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Road Safety Concerns in the UK
Most recently, here at Shortfall we have focused on a number of safety issues including the latest trend to take a 'Selfie' whilst driving and a new drug driving limit. We have also focused on the motorway speed limit and whether it would be safer to increase or decrease the limit. This time round we are going to look at the argument to change the speed limit in built up residential areas.
78% of people that were recently surveyed believe that 20 mile per hour speed limits should be introduced as normal in residential areas, along with town centres and around schools, the road safety charity Brake revealed recently.
The figures come as the charity's GO 20 campaign is introduced, which is asking politicians to support changing the urban speed limit to 20 miles per hour.
20 mile per hour zones are already spread wide across some areas, with the charity claiming that these particular areas have seen a significant reduction in vehicle crashes. Casualties in Portsmouth fell by 22%, whilst Camden saw a reduction of 54% in vehicle collisions.
Out of the 1,000 people that were surveyed, there were an alleged 81% of people that said that traffic travelled too fast on most of their local roads and allegedly seven out of ten that said that roads in their village or town should be made safer for walking and cycling.
Brake argues that 20 mile per hour speed limits would definitely improve social activity and public health as there would be a lot more people that felt safe to walk and cycle for enjoyment, local journeys or commuting.
In a recent statement, Julie Townsend who is the Brake deputy chief executive explained that the GO 20 campaign's goal is to defend everybody's right to be able to walk and cycle freely without being endangered, whether it is to get to the shops, work, school or just going out and being active. She went on to explain that with a lot of people already enjoying the benefits of living in areas with 20 mile per hour zones, it is reaching the point where it does not make sense to retain a default 30 mile per hour limit in built up areas.
