Francesca Farrow

Anyone else can't quite believe that the petition to rescind the new 20mph limit is officially the biggest petition that has ever been submitted to the Senedd? Not the one to reinstate free school meals during school holidays for children living below the poverty line. Not the one to commission suitable NHS services for people with EDS or hypermobility spectrum disorders. Not the one to fund more specialist school places and staff for children with additional learning needs. Not the one calling to increase funding for mental health services and improve waiting times for people needing help in crisis. Not the one to recognise teaching assistants as an important asset to schools by raising wages. Not the one calling for Welsh working parents to receive the same financial support for childcare as parents in England. Not the one to improve services for people with metastatic breast cancer. Not the one calling to create, fund and sustain sufficient affordable nursery and childcare places for all working parents. Not the one calling for a mental health unit for men in north Wales. Not the one to make Blue Badge applications lifelong for individuals who have a lifelong diagnosis. Why can’t we rally like this for other causes? In Wales (and the UK) we have a falling life expectancy, falling living standards and falling wages in real terms, as well as rising food bank usage, rising homelessness and rising NHS waiting times, and we’re outraged by having to drive 10mph slower? I thought I must have been missing something so I did some research into both sides of the debate to educate myself, and I do understand the arguments against - lesser productivity, the implications for professions such as drivers and carers, additional costs for increased travel time etc. I don't have the answers, but I did find that this speed limit is already in place and successfully proven to reduce casualties and deaths in areas beyond Wales. More than half of London's roads are now 20mph as well as other communities in England having already implemented the limit, including Norwich, Tonbridge and Chichester. Lower urban speed limits have also been adopted in many countries and cities across mainland Europe, including Spain and Brussels, where they use km/h instead of miles. In mainland Europe, many areas have 30km/h limits, which is 18.6mph. I think I'm just bewildered at our furore, and our tendency as people to make decisions to avoid personal discomfort in the present moment at the expense of the long term outcome for all. Of course there is a cognitive bias that explains this, called the Present Bias. "Present bias is the tendency to focus more on the present situation than the future when making decisions. This can lead us to prioritise immediate rewards over future payoffs, even if that decision benefits us less overall." Anyway, to look at the positive, I hope if anything, this shows that as a people we are capable of coming together, rallying and demanding change when a situation calls for it.