Martin Underwood ) gurgled happily, sounding much like
they were saying :

Yes, a lot of main roads near where I live (Oxfordshire) have recently
been downgraded to 50 (or are about to be downgraded) "to reduce the
number of traffic accidents". This is solving the right problem in the
wrong way: to avoid collisions, you need to penalise the person who
*causes* the accident, typically a driver who is on a minor road who
pulls out into fast-moving traffic without assessing its speed or the
pedestrian who crosses the road without regard for the traffic, rather
than penalising (by imposing a draconian speed limit) the driver who
is in the right and who has priority.

Children are a special case, and a 40, 30 or even 20 limit is sensible
(with the level set according to the amount of segregation between
pavement and road) but otherwise the onus is on the pedestrians or the
drivers on side roads to make sure that they do not cause accidents.
Any fool can reduce *the effect of* accidents by cutting speed limits,
but driver/pedestrian training is the clever solution.

applause