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Livingstone pledge for 20mph London
Katharine Barney, Evening Standard07.04.08
Ken Livingstone today announced plans to introduce a 20mph speed limit across London.
He said the new restriction was aimed at further reducing road deaths and claimed that if Boris Johnson won the mayoral election on 1 May, the death toll would begin to rise again.
The Tory candidate has said he is opposed to a 20mph limit on London's residential streets.
Mr Livingstone told the annual conference for Roadpeace - the charity for road crash victims - that his road safety measures had led to a 40 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured on roads every year.
He said: "The presumption on London streets should be 20 miles an hour with very rare exceptions. Boris Johnson's policies are completely and diametrically opposed to mine.
"I confess we have rephased traffic lights and done the outrageous thing of giving pedestrians an extra two seconds to cross the road.
"Boris Johnson has said he will rephase traffic lights so traffic flows more smoothly but 'smoothly' is actually a euphemism for faster."
Research has shown that nine out of 10 pedestrians will be killed if hit by a car travelling at 40mph, but only one in 20 will die if hit at 20mph.
Mr Livingstone said more pedestrian crossings and longer green man crossings had meant 500 fewer children were hurt or killed on the roads each year since 2000.
He added that if Mr Johnson were to become mayor all his hard work would be ruined. "If we go into reverse we will go back to a much more dangerous city and a much more unpleasant one," he said. "There is a very real chance... more people could die on London's streets."
In response, Mr Johnson said: "Road deaths are a tragedy and not to be used as political tools. The Mayor's comments are an insult to those who have lost loved ones in this way.
"These claims are absurd and ridiculous. If there were ever a demonstration that this Mayor has had his day and lost the plot, this is it."
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I can only assume that the posters above, who suggest this idea would be unworkable, must be unaware that it has already been successfully implemented in Portsmouth.
Moreover 20mph remains resolutely popular with the public. A British Social Attitudes Survey in 2006 showed that three-quarters of people support 20 mph speed restrictions in residential areas, including 72% of drivers. But still - don't let that stop you from denouncing Ken as out of touch eh? Difficult to like he may be, but he has done fantastic things for transport in the capital. Though there's still a long way to go, we can actually walk and cycle with a modicum of safety and convenience these days.
I look forward to the day when Londoners will be able to enjoy a default 20mph speed limit and feel this is an idea who's time has come - as Portsmouth and Norwich have shown. The benefits are overwhelming - from huge road safety savings to the boost this would provide to our increasingly successful efforts to get our kids walking and cycling again. These become more pronounced when you consider that the majority of inner London households are without cars. It is hard to see in whose interest the idea of maintaining dangerous speed limits is?
All politics aside I find Boris Johnson's proposals to shorten pedestrian crossing times at signals to increase motor traffic flow shocking and, in that they would turn back the clock, unworthy of our times.
- Dan, Hackney
Most drivers dream of reaching 20 mph in London. Just for the record, Ken, driving at 20 probably means dropping a gear which equals high revs which equals more pollution. Not only that, but the CO2 spewing monsters will be spending more time in the congestion/pollution/whatever zone.
- Paul, London
Well how slow does he want London to move? I came here 10years ago and it certainly was better, easier, cleaner, safer, cheaper to move around back then!
- Pat, London
