It might not ‘matter’ but it’s the sort of data you need to collect if you want to get meaningful results about people’s opinions. If you don’t ask the question, you can’t interrogate the data.
There is no category for occasional drivers. How regularly do I need to drive for my vote to be possible?
Either way I have a problem with answering this poll as I think that doing so might make me a hypocrite. I am one of those drivers who has been known to exceed the 20mph limit (I suspect I’m actually in the majority).
I think a better survey would be to measure speeds on Southend Lane on a day when there isn’t a 1/2 mile jam. Motorists can vote by driving at the speed they normally would. I suspect most would be found to be exceeding 25mph and this should count as a vote for 30mph limit.
I wonder if the majority of smokers would vote for an increase in cigarette tax - probably not. But that doesn’t mean that the policies of increasing tax on cigarettes or reducing speed limits is actually a bad thing. We need a nanny state to tell us how to behave because otherwise we will hurt ourselves and others. These are issues where direct democracy may not be the best way to make policy. People have a nasty habit of making the wrong decision when asked to vote on them directly (now I’ll probably get another a stern letter from the management).
Agree - although I didn’t want to overwhelm the poll with different options. I’ve clarified under the poll:
We need a police force to deter criminal behaviour. We need some fundamental rules in place to prevent anarchy. We do not need a nanny state IMO. Hugely belittling of the UK public to suggest so.
I suggest that we need some speed limits imposed by government for our own good, and we need to be discouraged from smoking through taxation for our own good. Both of these are the work of the Nanny State, but I fear we may be straying into politics or ethics - which I mustn’t discuss on the main forum. My point was that drivers are not necessarily the best people to ask at what speed they would like to drive - let’s judge them by their actions.
I didn’t know there was a borough-wide 20 mph limit - is that enforced or recommended? I’m afraid I haven’t respected it unless there were clear speed limit indications on the roads.
I know this is not Hansard, but it seems important even in a small local setting that untruths and half truths are challenged where they are invented solely to support an ideological argument. Entertaining as it is, the methodology of this poll means that it answers no questions at all, and no conclusions can be drawn from it. The questions are flawed, the sample size tiny, there is no weighting of respondents, who are drawn from a self selecting sub group within a self selecting group of SE23 participants. It carries about as much weight as the one that the NewsShopper ran with a similar agenda.
The popular 20mph policy has substantial national support.* Several professional and credible national research projects show this with representative sampling etc, etc. The results keep coming out the same. It is not a party political matter or an ideology, it is what a strong majority of people say they want.
Implementation, compliance, policing, enforcement and outcomes are proving difficult and complex, but there is no doubt that it is still what a majority say they want.
Perhaps the poll is just for fun, but I see that already it has already been used on this site to claim evidence of an unpopular policy. Why do this? From a psychological perspective, faced with unpalatable truths deniers often adamantly refuse to accept verified scientific facts because they get in the way of their own rigid ideas.
*The British Social Attitudes 2015 study says that ‘in 2015 68% were in favour of having 20 miles per hour speed limits in residential streets’. …
‘Around 73% of non-drivers were favourable towards having 20mph limits in residential streets compared to 66% of drivers’…
In 2016 they said it had hardly changed.
yes there is, on all roads except a few main ones, such as the South Circular. It is the law and mandatory, though compliance seems low and enforcement patchy at best.
So far, our poll result matches the results of an official council study in Tower Hamlets which showed their borough-wide 20mph limit was unpopular.
Sorry you don’t like the outcome of the poll so far, but you and I have both been very vocal on the topic of 20mph limits and I think we ought to step back and let others have their say. That was one of the intentions of the poll. To discourage vocal minorities dominating the discussion.
I neither like nor dislike the outcome of this poll. I am just saying it is patent nonsense, shows zero understanding of research and no conclusions can be drawn from it. As you suggest I will say no more about it.
I just like the idea of slow cars. They seem so much more peaceful and friendly than fast ones. Lower one’s blood pressure and strengthen one’s marriage .
I drive regularly and disagree with the borough-wide 20mph limit
I drive regularly and agree with the borough-wide 20mph limit