Speed limit arithmetic

[igenlode]

"It took an average of three minutes and 38 seconds to drive one kilometre (0.6 miles) in the centre of London last year... This was partly blamed on widespread 20mph speed limits" -- *what*?

20mph is 32km/h (using the rule-of-thumb conversion ratio of 5:8). So if you were travelling at 32 kilometres per hour it would take (60/32)=1.875 minutes to cover one kilometre: 1 minute 52 seconds. Clearly the majority of the time spent driving in central London is already spent travelling at speeds far *lower* than 20mph; probably spent stationary in traffic jams consisting of other cars. So just how fast are they expecting drivers to sprint between traffic jams in order that increasing the maximum speed limit will reduce journey times?

Comments

[igenlode]

'Pannier', of course, is pure French (panier, basket) -- presumably in the days of our Norman French overlords panniers were originally pairs of baskets slung across the back of a beast of burden :-)
Later they became strong bags used for the same purpose, and nowadays the term is used by analogy for the luggage-bags (or hard boxes, in the case of a motorcycle; possibly those are more rigid because the extra weight is less of an issue with an engine to do the propulsion, or because if the machine falls or is laid down on its side they will get crushed) carried on the back of a two-wheeled vehicle.

[pangolin20]

presumably in the days of our Norman French overlords panniers were originally pairs of baskets slung across the back of a beast of burden :-)

And it's still used with much the same meaning, I see! (By the way, I see that "panier" comes from Latin "pannarium", which means "bread basket".)

Hmmm, it seems to be that they're more durable than soft ones, or that's what sites listing pros and cons of hard panniers tell me.

carried on the back of a two-wheeled vehicle.

Would it be idiomatic to call the bags on a bike that? (If so, that means I can equate it to an existing word in my native language.)