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I wonder if this idea makes much difference since in many cities the "actual" average speed is hardly more than 15mph anyway.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/24/nroads124.xml

Mrs Flint, Housing Minister said the Government had an opportunity to "deliver a programme which will genuinely revolutionise the way people live". The plan is to build new Towns and get more people walking, on a bicycles and buses. 

I think it's a great idea that all the greenies live in these new towns and leave the rest of humanity to progress at 5 times the pace. I hope Mrs Flint lives there so she can "genuinely revolutionise the way people live".

Or put another way, reverse the greens back into the Victorian era before the car was invented and provided man with fantastic, quick and efficient mobility. Let's hope Mrs Flint can't walk to London to carry out her ministerial duties. But my guess is she'll have a Limo waiting like all the other green hypocrites! 

 

 

Personally, I'm all for any future planning or traffic guidelines that genuinely try to get people out of their cars for short (up to three mile) journeys. The way that cars are used by people to go on any trip of longer than a couple of hundred yards nowadays is one of the reasons that we have become a nation of bunters. Plus, a vicious circle is then created where the increased amount of traffic makes it increasingly unpleasant to be a pedestrian. My cynicism about the eco-towns is the number of them that are planned for greenfield sites.

RobotBoogie - don't be so sure. It won't be long before the pavements and cycle lanes have security cameras springing up everywhere and Big Brother will be announcing on your biycle mounted Govt control monitor how to get to work today! A land of lemmings dutifully controlled by grey men at HM Government. Democracy in anything but name! 

JJBoxster:

RobotBoogie - don't be so sure. It won't be long before the pavements and cycle lanes have security cameras springing up everywhere and Big Brother will be announcing on your biycle mounted Govt control monitor how to get to work today! A land of lemmings dutifully controlled by grey men at HM Government. Democracy in anything but name! 

I don't trust those Lib Dems either.

RobotBoogie:

I don't trust those Lib Dems either.

Nor me. 

I'm against anything that the Government tries to force upon us. Restricting a cars top speed is dangerous. Sometimes you need power to accelerate out of danger - like when someone is coming straight for you at a junction and it's clear that they aren't going to stop.

I am not against efforts to encourage people out of their cars for short journies. The madness of seeing a neighbour of mine load her two kids (10 and 12 years old, I guess) into her huge Toyota 4x4 to drive them the three hundred yards to school each morning and then drive straight home afterward to leave the car parked most of the day until she goes to fetch them, just highlights how silly lots of people are. (Her husband drives off to work in a Mercedes 4x4, but I know he commutes to London so I assume he drives to the local station). I've never seen either of these cars remotely dirty or full of people etc and both are kept spotlessly clean just as they were when driven out of the showroom. What we really all need to be aware of is the insidious growth in surveillance and control measures for every petty action that we as motorist do every day. We are seeing democracy being made a mockery of my our so called representatives in Parliament and suffer with an opposition that fails to do anything about it or even speak out against it.