20 mph
Reducing traffic speeds on our streets is the single biggest measure that will make them safer, more vibrant and social places.
If you are hit by a car at 35 mph, your chance of survival is 50%. If you are hit at 20 mph, your chance of survival leaps to 97%.
A 20 mph speed limit can:
- Increase road safety, by reducing the risk and severity of collisions
- Get more people walking, and create more social streets
- Cut pollution from exhaust fumes
- Smooth traffic-flow, by reducing stop-start driving
- Reduce traffic noise.
Implementing a 20 mph speed limit can be done without the use of costly and complex traffic calming measures. Many local authorities across the UK, including Portsmouth and Islington, have already adopted 20 mph as the default speed limit in residential areas. Other areas are now looking at adopting this limit on all roads where people live, work and shop.
Will it take me longer to get around at 20 mph?
No. Lower speeds increase road capacities, as the bunching effect at junctions is reduced as traffic flow improves. That’s why urban motorways are often 40 or 50 mph, as opposed to 70 mph. Even an urban journey of three miles, taking 30 minutes in a 30 mph limit, was shown to only increase to 33 minutes in a 20 mph setting.
Do car drivers want a 20 mph speed limit?
The 2011 British Attitudes Survey demonstrates that well over two-thirds of us, including motorists, would like a 20mph speed limit in the streets where we live. In Portsmouth, over 40 per cent of respondents stated that since the introduction of 20 mph, there has been a safer environment for walking and cycling. Around a third of respondents noticed an increase in pedestrian and cyclist activities in the local area.
Surely it’s impossible to enforce 20 mph speed limits?
The police are obliged to enforce all speed limits. The evidence is that drivers drop their speed when a 20 mph limit is enforced. 20 mph should become largely self-enforcing, as good drivers obeying the limit will act as a restraint on others exceeding it. In Portsmouth, streets where average speeds were previously higher than 24 mph, decreased limits have helped reduce speed by an average of 6.3 mph (http://www.dft.gov.uk/publications/speed-limits-portsmouth/). This occurred without the need for any extra police enforcement.
How can local authorities afford to introduce 20 mph in this economic climate?
Road traffic collisions are an enormous drain on the economy, costing the UK £18 billion every year. The 20 mph zones in London are estimated to already be saving more than £20 million in crash prevention anually. The cost of road signs is remarkably low. For example, Portsmouth converted 1200 streets to 20mph for just over £500,000 – far cheaper than the alternative ideas put forward, which came to £2.2 million. It’s roughly seven times more cost effective, in terms of speed reduction achieved, to introduce a 20 mph limit across a wide area, than to spend the same sum on isolated, physically calmed zones.
Not only that, but introducing lower speeds has proven to yield positive results for local businesses. Campaigning stalwart Caroline Russell and Living Streets media volunteer Sophie Coleman 'vox-popped' business owners and employees in two areas of Islington to find out what they thought of the proposals for 20 mph speed limits on all roads in the borough - and the results were positive. Editing by Ian James - www.ianjam.es
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We have pleaded with our District Council for over 3 years to reduce the speed limit in our village to 20mph (at present 30mph), on the grounds that the present situation is dangerous to pedestrians.
The village is on a narrow lane (4.0 metres wide in places) which is a through road and used by other villages for accessing the A14 and A1(M). There are no footpaths at all in the village, or on the through road anywhere!
The Council did provide a sign at either side of the village "Warning. No footpaths for the next 11/2 miles" which as they are no footpaths anywhere anyway is a bit of a laugh!
It amazes me that there has not yet been a serious accident on this road.
Richard Howitt.