20mph speed limit plan for cit y ge ts cash boos t fr om council
ACITY- WIDE 20mph speed limit is to be rolled out across Glasgow, under plans by the council.
The plan, to cut accidents and improve air quality, is moving forward with extra cash allocated to get it in place in the coming years.
Currently, just 15% of the city has a maximum speed of 20 mph, including the city centre, some residential areas and streets around schools.
The plan is that by 2030 the remaining streets totalling around 1000 miles of road will be 20mph.
The plan to cut the speed limit is intended to help reduce road fatalities and casualties and help the environment with less pollution.
More cash has now been secured from Sustrans for £ 2.5 million and matched by £ 2.1m from the council budget for the next four years.
George Gillespie, Executive Director of Neighbourhoods at the council, said it would use powers from the government to introduce the rules.
He said: “The Scottish Ministers recently changed the regulations pertaining to experimental traffic regulation orders ( ETRO) and it would be the council’s intention to implement the citywide mandatory 20mph Order using an ETRO.
“The ETRO simplifies the process somewhat and allows the council to advertise, make the order and then ask for comments/ objections during a monitoring period. An ETRO lasts for 18 months and the council would then have to decide if it was to make or amend the order.”
The policy is for a majority of roads to be 20mph by 2030 working with the police on enforcement.
A 20mph city- wide limit is in keeping with Scottish Government policy.
The report states: “The National Transport Strategy aims to expand 20mph speed limits across Scotland and will ensure all appropriate roads in built- up areas have a safer speed limit of 20mph by 2025.
“The strategy seeks to introduce a consistency for 20mph speed limits across the country, simplifying speed limits for drivers.”
Until a change in guidance, 20mph roads needed to have traffic- calming measures like speed bumps or chicanes.
But now after a change from Transport Scotland, they can be considered where the ‘ existing mean speeds are no greater than 24mph’.
The plan will be phased in across different zones each evaluated for speed, and traffic volume.
Delivery of individual schemes will be carried out on a zonal basis rather than an ‘ all in’ city- wide implementation.
Details of what the zones will be and the delivery dates of each zone are still to be confirmed.