Yesterday, I spent 3 hours at an online ‘speed awareness course’ to avoid police prosecution, a further fine (having already forked out £97 to take the course), 3 points on my squeaky clean licence, and a resultant car insurance premium hike. My offence was driving at 24 miles an hour in a 20 mph zone on Finchley Road, which is virtually a dual carriageway and main artery to the North.

Today, my neighbour, who has also recently been convicted for a similar misdemeanour, sent me a link to a BBC news feature entitled “London is world’s slowest city for drivers, study finds”.

Having now been reminded of national speed limits on urban and rural roads, it appears that London and Wales are the only places in the entire country to impose 20mph speed limits. I am now convinced that this is a money making exercise introduced by Sadiq Khan as a method to recoup the £740 million TFL losses during the pandemic, because no one was going anywhere, for months. Tube fair hikes are now imminent for the same purpose. I wonder though how much has been spent on replacing all the repeater signs and painting new 20mph limits on all the roads whilst pot holes are wreaking havoc because there is no money to repair them.

Virtually everyone I have spoken to has been done for speeding over 20mph, and has opted to fork out £100 for ‘naughty school’, or have 3 points whacked onto their licence which will remain on their record for 4 years or more. It is now becoming a rarity to meet someone who has not been done for marginally exceeding this newly imposed speed limit in London.

Our course instructor informed participants that cyclists feel safer with slower limits on urban roads. We also learned that a whopping 70% of pedestrian injuries take place on urban roads. So it does absolutely make sense to reduce single lane speed limits in residential areas, close to shops, and outside schools, as a measure to lower this casualty rate.

We know too, that anyone cycling instead of driving in London is helping the environment by reducing emissions, and cycle lanes are springing up like mushrooms to help them to do so. I get it – but I don’t get why a busy gateway road to the North needs a snail’s pace limit – it’s nonsense.

The concluding ‘naughty school’ module asked us to demonstrate a long term plan to prevent ourselves speeding in the future. Not least because you cannot attend a course again within 3 years of the last. All present cited the things that most of us are already doing, such as using apps to calculate how long it will take us to get anywhere and allow enough time so we don’t rush – blah effing blah. Perhaps, if our modes of public transport were more reliable, we would be more inclined to ditch our cars.

I am now obsessed with remaining within the limit, and drive like an old lady on a mobility scooter staring at my speedometer. I will probably cause an accident for doing so.

Those ignoring the limits are tailgating those who don’t, causing road rage induced gesticulations, swearing matches, and accidents. Because people are now forced to drive so slowly, I have noticed more culprits pulling out of hidden junctions without stopping, ignoring oncoming traffic, because they judge (wrongly) that you will be able to stop in time to avoid crashing into them.

We are now all deemed to be naughty children in an increasingly nanny state. This scheme surely needs sensible revision so that main road traffic flows smoothly. I suspect too, that the congestion in busier roads is actually contributing to worse emissions from idling engines which make ‘London the slowest city in the world for drivers’, apparently.

10 January 2024