End of country lane blasts? No

Surrey council is reducing limits on some rural roads from 60mph to 20 to see what happens. But it’s not as bad as it sounds

Surrey County Council’s new 20mph speed limit trial on some rural roads has got lots of us in a froth. But the proposal, though based on zero evidence, is not as hideous as has been portrayed in the wider media.

For a start, the council have confirmed they’re not plastering 20mph limits everywhere. Road safety manager Duncan Knox said the council will ‘set the limits at the speeds most drivers are currently driving at.’ He also said there will be no extra police enforcement. In other words, the new limits will be what most drivers do anyway, and should you choose to go faster than the new limit the chances are you won’t get caught. Knox said he expected the new limits will encourage some of the faster drivers to slow down and therefore reduce collisions – though provided no evidence that this has ever worked anywhere, ever.

‘I think the trial is a waste of time and money,’ says Colin Brown from the Motorcycle Action Group, ‘and I don’t think it will make any difference to casualties. The council has all but admitted this because they are choosing the roads to limit based on the speed of the traffic, not on collisions. They assume lower speeds reduce casualties and that’s the extent of the thinking.’

Ex-traffic cop Clive Shepherd agrees: ‘As skilled riders we know we can safely do 60mph down a rural road if we’ve got a view, but that won’t get any traction with your average motorist who looks no further than their bonnet. That’s the problem – most people aren’t driving to a good standard [so need a lower limit]. Plus there’s the anomaly of riding along a 50-limit A-road and turning off onto a goat track which has a 60 limit. There’s an inevitability about this trial.’ Curiously, there’s evidence that if the limits are not correctly applied, they might actually increase collisions by creating a group of drivers or riders who obediently pootle along at 20mph, and another who go at a speed they consider safe for the road, which could be nearer 60mph. Several American studies have shown that speed differentials can be a major factor in crashes, with one piece of research showing that drivers going 10mph slower than the prevailing speed are six times more likely to be involved in an accident than those travelling at the average speed for that road.

‘The trial is a waste of time and money’