Cutting speed limit to 20mph ‘cheapest way to save lives’

Cutting the speed limit to 20mph in residential streets would be the cheapest way to save lives, the MSP behind the plan has argued.

Giving evidence on his bill, Mark Ruskell faced questions about the “enormous cost” of forcing councils to reduce the default speed limit, but said that it was the most cost-effective way to protect children, pedestrians and cyclists.

The Scottish Green MSP told the rural economy committee that the human cost of collisions should be considered as well as the financial burden on local authorities.

Recounting how a child at his school died after being hit by a car on the street outside his house, Mr Ruskell said: “The impact on the whole school community and the family was huge and it stays with me to this day.

“If you look at not just the impact of fatalities but the impacts of severe injuries as well, the lifetime costs in terms of care but also the impacts of near misses.”

Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Rumbles said that the cost for Edinburgh to implement the 20mph speed limit was almost £1 million and added: “It will cost rural councils a hugelydisproportionate amount of money to implement this.

“It will be an enormous cost.” Mr Ruskell argued that there is a rural weighting in his Bill to help local authorities and suggested “the Scottish Government could equalise some of those costs”.

“A low-cost intervention is to reduce the speed limit to 20mph,” he said, adding: “Reduce speed from 30 to 20mph and that’ll result in a modest, but substantial, reduction of speeding casualties.”