The drive for safety: Do 20mph speed limits really prevent accidents?

Resolutely adhering to the posted 20 mph speed limit, as a motorist I have rarely felt so vulnerable.

Guided by satellite navigation from the A3 arterial road to the capital, I found myself on the A298 Bushey Road passing through the south London borough of Merton.

I was on the inner lane of a busy dual carriageway that expands to three lanes in parts.

But the speed limit, which was 40 mph the last time I used it, was now cut in half to just 20 mph: a speed I seemed to be the only one sticking to. In fact, as streams of other cars caught up, I feared I might be involved in a collision.

To slow down

I was concerned. Not about the other motorists, but about the idiots who decided to turn this major highway into a 20mph zone. And as the nation celebrates Road Safety Week, it seems I wasn’t alone.

This ludicrous 20mph dual carriageway caused so much anger and concern among locals in Merton that the Labor Council who imposed it in 2020 – as part of a citywide 20mph general policy – was so appalled by the backlash that they were forced into a partial U-turn and plan now to raise the limit to 30 mph.

Councilor Stephen Alambritis, Merton council’s chief of transport, admitted this month: ‘After careful consideration we think 30mph 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 bordered by houses or shops.’

He also admitted that changing the limit from 20 mph to 30 mph “will help 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 an exaggeration. It actually makes the roads less safe.

“Some go as fast as 20 mph. Most don’t. It’s an inappropriate speed limit. It encourages people to break the law.’

Gain Momentum

Using new powers, nearby Labour-led Wandsworth this month became the first council in the country to face controversial £130 speeding fines, but no points on the license – for motorists caught on cameras exceeding the general 20 mph limit on residential roads.

If the eight-month trial is judged ‘passed’, the fines – halved for payment within 14 days – will become permanent and more councils in London and the UK are likely to follow suit.

Wandsworth says money from the fines will fund road safety programs. But the AA warns that allowing municipalities to retain the camera fines will create an incentivized ‘cash cow’ for municipalities to skin motorists and amounts to ‘de-criminalizing speeding’, equating it with parking fines .

Police should enforce speeding tickets and fines go to the Treasury, it says, though there are huge variations across the country in police prosecutions (which do include demerit points).

If you think these are isolated cases, think again: the ’20’s Plenty’ bandwagon is getting huge support from local councils responsible for about a third of the country’s most populous built-up areas, including Bristol, Edinburgh, Portsmouth and Oxford.

Half the roads in London already have them.

It has grown since campaigner Rod King founded the 20’s Plenty for Us movement in 2007. At their annual conference in Oxford, delegates were told that ’20 mph will be the new normal’.

Campaigners say 20 mph zones reduce accidents and make life safer for ‘active travel’ by cyclists and pedestrians. Many municipalities want 20 mph to become the new ‘default’ speed limit in built-up areas.

Mary Williams, CEO of the road safety organization Brake, described 20 mph limits as “lifesaving,” especially for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

The Devolved Government of Wales will introduce a standard 20mph limit on built-up roads from September at a cost of £32.4m, and the Devolved Scottish Government plans to make 20mph ‘the norm’ in built-up areas get through 2025.

Targeted zones

But while a targeted 20 mph road near a school or hospital could be a road safety measure, motorists say its increasingly widespread use is a blunt tool leading to “inappropriate” speed limits that undermine public respect for and compliance with threaten to undermine more legitimate limits.

Research by Queen’s University Belfast, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health this week, says lowering speed limits to 20mph in busy city centers has ‘little impact on road deaths or accidents’.

However, the study accepts that 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 is important that 20mph limits are used where they stand to have the greatest positive impact.

‘Drivers are less likely to adhere to a lower limit if they feel it does not suit the type of road.’

AA president Edmund King said, “We support targeted 20 mph zones. If motorists understand why it is 20 mph, they are much more likely to observe it. But general 20 mph zones are not the solution. If you have inappropriate 20 mph zones, it undermines the speed limits.”