20mph victory...or a mistake? (From York Press)

20mph victory...or a mistake?

2:14pm Tuesday 7th September 2010 in

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I CONGRATULATE Coun Potter (Letters, September 3) on getting the go-ahead for a 20mph limit outside Heworth Junior School, a need the Greens also highlighted last year during the Heworth by-election.

I hope that this sets a good precedent for a similar limit in Fishergate (outside Fishergate and St George’s Schools) following a 300-strong petition that we presented to the council this year.

However, Coun Potter should not take this as a sign that Coun Galloway has been convinced of the benefits of wider 20mph limits without humps, following the example of other UK cities including Portsmouth, Oxford, Newcastle and most European towns.

Take a look at www.20splentyforus.org.uk where you can see a new video (including some shots of York campaigners) explaining how the policy could change our living environment and improve road safety.

It’s not that revolutionary, and York is getting left behind in developing civilised modern conditions to complement good public transport and safe cycle routes.

A city-wide policy would even cost less than the current piecemeal approach, that involves officers in surveys, processing data, responding to petitions and writing reports on each area to prioritise the growing number of requests.

Coun Andy D’Agorne, Green Party group leader, Broadway West, York.

COUN Ruth Potter, Labour transport spokesperson, writes that she looks forward to seeing safer, quieter and less polluted roads (20-20 Vision on safer city streets, August 3), due to the trialling of 20mph limits.

It seems that the good councillor is blind to obvious facts. How come I can drive my car along the A64 at 8am and achieve way over 40mpg and yet drive through York’s city streets at a similar time, snarled up with pinch points designed to deliberately slow down cars and am lucky to get 25mpg?

And the claim that slowing down traffic by 10mph reduces noise is ridiculous. It may reduce the peak decibels but has she not noticed that noise lasts longer as the traffic crawls by. I do accept the point of better safety at 20 mph – I suppose one out of three is not too bad for politics these days.

Bob Redwood, Main Street, Askham Bryan, York.