Exwick's 20mph Speed Limit
Exwick Road (looking south)
Exwick Road (looking north)
Most of Exeter is now covered by 20mph speed limits or 20mph speed zones, and Exwick is no exception. For all practical purposes, the whole of Exwick is within a 20mph speed limit area. This was introduced in January 2008 under the Devon County Council (Exwick, Exeter) (20mph Limit) Order 2008
as part of their 'Local Transport Plan 2001-2006' and came into force on 18th January 2008. The 20mph speed limit was introduced in spite of there being very few speed related accidents in Exwick - The
Devon County Council Study which was used to justify its introduction stated that for the period January 2003 to July 2005 there were just three speed-related accidents in Exwick during that time, only one of which resulted in a 'slight personal injury'. One of the reasons given in support for its implimentation was a petition to the City Council from 21 residents of Chelmsford Road, where they said that "We, the undersigned residents of Chelmsford Road, Exwick urge Devon County Council to implement a 20mph speed limit, including other traffic calming measures, as in other parts of Exeter, to Chelmsford Road and other residential streets in Exwick as necessary".
Chelmsford Road is a quiet residential street in the west of Exwick just off Redhills, a steep and twisty cul-de-sac about 350 yards long - hardly the sort of place where speeding might be a problem (unless your brakes fail), until you realise that an Exeter City Councillor happens to live there. The concern of 21 of its residents about speeding in their road and Exwick in general then becomes apparent. Yet another fine example of Local Government Democracy in action, when the views of just 0.22% of the residents are used to help justify the imposition of a blanket speed limit on the other 99.78%.
20mph sign in St Andrews Road
In Devon County Council's press release about the implementation of the speed limit in Exwick, there are constant references to it being a 20mph zone, but it is not: It is a 20mph speed limit area. There are some distinct differences between the two which one might hope that Councillors would be able to understand, as they are the ones who will have debated it and have forced it upon local drivers [although it is rather worrying that a Councillor on the Highways Committee doesn't seem to know the difference].
20mph zones should have traffic calming features (i.e. road humps etc.) no more than 100 metres apart [this is designed to slow traffic down to an average speed of 20mph] and are designed to be self-enforcing [i.e. it should not be possible to maintain an average speed faster than 20mph because of the traffic calming features]. Putting speed humps in the whole of Exwick would obviously be an unpopular (particularly along Exwick Road) and expensive proposition for the County Council, which may be why they decided to make the whole area a 20mph speed limit area instead. All that is needed, apart from the terminal speed limit signs, are 20 mph repeater signs at regular intervals along the roads covered by the limit.
Actions like this show that Devon County Council have no regard for the Department For Transport's advice in DfT Circular 01/2006 on the setting of local speed limits, where it states that "20 mph speed limits should be used for individual roads, or for a small number of roads". The Traffic Order lists a total of 94 roads in Exwick which are affected by the blanket speed limit - hardly 'a small number of roads'.
Obscured 20mph sign in St Andrews Road
Naturally, no-one obeys these speed limits. Traffic continues down Exwick Road, parts of which are so wide and straight that it would make a good drag racing strip, at speeds little different from what they did before the introduction of the new limit.
There have been signs warning of speed cameras in the area, but these are a bluff. There are no fixed speed cameras in Exwick so the only danger to motorists is from mobile or hand-held speed cameras. And should a driver be unlucky enough to be stopped for speeding, they only have to say that they came along St Andrews Road from Cowley and that the signs must have been obscured so that they didn't see them - as they are in the pictures opposite (taken on 23rd August 2008).
According to the website of The Association of British Drivers, the fact that the signs are obscured renders the whole 20mph speed limit in Exwick unenforceable, because it does not comply with the relevant sections of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (because the signs have not been properly maintained).