End of the road for 20mph limit despite a fall in traffic accidents
SOLIHULL Council has voted against permanent 20mph speed limits – despite ‘positive results’ from a four-year pilot scheme.
Trial areas were set up around Windy Arbour School, Daylesford Infant School, Balson Common Primary School and Coppice Junior School.
The pilot 20mph limit was introduced between 8am and 9am, and resulted in a reduction in serious accidents of 100 per cent and slight accidents by 62.5 per cent.
The ‘20 is plenty’ campaign, backed by Solihull Green Party councillors Max McLoughlin and Andy Hodgson (Shirley South), wants to reduce speeds in residential roads and stop motorists using some of the routes as rat runs.
Coun McLoughlin said: “The issues of child and road safety should be at the top of the council’s priorities and the reports from the Department for Transport, and the recommendations from the pilot study, show that they aren’t.
“Often what happens when you have an arterial or a trunk road, for example Stratford Road, when there is congestion on those roads people speed up along the long way round to make their journey quicker.
“Introducing a 20mph limit in these places, reminds people that their route is not a short cut and that it is a residential road on which you need to be careful.”
Coun McLoughlin added: “If a reduction in serious accidents of 100 per cent and slight accidents by 62.5 per cent isn’t enough to merit it a success, then I can’t understand what would.”
Councillor Ted Richards, Cabinet Member for Transport and Highways said: “The trial, which was carried out to the required Department for Transport standards, produced no conclusive change in vehicle speed around the schools.
“I will be meeting with Councillor McLoughlin alongside officers from the Council’s Highways Department to address his concerns.”
The Department for Transport found that Solihull had a two per cent increase in road casualties in the past year, compared to a general reduction in road casualties nationally.