I understand it near schools, but for residential areas a large part of me thinks that people should just learn to cross the road safely.
I've driven through Sheffield recently, and the amount of times people decided to cross on a blind corner of a busy road when there's a traffic light system a couple of metres away... :@ I like to think I'm an observant, if paranoid driver, but still ended up doing about three/four emergency stops within about half an hour of driving.
I know a couple of people who have had serious accidents in sheffield, and both of them came about because they decided to cross without looking properly or at an unsafe point. Though yes, having a lower speed limit could reduce the amount of accidents (because if drivers are going at 20 it's going to be a pretty great achievement if they can't stop/end up doing any serious damage), it seems a bit harsh to put all the blame for accidents on drivers.
For residential areas with kids, parents should probably teach them not to play in the middle of the road (another thing I've seen fairly frequently) , or be there to supervise. It's something I had drilled into my head from an early age and the only near accidents I've been involved in are ones involving vehicles taking corners too fast and ending up mounting the curb a couple of feet from where I was walking. Perhaps I've been lucky.
Yeah, there are a lot of unsafe drivers, but I think it'd be more beneficial to teach pedestrians to watch out for them, seeing as said unsafe drivers are unlikely to stick to speed limits anyway.
This sounds a bit harsh on pedestrians, but I honestly prefer to, and spend more time walking around chesterfield than driving. I just don't believe that a lower speed limit will stop any drivers who are already unsafe, and have, so far, had worse experiences with pedestrians than vehicle owners. I might just be unlucky, though
