Why 20mph Speed Limits Won’t Work

Hi Shahzad

Thanks for getting back to me.

Well, I have been a car driver for over 55 years and in that time I have driven and owned everything from a 1953 Austin A30 to Ferrari 308 GTB including a Ginetta that I built myself. I also have a degree in Automobile Engineering from Loughborough University and worked for Ford as a designer for 7 years.

But nearly 20 years ago I travelled to Warrington’s twin-town (Hilden) in Germany to find out how they had made their town far less congested by creating a situation where 23% of in-town trips were by bicycle and 25% by public transport. That’s about 40 fewer cars per 100 people travelling than in Warrington. What I found was that they set a 30km/h limit in the early 1990’s and that was the foundation of their walking and cycling strategy. As a result in 2004 I started campaigning for 20mph limits as a norm for urban and village streets, with exceptions only where safe for walkers and cyclists. In 2007 I set up 20’s Plenty for Us as an NGO to help communities wanting lower traffic speeds in and now we have 650 local campaigns in the UK and beyond. Now 28 million people in the UK live in local authorities where 20mph is the urban/village norm. In that time I have investigated all the reports and issues in some detail and have been involved with many of the local authorities setting 20mph in the UK as well as organisations such as the Global Alliance of Road Safety NGOs, WHO, European Transport Safety Council, and many more.

In 2013 I was honoured with an MBE for Services to Road Safety among other awards.

But I have never been anti-motorist and have sought to engage with those with different opinions. Often those differences are one of perspective rather than values. And an honest and reasoned discussion can look at lower limits both from a driver perspective and a societal perspective. I do note your arguments, and on the face of them they do look reasonable until you dig a little deeper. For example the study of the Belfast city-centre 20mph predictably showed no real change in behaviour when 20mph was set. Hardly surprising when your realise that all the streets had average speeds lower than 20mph even when the speed limit was 30mph. And taking the 86% of drivers exceeding 20mph limits from the DfT report. Yes, this measured just 9 sites which were chosen because there were no hazards, were free-flowing and were neither fronted with residential housing or schools, or shops. The report actually said that these streets were atypical of most 20mph limits. So that 86% is not representative of all drivers on all 20mph limits.

I could go on and address the other points you made in the video, but would rather do so sympathetically in a discussion on Zoom. No recording or audience. I can sense someone with a passion for driving and a responsible attitude on road safety. I would certainly like to understand more from your perspective and would hope that you could take some value from mine. I suspect that we would agree on far more than we would disagree on. I am sure it would be beneficial for us both.

If you are up for it then I would be pleased to do so.

My best wishes

Rod

Rod King MBE
Founder and Campaign Director
20’s Plenty for Us
+44 (0)7973 639781
rod.k@20splenty.orgrod.k@20splentyforus.org.uk
@20splentyforus
http://www.20splenty.orghttp://www.20splenty.org/

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