Tweeting about twenty: an analysis of interest, public sentiments and opinion about 20mph speed restrictions in two UK cities

Abstract Background Twenty miles per hour (20mph) speed limits (equivalent to roughly 30kmh) have become part of public health policies to reduce urban road collisions and casualties, especially in Western countries. Public opinion plays a crucial role in opposition to and acceptance of policies tha...

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Autores principales:	Tushar Semwal, Karen Milton, Ruth Jepson, Michael P. Kelly
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	BMC 2021
Materias:	Pubklic health Policy Intervention Speed restrictions Social media Twitter mining Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/571e98d96b0a4e1c841ee64a57b99c94
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:571e98d96b0a4e1c841ee64a57b99c942021-11-08T10:43:38ZTweeting about twenty: an analysis of interest, public sentiments and opinion about 20mph speed restrictions in two UK cities10.1186/s12889-021-12084-x1471-2458https://doaj.org/article/571e98d96b0a4e1c841ee64a57b99c942021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12084-xhttps://doaj.org/toc/1471-2458Abstract Background Twenty miles per hour (20mph) speed limits (equivalent to roughly 30kmh) have become part of public health policies to reduce urban road collisions and casualties, especially in Western countries. Public opinion plays a crucial role in opposition to and acceptance of policies that are advocated for improving public health. Twenty miles per hour speed limit policies were implemented in Edinburgh and Belfast from 2016 to 2018. In this paper, we extract public opinion and sentiments expressed about the new 20mph speed limits in those cities using publicly available Twitter data. Methods We analysed public sentiments from Twitter data and classified the public comments in plain English into the categories ‘positive’, ‘neutral’, and ‘negative’. We also explored the frequency and sources of the tweets. Results The total volume of tweets was higher for Edinburgh than for Belfast, but the volume of tweets followed a similar pattern, peaking around 2016, which is when the schemes were implemented. Overall, the tone of the tweets was positive or neutral towards the implementation of the speed limit policies. This finding was surprising as there is a perception among policymakers that there would have been public backlash against these sorts of policy changes. The commonly used hashtags focused largely on road safety and other potential benefits, for example to air pollution. Conclusions Overall, public attitudes towards the policies were positive, thus policymakers should be less anxious about potential public backlash when considering the scale-up of 20mph speed restrictions.Tushar SemwalKaren MiltonRuth JepsonMichael P. KellyBMCarticlePubklic healthPolicyInterventionSpeed restrictionsSocial mediaTwitter miningPublic aspects of medicineRA1-1270ENBMC Public Health, Vol 21, Iss 1, Pp 1-13 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Pubklic health Policy Intervention Speed restrictions Social media Twitter mining Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270
spellingShingle	Pubklic health Policy Intervention Speed restrictions Social media Twitter mining Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Tushar Semwal Karen Milton Ruth Jepson Michael P. Kelly Tweeting about twenty: an analysis of interest, public sentiments and opinion about 20mph speed restrictions in two UK cities
description	Abstract Background Twenty miles per hour (20mph) speed limits (equivalent to roughly 30kmh) have become part of public health policies to reduce urban road collisions and casualties, especially in Western countries. Public opinion plays a crucial role in opposition to and acceptance of policies that are advocated for improving public health. Twenty miles per hour speed limit policies were implemented in Edinburgh and Belfast from 2016 to 2018. In this paper, we extract public opinion and sentiments expressed about the new 20mph speed limits in those cities using publicly available Twitter data. Methods We analysed public sentiments from Twitter data and classified the public comments in plain English into the categories ‘positive’, ‘neutral’, and ‘negative’. We also explored the frequency and sources of the tweets. Results The total volume of tweets was higher for Edinburgh than for Belfast, but the volume of tweets followed a similar pattern, peaking around 2016, which is when the schemes were implemented. Overall, the tone of the tweets was positive or neutral towards the implementation of the speed limit policies. This finding was surprising as there is a perception among policymakers that there would have been public backlash against these sorts of policy changes. The commonly used hashtags focused largely on road safety and other potential benefits, for example to air pollution. Conclusions Overall, public attitudes towards the policies were positive, thus policymakers should be less anxious about potential public backlash when considering the scale-up of 20mph speed restrictions.
format	article
author	Tushar Semwal Karen Milton Ruth Jepson Michael P. Kelly
author_facet	Tushar Semwal Karen Milton Ruth Jepson Michael P. Kelly
author_sort	Tushar Semwal
title	Tweeting about twenty: an analysis of interest, public sentiments and opinion about 20mph speed restrictions in two UK cities
title_short	Tweeting about twenty: an analysis of interest, public sentiments and opinion about 20mph speed restrictions in two UK cities
title_full	Tweeting about twenty: an analysis of interest, public sentiments and opinion about 20mph speed restrictions in two UK cities
title_fullStr	Tweeting about twenty: an analysis of interest, public sentiments and opinion about 20mph speed restrictions in two UK cities
title_full_unstemmed	Tweeting about twenty: an analysis of interest, public sentiments and opinion about 20mph speed restrictions in two UK cities
title_sort	tweeting about twenty: an analysis of interest, public sentiments and opinion about 20mph speed restrictions in two uk cities
publisher	BMC
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/571e98d96b0a4e1c841ee64a57b99c94
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Tweeting about twenty: an analysis of interest, public sentiments and opinion about 20mph speed restrictions in two UK cities

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