Sir – The speed limit is 20mph in most of Oxford city and the luxury of setting the car’s speed controller at 20mph and driving without worry is available to many but shared with few.
If you do this then you probably avoid looking in the rear view mirror and being unnerved by the closeness of the following car being driven by an irate driver.
This has been my experience for the last three months in addition to being overtaken in Longwall Street by a car that immediately turned in front causing me to brake heavily, being shouted at by an over-taker in Morrell Avenue, being overtaken on the inside by a taxi that immediately braked in front before speeding off along St Clements towards the Plain, being given a continuous, five-second hoot as I progressed along St Giles and suffering the repeated request by my law-abiding (and mirror-watching) wife to go faster. What really drove me to write this was watching a woman driving at about 20mph towards Headington from Brookes University along Headington Road while being intimidated by an extremely close, hooting follower and then seeing a bus, which I assume has no special dispensation, passing her in the bus lane doing about 30mph. Luckily the ‘follower’ didn’t nip into the bus lane to overtake her on the inside unlike some of the less-fortunate ones.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that the impact force at 30 is 225 per cent that of 20, so, please, rigorously enforce it or forget it!
Have a go at sticking to 20mph in a 20mph area for a week but understand the potential anxiety and the risks to yourself and your car.
H. Roffey, Headington