.

That guy in the picture is dangerous. If the sun reflects off his head it could blind a motorist and cause an accident. Ban him!!

Ian Huspeth and his inept , incompetent and inflexible cronies on the county council seem to have the aim of turning Oxford into a simlar type of ghost town as they have already managed in Abingdon!

The slower the traffic the more unburnt , therefore more harmful, fumes are being belched out ( seen in evidence and commented on very recently by many during the 2 hour + wait for the Soldiers bodies going to the JR via Headley Way recently, with the traffic inching down the hill in a haze of exhaust pipe outflow as we waited and waited).

Some of us unfortunate enough to live within the OX1,2,3 and 4 postcode areas ( in the main within the city ring road) have to pay £40 to park outside if we are lucky( or somewhere close to )where we live 'office hours' on weekdays.Those on evening and night shift have no option but to pay Ian Huspeth's county council highways department the extortianate 'fee' which in return for those paying get: ..... zilch, nothing , no extra services - in fact the invisible parking wardens seem to have been abducted perhaps??? we never see them in the Lakes area where vehicles with no parking permits are evident, daily along with HUGE skips on the road for weeks at a time. While ANYONE can park for free at the park & ride car parks OUTSIDE or on the ring road, so why am I and others like me subsidising NON residents of the city to park for free????

Instead of 20mph limits why doesnt Huspeth & his cronies impose a london like congestion charge to drive in Oxford city ( inside the ring road) THAT would kill the trade in the city much quicker & in line with Huspeth's agenda ( with Abingdon already almost there). It might stop all the four wheel drive gas guzzling school runs twice a day weekdays gridlocking most of thew city's roads during term time- Im sure a call to londons mayor would get Huspeth the neccessary information on how to impose a congestion charge within the oxford ring road. there again Huspeth will probably want to make a real mess of it doing it all HIS way

We get nothing for our resident parking permit except a meaningless bit of paper to put in our windscreen. How about giving ALL OX1,2,3 and 4 residents with parking permits FREE parking in ALL County AND city carparks ( in the city ones maybe for a 2 hour limit) during office hours on weekdays????

Huspeth and his gang need to remember that the residents of this fine city have been making cars for a few generations- so why is Huspeth so so so ANTI motor vehicles?????? - with the multitude of roundabouts, chicanes,traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and the like , if vehicles other than pushbikes ( with NO revenue contributed by roadtax) and motorcyles will invariably find reaching 20mph within the Oxford ring road between 7.30am and 7pm weekdays a near impossibility anyway

My theory is Ian Huspeth or one of his influential departmental members must be descended from Dick Turpin- given the highway robbery imposed for a residents parking permit within the Oxford city ring road. There again Im only a resident who lives within the ring road, my opinions count for nothing with self important COUNTY councillors

before anyone mentions - the D is missing out of the self important " Cabinet member for transport's" name in my post/rant earlier .
Ive decided it to award him it seperately : _
D must do much better!!!!!!

I would not worry-corr about it.

How come this guy's still being employed after causing endless monumental ****-ups with the county's roads? Why is he being allowed to force through yet more idiotic measures that will make things much worse than they are already? Does the County Council have absolutely no concept of accountability?

b wrote:
20mph is NOT relaxing when you are constantly shifting between first and second with an overheating engine not getting enough air flow- ask anyone stuck in a slow moving motorway traffic jam. Or ask anyone that knows anything about cars and they'll tell you that your engine IS getting more than enough air flow and that you should NOT need to be shifting between 1st and 2nd gears at 20mph.........

Well given that my car will do 150mph (like many modern cars built for safe overtaking) and has 5 forward gears, 20mph IS somewhere between first and second, allowing for traffic.

Everyone try driving at 20mph tomorrow- making sure of course it's safe to do so- see how slow it is, how unneccessary it is on all but the smallest/ most congested side streets and how your car struggles.

Don't take my word for it- unlike Cyclox etc, I believe in letting people decide for themselves and using their own responsibility and judgement within a reasonable limit- which nationally is 30mph in a built up area.

Alan Page wrote:

b wrote: 20mph is NOT relaxing when you are constantly shifting between first and second with an overheating engine not getting enough air flow- ask anyone stuck in a slow moving motorway traffic jam. Or ask anyone that knows anything about cars and they'll tell you that your engine IS getting more than enough air flow and that you should NOT need to be shifting between 1st and 2nd gears at 20mph.........

Yes, but we are talking Mr Self important businessman here. They need to be constantly on cruise as the little veins in their fat corpulant necks start to shake and tremble. It's to do with their lack of patience owing to a complete abscence of an inner life that leads these people to get all pompous and annoyed behind the wheels of their "Hey I'm such a successful guy" penile substitutes. I actually saw Dan the other day vehemently shaking a copy of the "daily telegraph" at an unfortunate traffic light which was stupid enough to be showing red. Couldn't hear much but it sounded like: "Do you know who I am? I bet your bloody foreign made aren't you? I'm very important you know, especially in Tin. Bet if I wore a turban, you'd change soon enough wouldn't you? Its so UNFAIR.Mummy,Mummy this light is not letting me pass."

Alan Page lives in Guildford, so will be unaffected by any changes in Oxford.

Alan will NOT have seen me 'the other day' because I live in Oxford, where changes WILL affect me.

I do occasionally read the Telegraph (amongst others...) finding it has better news coverage of the 'real world' than Alan's subscriptions to 'Professionally Posed (And Therefore Harmless) Pictures Of Naked Children Digest), the collected workds of People's Poet Rik from 'The Young Ones' and 'Socialist Reactionaries Against Educated White British People Living in Britain Monthly'.

DanOxford wrote:

b wrote: 20mph is NOT relaxing when you are constantly shifting between first and second with an overheating engine not getting enough air flow- ask anyone stuck in a slow moving motorway traffic jam. Or ask anyone that knows anything about cars and they'll tell you that your engine IS getting more than enough air flow and that you should NOT need to be shifting between 1st and 2nd gears at 20mph.........

Well given that my car will do 150mph (like many modern cars built for safe overtaking) and has 5 forward gears, 20mph IS somewhere between first and second, allowing for traffic. Everyone try driving at 20mph tomorrow- making sure of course it's safe to do so- see how slow it is, how unneccessary it is on all but the smallest/ most congested side streets and how your car struggles. Don't take my word for it- unlike Cyclox etc, I believe in letting people decide for themselves and using their own responsibility and judgement within a reasonable limit- which nationally is 30mph in a built up area.

Vrooom Vroooom Vroooom!!!
Gosh what a REAL man!!!
Jeremy Clarkson eat your heart out!!
Vrooom Vroooom Vroooom!!

DanOxford wrote:

Alan Page wrote:

b wrote: 20mph is NOT relaxing when you are constantly shifting between first and second with an overheating engine not getting enough air flow- ask anyone stuck in a slow moving motorway traffic jam. Or ask anyone that knows anything about cars and they'll tell you that your engine IS getting more than enough air flow and that you should NOT need to be shifting between 1st and 2nd gears at 20mph.........

Yes, but we are talking Mr Self important businessman here. They need to be constantly on cruise as the little veins in their fat corpulant necks start to shake and tremble. It's to do with their lack of patience owing to a complete abscence of an inner life that leads these people to get all pompous and annoyed behind the wheels of their "Hey I'm such a successful guy" penile substitutes. I actually saw Dan the other day vehemently shaking a copy of the "daily telegraph" at an unfortunate traffic light which was stupid enough to be showing red. Couldn't hear much but it sounded like: "Do you know who I am? I bet your bloody foreign made aren't you? I'm very important you know, especially in Tin. Bet if I wore a turban, you'd change soon enough wouldn't you? Its so UNFAIR.Mummy,Mummy this light is not letting me pass."

Alan Page lives in Guildford, so will be unaffected by any changes in Oxford. Alan will NOT have seen me 'the other day' because I live in Oxford, where changes WILL affect me. I do occasionally read the Telegraph (amongst others...) finding it has better news coverage of the 'real world' than Alan's subscriptions to 'Professionally Posed (And Therefore Harmless) Pictures Of Naked Children Digest), the collected workds of People's Poet Rik from 'The Young Ones' and 'Socialist Reactionaries Against Educated White British People Living in Britain Monthly'.

Actually, am currently reading "Memoirs of an Aesthete".

Acton is a very astute observer.

"In Oxford," he writes "there were a large number of **** posing as unicorns."

Also a big expert on the Italian Rennaiscence, lots of professionally posed naked children in those.

Of course Danny probably believes Bronzino and Botticelli should be strung up by the gonads, but then he IS a Telegraph reader.

Alan Page wrote:

DanOxford wrote:

Alan Page wrote:

b wrote: 20mph is NOT relaxing when you are constantly shifting between first and second with an overheating engine not getting enough air flow- ask anyone stuck in a slow moving motorway traffic jam. Or ask anyone that knows anything about cars and they'll tell you that your engine IS getting more than enough air flow and that you should NOT need to be shifting between 1st and 2nd gears at 20mph.........

Yes, but we are talking Mr Self important businessman here. They need to be constantly on cruise as the little veins in their fat corpulant necks start to shake and tremble. It's to do with their lack of patience owing to a complete abscence of an inner life that leads these people to get all pompous and annoyed behind the wheels of their "Hey I'm such a successful guy" penile substitutes. I actually saw Dan the other day vehemently shaking a copy of the "daily telegraph" at an unfortunate traffic light which was stupid enough to be showing red. Couldn't hear much but it sounded like: "Do you know who I am? I bet your bloody foreign made aren't you? I'm very important you know, especially in Tin. Bet if I wore a turban, you'd change soon enough wouldn't you? Its so UNFAIR.Mummy,Mummy this light is not letting me pass."

Alan Page lives in Guildford, so will be unaffected by any changes in Oxford. Alan will NOT have seen me 'the other day' because I live in Oxford, where changes WILL affect me. I do occasionally read the Telegraph (amongst others...) finding it has better news coverage of the 'real world' than Alan's subscriptions to 'Professionally Posed (And Therefore Harmless) Pictures Of Naked Children Digest), the collected workds of People's Poet Rik from 'The Young Ones' and 'Socialist Reactionaries Against Educated White British People Living in Britain Monthly'.

Actually, am currently reading "Memoirs of an Aesthete". Acton is a very astute observer. "In Oxford," he writes "there were a large number of **** posing as unicorns." Also a big expert on the Italian Rennaiscence, lots of professionally posed naked children in those. Of course Danny probably believes Bronzino and Botticelli should be strung up by the gonads, but then he IS a Telegraph reader.

The Acton quote:
"a-s-s-es (as in donkeys) posing as unicorns".

Alan Page:

The Acton quote:
"a-s-s-es (as in donkeys) posing as unicorns".

The irony of you quoting your usual irrelevant (to the news story and to peoples' general lives in Oxford) and obscure reading material followed by a quote about pretentiousness is clearly lost on you Alan- but then most things are.

DanOxford wrote:
Alan Page: The Acton quote: "a-s-s-es (as in donkeys) posing as unicorns". The irony of you quoting your usual irrelevant (to the news story and to peoples' general lives in Oxford) and obscure reading material followed by a quote about pretentiousness is clearly lost on you Alan- but then most things are.

Well if people choose illiteracy as a way of life that is hardly my fault.

Of course, to a Telegraph reader most intelligent literature is pretty obscure.

The real irony is in the fact that a town that boasts and capitalises financially on being cultured should actually be populated by irrational witchburners.