The law of unintended consequences

The law of unintended consequences is a frequently-observed phenomenon in which any action has results that are not part of the actor's purpose. The superfluous consequences may or may not be foreseeable or even immediately observable and they may be beneficial, harmful or neutral in their impact.

Not for the first time in history are decisions made, lots of money spent appeasing a certain interest group who were lobbying for it and the unintended consequences come to light.  I suggest that these are common sense really so taking the Welsh decision against all the popular public's opinion to drop speed limits to 20 mph.  Here is the link to the data.

Here is a graph that is telling although I agree that not too much should be read into it at present but here it is nonetheless.

So there is something here stating that it is possible that these collisions would have occurred if it was still 30 mph.  We have 20 mph limits around here, they've taken away the ones on the Trunk Road as that really was a step too far.  I've spouted off about it before too.  I don't like it but neither does my car and so I so 20 mph in second gear and make a lot of noise and I'm sure that the car pollutes more in 2nd gear than 4th but there you are.  People overtake me doing ridiculous speeds way over 40 or 50 on a 20 mph road.  People are frustrated because they've always driven at around 30 and now they are constantly looking at their speedos instead of concentrating on driving.  You can see the frustration.  I think that 20 in the High Street and by Schools, Hospitals is perfectly acceptable preceded by flashing red lights telling you.  What I find unacceptable is restrictive kerbs that push you out into the path of oncoming traffic, loss of road real-estate caused by adding cycle paths that cyclists do not use as they continue to use the narrowed vehicle lanes. 

I am certain the rise in accidents is through distraction (I tend to use cruise control to limit my speed so do not need to constantly check my speed) as they take their eyes off the road to look at the speed and also on manual cars try to change gear to try and maintain what little speed they have.  It is difficult in modern cars to maintain 20 mph in anything other than 2nd or 3rd gear.  My car doesn't like me trying that in 4th gear which is of course more economical.

All I see is more noise and pollution than before, more crazy overtakes by frustrated drivers, the road rage type aggression that goes with it is increasing and it's aimed at the drivers who are sticking to the speed limit.  I am probably going to start reporting these from my dash cam soon as it is getting silly out there.  A motorbike overtook me the other day going at unbelievable speed, so much so that I was convinced he was going to come off as he went over the hatched (no overtaking) lines with all the debris!  

I see that there has been no improvement in London's air quality although it is pretty good anyway.  In fact some places it's got worse.  Of course, no one has wondered why that is?  There's no invisible barrier as you drive into the London Boroughs to pay this "tax" of course not and there's nothing stopping the wind blowing stuff into London from somewhere else or blowing it out by the same means.  Such is the bare faced bollocks we are being confronted with by these half-wit con men called politicians. When will the house come crashing down, when will the people say they've had enough?  I hope it is close and that all of this theft comes to an end soon.  I think once the October Budget arrives people will have had enough and we will have to see what happens next.