Wales 20mph limit starts Sept 17th - a heads-up

[marchie]

If only .gov could get things right then people might understand, here is a direct copy of the law.

Does the legislation continue: (a)1 in England, specifically in the County of Somerset, Sir Jacob Rees Mogg shall be entitled to substitute 'nine tenths of a furlong' for the distance between street lamps, in place of '200 yards' ...?

Steve

 

[colinm]

Does the legislation continue: (a)1 in England, specifically in the County of Somerset, Sir Jacob Rees Mogg shall be entitled to substitute 'nine tenths of a furlong' for the distance between street lamps, in place of '200 yards' ...?

Steve

That's nine Chains I'll have you know.

 

[Robmac]

I wonder if a case could be contested if a measurement was taken and the distance was found to be 201 yards?

 

[colinm]

I wonder if a case could be contested if a measurement was taken and the distance was found to be 201 yards?

If there's no posted speed limit and the streetlights are further apart than 200yards, you haven't broken any speeding law by driving above 20/30 at say 40, but it may be due to other road conditions you are driving "without due care and attention".

 

[trevskoda]

There's a reason why they don't cost much, then?

Renault engine in them and lotus suspension.

 

[marchie]

That's nine Chains I'll have you know.

Not quite, Colin. 2 yards short, I think! I think it's important not to lose sight of the fact that an acre is a furlong multiplied by a chain in a nice 10:1 ratio ... I remember those tables printed on the back of exercise books through infants and junior schools ... And, if you needed to square a number [especially greater than 12 where the original multiplication tables stopped, in the time before the invention of the pocket calculator], you can do the mental arithmetic by adding the new number [13] to the last number squared [12] and add these figures to the value of the last number squared [144]; so 13 x 13 = 12+13+144 or 169

Just need to empty the dandruff from my anorak hood, and I'll exit stage left ...

Steve

 

[colinm]

Not quite, Colin. 2 yards short, I think! I think it's important not to lose sight of the fact that an acre is a furlong multiplied by a chain in a nice 10:1 ratio ... I remember those tables printed on the back of exercise books through infants and junior schools ... And, if you needed to square a number [especially greater than 12 where the original multiplication tables stopped, in the time before the invention of the pocket calculator], you can do the mental arithmetic by adding the new number [13] to the last number squared [12] and add these figures to the value of the last number squared [144]; so 13 x 13 = 12+13+144 or 169

Just need to empty the dandruff from my anorak hood, and I'll exit stage left ...

Steve

When doing A levels everything was imperial and no calculators, when I got to ONC it was metric and no calculators, by the time I was doing HNC it was metric and allowed calculators. I've still got my first Casio scientific calculator.

 

[Robmac]

When doing A levels everything was imperial and no calculators, when I got to ONC it was metric and no calculators, by the time I was doing HNC it was metric and allowed calculators. I've still got my first Casio scientific calculator.

To be honest Colin, I don't see it to be a problem using 'phones and the Internet during an exam. I've known my Doctor look up something during a consultation before now.

It seems you just don't need to be clever anymore, it's all out there for you. (obviously I'm a dying breed coz I'm dead clever).

 

[marchie]

When doing A levels everything was imperial and no calculators, when I got to ONC it was metric and no calculators, by the time I was doing HNC it was metric and allowed calculators. I've still got my first Casio scientific calculator.

I must be older than you, Colin! I had been working in the Bank for almost 3 years when the first electronic calculators were launched. Until then, your choice was to hand cast the ledgers via mental arithmetic, or join the queue to use the Olivetti 'Adding Machine' that had a 4 selector central button for addition. division, multiplication and subtraction. Anyone returning foreign currency notes had to wait whilst 1 staff member made a long division calculation, usually on the back of a debit slip, and then a second staff member carried out the same process independently. And if the results varied, you started again ...

Steve

 

[GMJ]

I did my O Level maths before calculators were allowed. Being a smarty pants when I did my A Levels I thought to do an extra O Level in Statistics alongside my A Level Economics. Calculators were then allowed for the O Level in Stats however I never got to grips with the calculator and got 19% in my O Level mock exam and got kicked off the class!

Marginally worse was my classmate Kyriakos who managed to get 11%...he also got kicked off

 

[colinm]

At college my friend 'Hank the yank' was the first to have a calculator, a Sinclair Executive, he would carry around a pack of spare batteries, and had to do a crash course in slide rule use to sit the ONC papers, that would have been around 1974.
At work meanwhile we had two types of mechanical calculators similar to these. The first was a adding and multiplying machine which I never got the hang of, the second was the one with rows of buttons, used purely for adding, although ours had columns so you could add pounds and pence, it was extremely fast to use if you where skilled at it.

 

[trevskoda]

All we did at school was try to look up Elains skirt.

 

[marchie]

At college my friend 'Hank the yank' was the first to have a calculator, a Sinclair Executive, he would carry around a pack of spare batteries, and had to do a crash course in slide rule use to sit the ONC papers, that would have been around 1974.
At work meanwhile we had two types of mechanical calculators similar to these. The first was a adding and multiplying machine which I never got the hang of, the second was the one with rows of buttons, used purely for adding, although ours had columns so you could add pounds and pence, it was extremely fast to use if you where skilled at it.

My mother went to the Comptometer Training School before being employed as a Comptometer Operator. I never did quite understand how the machine worked ...

Steve

 

[number14]

(OP here)
Phew, didn't think the thread would reach nearly 250 posts before straying off topic. Obviously a hot subject.

The new law has been in place for 3 weeks now and my own experience is that it has barely affected me. However, I rarely go near town centres or large residential areas so I am probably not typical. I do believe that the kickback here in Wales - an online petition against the 20mph law with over 400,000 signatures - is as much a protest against the Welsh Gov and their various money wasting 'ham fisted' policies* as it is against the new law. Most people I speak to are in favour of lower limits outside schools and in accident 'hot spots'.

*Shan't elucidate further because of forum rules.

 

[colinm]

The new law has been in place for 3 weeks now and my own experience is that it has barely affected me. However, I rarely go near town centres or large residential areas so I am probably not typical. I do believe that the kickback here in Wales - an online petition against the 20mph law with over 400,000 signatures - is as much a protest against the Welsh Gov and their various money wasting 'ham fisted' policies* as it is against the new law.

It's actually people who rarely go near cities that are more likely to encounter a 'new' speed limit, drive into the centre of Cardiff as I did t'other week and the speed limits are pretty much as they have been for years.
It's interesting that this was in the manifesto of the governing party, so maybe people are shocked at them following through with this a promise.

 

[Glandwr]

The 20mph policy legislation went through the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) with the support, and votes, of all parties in 2020.

It is a very recent campaign that tries to associate it with the Gov't or any particular party. I wonder why?

 

[Nabsim]

Always amused me when folks say speed limit can be seen by spacing of street lamps. To be perfectly honest I can rarely tell how far 200 yards is when stationary never mind when travelling. I know I can’t break any limit walking so use speedo or sat nav to tell me. I add sat nav as that also tells me what the limit is set to if I aren’t sure/missed signs.

On the calculator thing, I recall using a slide rule at school, didn’t notice any calculators until a few years after I had left

 

[Glandwr]

The calculators we had in school were like cash registers. You feed numbers into it like setting a combination lock then turned a handle on the side.

 

[maingate]

Calculators????

All we had was a slate board and a piece of chalk.

I tried using a calculator but one of the wires broke and all the beads fell on the floor.

 

[trevskoda]

Calculators????

All we had was a slate board and a piece of chalk.

I tried using a calculator but one of the wires broke and all the beads fell on the floor.

Rich man, we had to use sheep in two fields with a gate between.