Drivers face 20mph limit on all residential roads to cut deaths

Moves towards a new "default" speed limit across entire boroughs were boosted as ministers today unveiled a 10-year target to reduce the number of traffic deaths by a third nationwide.

As well as a lower speed for residential areas, the plans include a tougher driving test and cutting the limit on some A-roads from 60mph to 50mph at accident blackspots.

However, in London the biggest change would be new Whitehall rules to encourage councils to impose "blanket" speed limits of 20mph for every street that is not an arterial road or major through-route. Roads near schools would have the lower limit as a matter of course.

Cities including Newcastle, Portsmouth, Oxford and Leicester already have 20mph limits in residential areas. Islington council recently announced moves to have its own, blanket, lower limit, but campaigners want the Government to make it much easier to implement such plans.
Seven other boroughs are considering the move.

Although more road humps may be installed, some councils are considering "average speed limit cameras" at the entrance to and exit from residential streets to police the new speeds.

Road safety researchers say only one in 40 people who is hit by a vehicle at 20mph dies, compared with one in five at 30mph.

Many 20mph zones have been introduced in a piecemeal fashion and the London Assembly recently claimed that without "default" limits, it could take 20 years to make the streets safer.

Transport Minister Jim Fitzpatrick was today unveiling a consultation document on the government plans.

Ministers say they are on course to hit the Government's current target of cutting deaths and serious injuries on the roads by 40 per cent by next year.

A new target of reducing deaths by an additional third will be suggested for 2020.

There will also be a new section in the driving test where candidates will be asked to drive without being directed by the examiner. Young learner drivers who opt to take a new pre-qualification course will be allowed to sit a shorter theory test.

Almost 4,000 people were killed or seriously injured on London's roads last year.

TfL's own research found that targeted 20mph zones cut traffic speeds by an average of 9mph and dramatically improved safety for all road users, reducing all casualties by 43 per cent and fatal or serious casualties by 53 per cent.

Over the past 20 years, 400 of the 20mph zones have been introduced across 31 of London's 33 boroughs.

Tfl estimates there are a further 880 areas in which the benefits of implementing a new 20mph zone would outweigh the costs.