Why do so many speed recklessly through our villages?

From the petrol heads that race through our lanes every year at the Ceredigion Rally, detested by so many residents, to the bikers on their heavy motors who adore our country roads despite many of them being killed every year, speed to these devotees is essential for happiness. Statistics from the Department of Transport’s motorcyclist factsheet 2025 show that 92 per cent killed or seriously injured are men, and the reasons for the accidents are varied but 26 per cent are due to exceeding the speed limit, 21 per cent due to riding aggressively, dangerously or recklessly, and 20 per cent due to the rider travelling too fast for the road conditions.

Speeding is regarded as acceptable. Far too many cars go faster than 20mph in our villages, and many drivers admit to not sticking to this limit, ignoring the fact that for the residents 20mph makes it much safer to cross and has the added benefit that it makes communities much quieter.

Our magistrates clearly don’t take speeding seriously. On 2 September Cambrian News reported drivers being banned for drinking and refusing to take a breath test. But the guy doing 50mph in a 20mph zone gets a pat on the back and handed a fine as a ban would have an ‘exceptional hardship impact’. What’s the impact on the pedestrian who gets hit?

The residents of Bryngwyn must feel exasperated at being told that ‘the road condition, visibility and mean speeds along the B4333 at this location are appropriate,’ despite the many accidents. Asking for a speed limit in such dangerous spots is clearly heretical.

Getting from A to B as quickly as possible is seen by most people as the key reason for their chosen mode of transport. Hence the car is “king”, and planes preferred to trains.

I enjoy travelling, love bus and train journeys. I talk to other passengers, eat, read, or simply stare out of the window at our glorious countryside. What’s the rush everyone? Try living life in the slow lane; it’s marvellous.

Having been an avid bus campaigner for more than two decades, I’m pleased with what my fellow campaigners and I have achieved regarding the T5. Improvements need to be made on information and bus shelters, but the service itself is fantastic, detouring through New Quay and Aberporth, great. The T1 and T2 services are wonderful too. The T2 has recently even acquired brand new double-decker buses.

Yet, the Welsh Government is spending a lot of our taxpayers money on another service which basically runs the same route as the T1 and T2, a coach service from Bangor railway station to Carmarthen railway station which they claim will, ‘be about 90 minutes quicker than the current six-hour rail journey.’

It’s not clear which journey will be 90 minutes quicker; north-south could mean all sorts of journeys hence their claim is spurious. No detailed comparisons are given so I’ve done some calculations. Bangor to Carmarthen using the current T2 and T1 takes just over 6 hours. The train varies from 6 hours and 8 minutes to 6 hours 54 minutes. But the train journey Bangor to Cardiff varies from 4 hours 5 minutes to 5 hours 15 minutes. If you take the coach from Bangor to Carmarthen but you wish to get to Cardiff, you still have to add 1 hour 50 minutes train time to the coach journey. Most passengers will simply get on the train in Bangor; that is if they can afford the pricey ticket.

Branded with a new name, TaithCymru, it forms part of the TrawsCymru network of bus services that have been developed over the years as train replacement services. Back in 2014, Victoria Winckler wrote in her report, “In my view, the needs of a business person wanting to travel from Lampeter to London are no more important than the needs of someone wanting to travel from Aberaeron to Carmarthen to visit a relative in hospital. It is also not clear if there is sufficient demand for bus services which are primarily rail links. Nevertheless, the idea that TrawsCymru should fill gaps in the rail network and be a “train on rubber wheels” is popular with some stakeholders.’

The Traws Link Cymru campaigners, who wish to see the railway between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen reinstated, must be feeling deflated. The new coach won’t even stop in Lampeter. Neither will it stop in Llandysul or Tregaron, towns that are both crying out for more bus services.

The Welsh Government has learned nothing from the HS2 fiasco - remember how passengers would save 20 minutes on the London Birmingham journey - and neither has it listened to Ms Winckler. I’ve understood that it’s a political decision. A north-south link within Wales is desired. The money would be better spent on proper bus services to Tregaron and Llandysul.