THE DRIVE FOR SAFETY
Lower speed limits, higher fines and narrower roads are all impacting drivers – but how effective are these measures in preventing accidents?
STICKING resolutely to the posted 20mph speed limit, as a motorist i have rarely felt so vulnerable. Directed by sat-nav off the A3 arterial road into the capital, i found myself on the A298 Bushey Road heading through the South London borough of Merton. i was in the inside lane of a busy dual carriageway which expands in parts to three lanes.
Yet the speed limit, which last time i used it was 40 mph, had now been halved to just 20 mph: a speed that i appeared to be the only person sticking to. indeed, as streams of other cars overtook, i feared i might be involved in a collision.
SLOWING DOWN
I WAS concerned. not about the other drivers, but about the idiots who decided to make this major highway a 20mph zone. And, as the nation celebrates Road Safety week, it seems i was not alone.
this ridiculous 20mph dual carriageway caused so much anger and concern among locals in Merton that the Labour council which imposed it in 2020 — as part of a borough-wide blanket 20 mph policy — have been so stung by the backlash that they’ve been forced into a partial U-turn and plan now to raise the limit to 30 mph.
Merton council’s Labour transport chief, councillor Stephen Alambritis admitted this month: ‘After careful consideration, we think that 30 mph would be a more sensible speed limit along Bushey Road, between grand Drive and Martin way, given that it is a dual carriageway which is not lined by homes or shops.’
He also admitted changing the limit from 20 mph to 30 mph ‘will help to prevent tailgating and dangerous overtaking reported on the doorstep by residents during the 2022 local elections’.
Merton’s tory opposition leader cllr nick McLean said: ‘it’s overkill. it actually makes the roads less safe. Some do drive at 20 mph. Most do not. it is an inappropriate speed limit. it encourages people to break the law.’
GAINING MOMENTUM
USING new powers, nearby Labour- run wandsworth this month became the first council in the country to trial controversial £130 speeding fines, but no points on the licence — for motorists caught on camera exceeding the borough’s blanket 20 mph limits on its residential roads.
if the eight-month trial is judged ‘successful’, the fines — halved for payment within 14 days — will become permanent and more councils across London and the UK are likely to follow suit. wandsworth says cash from the fines will fund road safety schemes. But the AA warns allowing councils to keep the camera fines will create an incentivised ‘ cash cow’ for councils to fleece motorists and is tantamount to ‘de- criminalising speeding’, and putting it on a par with parking fines.
Police should enforce speeding and fines go to the treasury, it says, though there are huge variations in police prosecutions (which do include penalty points) across the country. if you think these are isolated cases, think again — the ‘20’s Plenty’ bandwagon is gaining huge support from councils responsible for about a third of the country’s most populous built-up areas, including Bristol, Edinburgh, Portsmouth and Oxford.
Half of London roads already have them. it’s been growing since campaigner Rod king founded the ‘20’s Plenty for Us’ movement
in 2007. At their annual conference in Oxford delegates were told ‘20 mph is becoming the new normal’.
Campaigners say 20 mph zones reduce accidents and make life safer for ‘active travel’ by cyclists and pedestrians. Many councils want 20 mph to be the new ‘default’ speed limit in builtup areas. Mary Williams, chief executive of road safety charity Brake, described 20 mph limits as ‘life-saving’, particularly for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
The devolved Welsh Government is to introduce a 20 mph default limit on roads in built-up areas from September at a cost of £32.4 million, and the devolved Scottish Government plans for 20 mph to become ‘the norm’ in builtup areas by 2025.
TARGETED ZONES
BUT while a targeted 20 mph road near a school or hospital can be a road safety measure, motoring groups say increasingly widespread use is a blunt instrument leading to ‘inappropriate’ speed limits that risk undermining public respect for and adherence to more legitimate limits.
Research by Queen’s university Belfast, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health this week, says cutting speed limits to 20mph in busy town and city centres has ‘little impact on road deaths or crashes’. However, the study accepts the risks of pedestrian fatalities are three and a half to five- and- a- half times higher at 30 mph to 40 mph than at 20 mph to 30 mph.
RAC road safety spokesman Simon Williams said: ‘It’s important that 20 mph limits are used in places where they stand to make the biggest positive impact.
‘Drivers are less likely to comply with a lower limit if they don’t believe it’s appropriate for the type of road.’
AA President Edmund King said: ‘We support targeted 20 mph zones. If drivers understand why it is 20mph, they are much more likely to observe it. But blanket 20 mph zones are not the solution. If you have inappropriate 20 mph zones it undermines speed limits.’