United Kingdom

We actually have pockets like this in the US. A small town nearby has nothing but roundabouts and max 30mph and it's makes the area very walkable. Parts of Pasadena CA is similar. It does happen but not on a grand scale. The areas we have adopted this method are very pleasant.

To be fair in NL a lot of people ignore the speed limits if the road invites you to drive faster (not enough traffic calming stuff). Not a lot and still driving safely but for example there's this huge straight road near my house that they changed to 30 recently but didn't make any changes to the infrastructure and pretty much everyone still drives 50 on it. Also on highways it's 100 everywhere during the day but you see a lot driving 110/120 where there's no speed control.

I wonder what the optimal speed is to maximize speed and flow while minimizing accidents.

Years ago, my parents set out on a long journey from their home city to a rural location in another country.

Approximately five minutes after setting out, a car went flying past them. It was a bright red sports model that was very eyecatching.

Not long after, they arrived at a toll bridge, right behind the same red car. They noted the number plate.

Past the toll, the red car sped off again, quickly accelerating well past the speed limit.

Over the next few hours, this repeated at a major junction. When they eventually arrived at the ferry again just behind the red car, my father flashed his headlights.

Disembarking, they got another flash from my father, and sped off.

Several hundreds of miles later my parents arrived at their destination, parked up, and got out to stretch, when pulling in beside them was a curiously familiar red car.

Not wishing to make assumptions, my mother casually checked the plates, then saluted the driver and inquired about their journey to the event they had all arrived for.

Nope, they'd made no detours or stops, they'd taken the same route.

My mother has a way in these situations of wording things just so, that totally makes the person she's talking to feel like an absolute worm without ever getting the escape of thinking my mother was being anything other than lovely and charming to them.

Red car was spotted driving most sedately in the local town the following afternoon.

I think improved road safety is a great idea. 20mph lowers emissions and wear on both roads and cars.
I just wish they made it 20mph in other areas, rather than where I drive.
I think it's a great idea, and support it. Just... Not in my back yard.

How old are the cars you're thinking of that don't like going 20mph? Do you mean they are more twitchy and will accelerate too easily even in 3rd gear?

Not sure why they'd adjust. It's mostly urban areas where top speed makes little difference to journey times. Journey times are generally decided by how long you spend waiting at every light and intersection.

The thing about the lamp posts doesn't really have any significance. Roads in the UK have a default speed limit that doesn't need to be marked with the speed limit - it's 30mph for "normal" streets with regular lamposts, 60mph for other roads, 70mph if there's an embankment thing in between each side of the road. 180m spacing must just be the technical definition for what makes a road 30mph. In Wales, they made default 30mph roads 20mph.

I have personally found that roads are nicer to walk along with people going slower, but I haven't necessarily noticed more people walking. I think part of the issue is the way that new housing has been built where it is still a significant distance away from the places you need to get to is still keeping people in cars.

I have not noticed any differences in the lighting, but the Welsh Gov did postpone all road building projects at a similar time, and for any smaller residential road building I would've thought the builders would want it to be low speed anyway.

downvotes from vroom vroom fuckwits lol.

y'all have no fucking rational for your bullshit, just smooth brains and hairy knuckles because vroom vroom is all you can fucking do

Pretty much any car that comes with even a very basic cruise control will have a speed limiter option. My car is from 2010 and has it. I think my 2004 Mégane I had beforehand may have had it too, IIRC.

Although it's a bit more fiddly than what you describe in that you have to turn off cruise control mode, switch to speed limiter, set the speed, then activate.

But yes, it would be an interesting feature to have a "town mode" button that you could set to 20 or 30mph in the car settings. Much more streamlined than the above. I imagine you could do other things, too like trying to keep revs to a minimum to keep the car quiet, (if a hybrid) going EV-preferred or EV-only, etc.

21

30mph