The new 20 mph and 30 mph signs have started to be put up in Abingdon. The speed limits in Abingdon will be 20 mph in residential areas and 30 mph on the ring road. Some of the main routes into town will change from 30 mph to 20 mph within residential areas. This includes Drayton Road (pictured), Marcham Road, Wootton Road, Oxford Road, Radley Road, and Audlett Drive.
The new signs are being put up gradually. The legal order will be enacted a few days before all the new signs are in place. This will allow the council to enforce the new speed limits from the start.
Speed indicator devices and other enforcement measures will ensure the new speed limits are adhered to. This will include fixed cameras, mobile cameras, and police patrols.
20mph is stilll an aspiration rather than a limit much of the time, unless you’re on a bike.
Driving through Steventon yesterday (down the hill from the bridge) at 20mph and a bike overtook me!
I was surprised as I drove through the town earlier to see only one 20 mph sign in Marcham Road which a few years later, or superseded by a 30 mph sign! Lowering the speed limit, as encouraged by central government, was an aspiration of the Town Council over four years ago and their resolved position well over a year ago. The Town Council are our democratically elected representatives, and their view was overwhelmingly endorsed at the local elections in May 2023. It is a shame that implementation has taken such a long time. I know that the bus companies held matters up somewhat and the police objected, I understand on the grounds that the limit was unenforceable, presumably due to resource constraints, which would mean any limit in the town be it 10, 30 or 70 would also be unenforceable! I really hope that the county council speed matters up sooner rather than later and all the signs go up very quickly. Otherwise, I have no doubt that the opponents of the scheme, who presumably will style themselves as the “silent majority“ 😆 will have fun as they have in other areas of the county by criticising the change in speed limits . I suspect the anti-brigade have no intention of honouring the new speed limit presumably, because they know better than the rest of us and are such good drivers.
Apologies for the typo in the first part of my comment, the result of AutoCorrect and then not checking my post properly! I should’ve said that the 20 mph sign in the Marcham Road was followed within a few yards by a 30 mph sign. I would add that I found this both confusing and annoying; it is just the sort of thing that exposes the county council open to criticism – as I said in my original post, I hope the signs now go up very quickly, ideally, within the next week
I think the new limits are farcical. But I do not know better than everyone else.
How do you know, out of interest, that it was specifically the new speed limits that were the reason for the “overwhelming endorsement” at the election? I thought it was in the meadya that it was am anything but Tory ” endorsement?
Or, does the “endorsement” apply to anything people choose it too?
For what it’s worth, I did not endorse the new speed limits. I endorsed the expenditure on playparks. As did EVERYONE else – as, clearly endorsed by the overwhelming LibDem majority.
I am still unclear why driving in a more polluting way is acceptable 80% of the time?
Still…that was endorsed by the majority of people….
“what do we want!? More pollution! When do we want it!? 80% of the time!!”
I guess you can’t argue with an endorsement like that! 🤷♂️
Daniel, as ever you make your points well.
1. Elections are not single-issue events.
2. Driving at lower speed reduces injury in the event of collisions, but it means that internal combustion engines (still the massive majority) burn fuel less efficiently at lower temperatures.
Unfortunately, far too many political decisions appear to be taken on a single-issue basis, so that the law of unintended consequences kicks in.
It is never my intent to make a point well; must be one of those unintended consequences you mention.
If the new, bad, speed limits aren’t good for the environment, and aren’t about safety; then why in earth are we making things so much worse for pretty much everyone? Must be a vote winner…regardless 🤷♂️
There is also is plenty of evidence that driving at 20mph is less polluting, more fuel efficient and safer but this is all qualified by vehicle type and the way in which the vehicle is driven… Frankly though any article you read is spun by the political view of the author and publication in which it appears so who knows what to believe?!
I am afraid you are misrepresenting what I said. The Lib Dem’s, of which I hasten to add I am not and never have been a member, were elected on a manifesto which included the 20 mph limits along with other policies ; the endorsement was by the electorate and resulted in the LDs retaining their 27 district and town seats in the town, the other 2 held by the Greens who also favour these new speed limits. I have no doubt that national politics had an influence and that not all LD and Green voters favoured the 20 mph but they were elected and are now doing what they said they would.
I also do not recognise the media as being anti-Conservative. The printed media is overwhelmingly Conservative, any anti Conservative bias being mainly that the party is not right wing enough. Broadcast media is more balanced. Overall Complaints about the media being anti Conservative are untrue; the evidence of the last general election is quite the opposite.
I think we were told, by the meedyar, that the huge (Con) losses at town and district level were a true and accurate manifestation of national governance dissatisfaction. Ergo…anyone but Con was what happened.
Regardless …it doesn’t matter (and I ain’t that bovered) beyond the fact we now have pointless 20mph speed limits everywhere that are unnecessary. Still “an easy win” is far easier than trying to do what’s best, when it comes to politics…
Just imagine what we could achieve with thought, and intuition and doing what’s best, by our elected betters, rather than looking for quick political gains simply because they are quick political gains.
Anyway. I am grumpy. What do I know….I’m going to drive everywhere at 6mph, because I ACTUALLY care about safety.
Daniel – it would be great if people like you “with thought and intuition” would stand for the Town and District Council. NB think those who do stand do “want to do what’s best” but have different ideas as to what that is.
Hester it is precisely because I recognise that I do not have thought and intuition that I wouldn’t consider standing. I also recognise that much of the decision making must be hard and difficult to divvie up too few funds. And, overall I respect those, at town level that have the time and energy to stand.
But the 20mph farce is “bigger” than TC and as such can and should be shouted at from the sidelines. Our town is getting ruined right under our noses…
Incidentally, and I do not know what happens at TC level; but when a councillor or council “makes a decision” I think it should have as a bold and italicized footnote state “as advised by” so we know the exact name of the council officer that has suggested something – to then have it voted for by the council. It is the unelected, unaccountable council officers that come up with these things. The council/or is just the sacrificial pawn.
I am not opposed to 20mph limits. Since the original purpose of speed humps was to reduce the rate of travel, will they now be removed as surplus to requirements?
It would be nice if the speed humps went as part of this.
It would also be nice if someone could enforce the traffic flow across the iron bridge as some people continue to ignore the signage.
Are the speed cameras live at 20mph. I just drove through doing 30 then suddenly saw 20mph speed sign.. I never speed and will be really upset if it fines me.
It doesn’t matter if you are really upset. Speeding at 03.15 in the morning will still be an opportunity to grab funds. At the moment you may or may not get the notification in the post…
…just you wait though, another year or two and the money will just come straight out your bank account.
But, as has been mentioned; this was fully endorsed as evidenced by the overwhelming LD majority at the last TC election.
No one needs to fix potholes. Bicycles don’t need working brakes. Anyone who has absolutely no idea how to ride over a double round about…can all continue…as, at 20mph none of that other stuff is important. All while saving the planet to boot. 👌 Win win!
According to the Oxfordshire CC website
https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/roads-and-transport/traffic/20mph-scheme/20-limit-project-progress
Parish/ Town Speed limit
comes into force
Abingdon 27/04/2023 Scheme Approved 3- Scheme ordered with contractor TBA
and so I take it that none of the new limits are at present enforceable.
OCC also say “A county-wide marketing campaign will ensure that if a new area is changing to 20mph local residents are informed in advance.”
No. For one thing, the date for enforcing the limit has not been set in Abingdon yet. A lot of the signs haven’t been put in place thus far.
Secondly, the police have gone on record recently to say the cameras can’t enforce 20mph. I don’t know why, some sort of calibration issue, perhaps? Regardless, they have said they will have to enforce it the old-fashioned way, I’m sure they have nothing better to do.
what a waste of money, your lucky if u can get up to 20mph in the centre of abingdon
However, we do have in South Abingdon some drivers and riders who think that 40mph is okay in a residential area.
I think the 20 mph imposition in Abingdon is another example of feel good gesture politics. It’s unnecessary, the town isn’t known for its horrific accident statistics, and for the most part traffic is so bad that one dreams of being able to make such giddy progress.
I’d question whether it’s introduced safety too – as I crawl along at 20 now, I regularly find myself having a bicycle sitting right next to my passenger door. If I overtake a cyclist with a gap less than 2m it’s considered selfish and dangerous, however, if a cyclist insists on undertaking my vehicle and then matching my speed all the way to wherever within a few feet that’s perfectly safe. Eh? How’s that work, then?
We once had a picturesque little market town, people visited it, postcards were printed, tourists stayed here, there was a foreign exchange program. There were things for people to do.
All gone now, thanks to endless councils and developers squandering our architecture and history. So now we’re obliged to force visitors to see it, whether they want to or not, by obliging them to crawl through it at a snail’s pace.
Although I work in Abingdon, I don’t live here and knew nothing of the changes until a few weeks ago when signs started going up. such a hazard way I haven’t had an inkling of what road is what speed when!! and now I find out that it wasn’t that I missed the 40 sign on the ring road (as I’d assumed) but that it’s been deliberately removed and reduced to 30.
The implementation of this has been chaos. now I read on here that they aren’t yet enforceable, so when are they ‘enforceable’. As an Advanced Driver all speed signs are enforceable and valid from the point they are there!
This has changes have not been advertised at all as far as I can see. maybe residents were told, but not everyone who uses Abingdon is a resident!
There are clearly a wide of views for and against this scheme. It would be very useful to have an opinion poll or survey to find out if the majority are for or against the new speed limits. For what it is worth I think 20 is too low for through routes, but acceptable for housing estates.
It annoys me that cars are forced to drive at 20mph, I am now being undertaken by bicycles. With these ridiculous low speed limits we need to enforce speedometers on to bicycles and issue fines accordingly. Let’s all feel the same pain.
For information voting in local elections is simple. Nobody wanted to vote blue thanks to Boris, Reds are not popular here either. There are no greens so that only leaves the yellows. Winning by default. Lib Dems in my opinion are the worst and lead by the moron with her never ending false promises. But false promises are a pre requisite of being an MP.
20mph limits seem reasonable enough, most of the time you’re crawling around the centre anyway and there are plenty of occasions where pedestrians could be at risk. However, making the ring road 30 does not seem justified to me – there are very few junctions, hardly any pedestrians and very good visibility.