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Journey times up, deaths down: Welsh 20mph speed limit still divisive two years on
(www.theguardian.com)
It's a great way to tell whether someone has empathy or not. Lots of drivers either cannot or will not entertain the notion that there might be other people around them who they share space with.
To them having to slow down in built up areas is an affront. Anyone else on or near the road is an inconvenience, not another person with equal or greater need than them.
Why should they have to slow down? Children shouldn't be on bikes or walking! They're going to get hurt! Dog walkers? They should be somewhere else - who cares where, just not here! Adult pedestrians? Why don't they have cars? Or probably more accurately they don't think about them at all, because that would require a level of self reflection that they're not well practiced in.
Entitled fucking toddlers. We devote vast resources and space, more than any other means of transport, but that's not enough. They should be allowed to drive wherever they want, as fast as they want, in as large a vehicle as they want. Anything less is oppression, apparently. Me me me me.
It particularly irks me how often I see people speed in my town because the average speed is about 15mph. They'll shoot off and I'll trundle along only to find them waiting at the next junction. There's literally zero point in going faster - it's more dangerous for those around them and it's less fuel/energy efficient. There's a reason I regularly get 4.4 miles per kWh - because I'm not constantly gunning it to the next set of lights.
That said we really need to rework some of our roads to discourage these dickheads. Add cycling paths and narrow the roads, put bottlenecks in, etc.. A bit of enforcement wouldn't go amiss either, particularly around areas like schools and suburbs.
Perhaps there's no one else sharing the space at the moment but if drivers can't behave themselves then there never will be. You cannot always be in that much of a fucking rush - if you are then sort your life out and stop making it everyone else's problem.