Here's a brainteaser for your Monday: if a road user is travelling at exactly 20mph in a 20mph zone, and there are other road users in front also travelling at 20mph, why would there be any need for the road user behind to overtake the other road user in front?

That's the question the internet is trying to answer after one person's TikTok about a newly introduced 20mph speed limit in Wales caused some befuddlement...

Driver can’t deal with the fact that these cyclists are going as fast as the speed limit #MGIF (link is external) pic.twitter.com/od4rYHGsoZ (link is external)

The "reality" of the speed limits, the social media sharer claimed, is that when "going at 20mph" she has been behind "these cyclists for about four miles" without being "able to overtake them" because... "they're actually cycling faster than me going at 20mph".

"I'm going 20mph and I cannot overtake these bikes".

Sounds like, dare I say it, the rules of the road working perfectly as intended? Scary stuff...

Some questioned the point of the video, one reply asked then "why would she need to overtake the cyclists?" Another keen to know "if there were no bikes there what speed would she be doing?"

It's not the first eyebrow-raising reaction to Wales' introduction of default 20mph speed limits we've seen... there was that bloke on Twitter who reckoned the recent media coverage of Russell Brand was all a plot to distract from the introduction of lower limits. Then there was the person who claimed driving instructors were being forced to lengthen their lessons because they simply couldn't cover the necessary distance in an hour. The internet's a fun place, isn't it?

Anyway, here's our report into the initial analysis of Wales' 20mph speed limit implementation from transport and public health data analysts Agilysis....

https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-9-october-2023-304367#live-blog-item-50337

On 09/10/2023 05:28 pm, Simon Mason wrote:
> Here's a brainteaser for your Monday: if a road user is travelling at exactly 20mph in a 20mph zone, and there are other road users in front also travelling at 20mph, why would there be any need for the road user behind to overtake the other road user in front?
>
> That's the question the internet is trying to answer after one person's TikTok about a newly introduced 20mph speed limit in Wales caused some befuddlement...
>
> Driver can’t deal with the fact that these cyclists are going as fast as the speed limit #MGIF (link is external) pic.twitter.com/od4rYHGsoZ (link is external)
>
> The "reality" of the speed limits, the social media sharer claimed, is that when "going at 20mph" she has been behind "these cyclists for about four miles" without being "able to overtake them" because... "they're actually cycling faster than me going at 20mph".
>
> "I'm going 20mph and I cannot overtake these bikes".
>
> Sounds like, dare I say it, the rules of the road working perfectly as intended? Scary stuff...

Which "residential streets" in Wales are four miles long or longer?

They keep insisting that it's only residential areas which are affected.

Avatar
eburtthebike | 5 hours ago
7 likes
The driver complaining that she wasn't able to overtake cyclists who were doing 20mph in the 20mph zone, is reported to be a Health and Wellness coach at a school.

"Sara Dew

Health and Wellness Coach at Complementary Health Care, Compementary (sic) Health Care, Mount St Josephs School"

And she uses the strapline "What controls your mind, controls your life"

You literally couldn't make it up.

Simon Mason <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
> Avatar
> eburtthebike | 5 hours ago
> 7 likes
>
> The driver complaining that she wasn't able to overtake cyclists who were
> doing 20mph in the 20mph zone, is reported to be a Health and Wellness coach at a school.
>
> "Sara Dew
>
> Health and Wellness Coach at Complementary Health Care, Compementary
> (sic) Health Care, Mount St Josephs School"
>
> And she uses the strapline "What controls your mind, controls your life"
>
> You literally couldn't make it up.

“The "reality" of the speed limits, the social media sharer claimed, is
that when "going at 20mph" she has been behind "these cyclists for about
four miles" without being "able to overtake them" because... "they're
actually cycling faster than me going at 20mph".”

Seems clear enough: the cyclists were demonstrating their right to ignore
speed limits. They do much the same with pavements, red traffic lights, and
pedestrian crossings.

--
Spike

Surreyrider replied to Jimmy Ray Will | 7 hours ago
3 likes
Of course she was. There is a 20mph zone going into Kingston - it's about a mile or so along the Portsmouth Road. The majority of drivers go 30-40mph along it until they are 'held up' by someone like me driving at or below 20mph. Once the 20mpher turns off, they're back up to 30-40mph (apart from past the one speed camera, of course, where the brake lights are on for a fair while).

Avatar
Patrick9-32 | 5 hours ago
0 likes
I think the tikker is saying "look at the reality of this lower speed limit, I am going as slowly as cyclists, 20mph is way too slow because I should be faster than cyclists and if I obey the speed limit I am not." rather than "I am happy to go 20 mph but I need to do so in front of cyclists rather than behind them" as a lot of people are interpereting it.

On 09/10/2023 09:50 pm, Simon Mason wrote:

[ ... ]

> I think...

Unlikely, I'd say.

QUOTE: There was that bloke on Twitter who reckoned the recent media coverage of Russell Brand was all a plot to distract from the introduction of lower limits. ENDS

Sounds like a GBeebies viewer - they're all raving nutters.