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Livingstone pledge for 20mph London
Katharine Barney, Evening Standard7 Apr 2008
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."
Reader views (38)
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, 08/04/2008 13:21
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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, 08/04/2008 12:03
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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, 08/04/2008 11:39
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Ken you have lost it, you are so anti car that you actually believe that a 20mph will be a vote winner, you poor tortured dimwit!
Get a life and learn to drive, instead of spending vast sums of our money on bogus charities, where's the money gone Ken, do we get it back?
- George Dorman, Bexleyheath, 08/04/2008 11:17
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This is yet more barmyness from mad Ken. I can understand 20mph limits on minor residential roads but they seem to want to apply this across the board. They seem to have forgotten that roads are there to get people to places, they aren't playgrounds. Ken has also vetoed improvements to major routes in London, before long, we won't be able to get anywhere - maybe that's the intention.
- Huw Morgan, London, UK, 08/04/2008 10:29
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I'd like to actually reach 20mph in Ken's London. Unfortunately I can't remember my car ever reaching this speed. Meanwhile, I'd like to borrow Harriet Harman's flak jacket to protect me from Ken's burblings.
Next up I predict we will all be told by Ken how dangerous it is to stray out into the street without thugs like Lee Jasper to protect me (for this is what he was known for pre-Ken).
Ken's London is looking increasingly like a place no-one recognises - no crime, no traffic, only fair minded property developers putting up Eco-friendly skyscrapers.
- Robin, London, 08/04/2008 09:58
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It cant work,just shows how Livingstone is completely out of touch. Only the minority protest group the green party would support this nonsense.
- Jonnie Of Brixton, London, UK, 08/04/2008 09:35
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If Ken could guarantee that the roads of London would always be free to drive at 20mph and whenever a road was blocked by a bendy bus or a hole in the road then he would pay a fine of £60 then I might go along with this.
Given that in the real world this will just be an opportunity to raise further revenue with more speed cameras I can only pray that Boris gets in next month.
- Oli, London, 08/04/2008 09:16
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When I read the Headline. I thought it meant that Ken was aiming to get the speed of London's traffic up to 20mph. But now I see it is to restrict the speed to 20mph. I thought he had already achieved this with his congestion Tax!
- Bairner, Bracknell Berkshire, 08/04/2008 08:50
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My part of London is now 20 MPH. The speed humps are so high you can't do 10MPH, damage to the underside of cars is routine and the pollution is horrible.
Has anyone explained to Ken that roads are for cars to actually move about on?
- Thalia, London UK, 07/04/2008 23:06
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I think that any discussion on speed limits on London's roads is hypothetical - I believe that the average speed of traffic within the mayoral domain is about eleven miles per hour. To worry about a maximum speed limit in excess of this seems superfluous.
A much more credible transport policy would be to stop the selfish individuals that park illegally and obstruct the progress of law abiding motorists (or, in instances where the parking offence is parking on, or partly on, the footpath, pedestrians), or to ban cars from residential streets where they are used as "rat runs"
- Ian Johnson, Mitcham, Surrey, 07/04/2008 23:03
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Thanks to our roads clogged with buses, to reach anywhere near even 20mph only a dream for most of us.
- Diana, Paddington W2, London, UK, 07/04/2008 22:38
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That is an excellent way of speeding up London's traffic. What a hopeless prat this man is!
- Bill, London, 07/04/2008 21:36
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Go for it, the tipping point, when finally the majority recognise you are a nutter.
- Stephen, Camberley, 07/04/2008 21:08
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Brilliant, another good reason not to vote for Red Ken. In 1988 Livingstone said "I hate cars. If I ever get any power again, I'll ban the lot" remember that speech Ken. You declared war on people innocently going about their lawful business.
Vote Ken and look forward to the 19th Century.
Motorists unite and drive this halfwit from office.
- Jeremy, London, England, 07/04/2008 21:08
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Oh sorry, I totally mis-understood, 20 is the speed limit is it? I thought it was Livingtstone's I.Q.
- Ken Chadwick, Chorley, Lancashre, 07/04/2008 19:08
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Whilst I agree with Ken's aims to make London's roads safe and improve transport, I can't but help think 20mph is just too slow a speed to drive at. It would make it impossible to actually drive that slowly and also cause further frustration in motorists.
30mph seems fine to me. The problem is drivers who aren't aware of potential dangers, not the speed limit.
- Andrew Robertson, Stoke Newingotn, London, 07/04/2008 19:03
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Wow that would be an improvement, but for real Ken you just hit on another vote loser, do you get the impression folks he is trying to get out of office?
- Brian, wiltshire, 07/04/2008 18:15
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Ken needs to learn to drive first before he goes on about driving.
- David, Wood Green, 07/04/2008 18:05
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Just think, Ken: if you dropped the limit to 10 mph, you could even get more speeding ticket revenue and you could show that people would be hurt even less. Or maybe set it at 5 mph.
But wait a minute: aren't more Londoners affected by air pollution than speed deaths these days?
Never mind the air pollution from thousands of cars crawling over stop and go speed bumps or stuck at out-of-phase traffic lights getting zero miles to the gallon while they pump carbon into the atmosphere: you can't fine yourself for gross negligence, can you?
- Jamie, London, 07/04/2008 18:05
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"I confess we have re-phased traffic lights and done the outrageous thing of giving pedestrians an extra two seconds to cross the road."
Good on ya Ken,
Even Taxis slow down before pedestrians now: we are their customers.
- Ludwiga, London, 07/04/2008 17:53
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I usually move around at 9mph or less in reality, since Mayor Livingstione hit London. 20mph would be an improvement!
- Patrick, Wandsworth, England, 07/04/2008 17:41
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So that's 20 miles an hours for buses and taxis too? Just how does the mayor think we're going to get to work at 20 miles per hour?
Surely, it would be greener to let drivers go as fast as they want on main roads?
I don't drive myself, but I really can't see the point of hobbling drivers in London, it just looks punitive and petty.
And remember Ken, some people have to drive cars - the disabled for example.
- Sarah N., London, UK, 07/04/2008 17:22
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Vehicles are designed to operate at maximum fuel efficiency at approximately 55 mph. research shows that about 55 is the “sweet spot” for most modern vehicles.
Driving slower decreases fuel efficiency. The slower you drive, the lower the fuel efficiency.
Thus, it takes more fuel – and produces more pollution – to drive ten miles at 20 mph than to drive the same 10 miles at 30 mph. (In addition reduced fuel efficiency, the vehicle must be on the road longer, so the result is a double whammy.) Far from being ecologically sound, this proposal is ecologically negative, increases local pollution.
Good one Ken!.
Ravi
- Ravi, Harrow, 07/04/2008 17:19
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Perhaps I should get a horse and carriage for Ken's London - either way, it's insane to make drivers doing 30 criminals apart from in obvious places like narrow school lanes. Perhaps we should all cycle down motorways, just in case some idiot steps out in front of our cars - after all, if hit by anything going 60mph+ he/she will definitely be killed. Ken just hates drivers, especially those bourgeois pigs who own their own motors.
- Helen Maher, West Hampstead, 07/04/2008 16:33
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A non-driver should not be dictating policies to road users. It's not as if you can even do 20mph most of the time in London.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, UK, 07/04/2008 15:56
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Keep up the good work Ken you just lost another 5 points to Boris.
- Den, London, 07/04/2008 15:55
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Didn't Ken commission a report which found that allowing motorcyclists to use bus lanes actually increased both their safety and that of other road users, before deciding that the results didn't fit his policies and binning it? How can we be expected to believe anything he says about what is safe and what is not. As a motorcyclist, I am 100% certain I am a safer driver when I am looking ahead and around me rather than constantly checking my speedometer (as well as watching out for speed bumps).
- St, London, 07/04/2008 15:53
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Considering that the average traffic speed in London is 15mph, I don't see why anything is needed to slow it down. Am I missing something?
One good way to reduce traffic deaths in London each year would be to get all the unlicensed drivers off the roads!
- Liz, Ealing, 07/04/2008 15:52
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Who cares Red Ken? You made London move so slow everyone is falling asleep.
- Steve, London, NW1, 07/04/2008 15:50
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How about Pedestrians take some responsibility for their own actions, and stop running into busy city streets like lemmings.
Jaywalking should be illegal in cities as busy as this one.
- Emma, London, UK, 07/04/2008 15:49
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Mr Livingstone appears to me to be digging his own grave.
- Giovanni, New Malden, 07/04/2008 15:42
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20MPH is not practical. Most cars wouldn't get out of 2nd gear and hence would increase pollution dramatically. No doubt the only way this would be enforced is with a massive increase in the number of speed cameras.
- Adam, Harrow, UK, 07/04/2008 15:42
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Another political sound bite from Loonie Livingstone - the only reason he wants to introduce 20mph zones everywhere in London is so that he rake in yet more tax from the bullied motorist.
If he gets his way (and god help us if he does), London will be destroyed beyond belief by more ugly cameras spying on us and measuring our speed on every road - as soon as you go more than 20mph they've got you and you get a fine from TfL (Torture for London).
- Daniel Howard, London,UK, 07/04/2008 15:38
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How many more times is the minority going to win over the majority 20 mph in London it would be great if you could achieve anywhere near that in rush hour Kenny boy pack your back now your finished.
- Edriordan, Wisbech, 07/04/2008 15:31
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What a brilliant idea Ken, and pray tell who'd going to enforce this genius plan of yours? Plastic plods don't have the authority, there aren't any traffic police any more and the normal police are too busy filling in paperwork ,perhaps traffic wardens as long as they have a bonus scheme I'm sure they won't abuse it? Eh?
- Ken Soffized, London, 07/04/2008 15:29
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Ken has had years to bring in this "reduced" safety Speed Limit for traffic but has done nothing about it!
Are Londoners really supposed to believe that Ken Livingstone has only just learned of these "road safety statistics"? This is yet more "spin" from London's current Mayor!
- Fraser, Telford Park, 07/04/2008 15:29
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I dream of the day I can reach even 20mph in London! There has to be a balance between keeping traffic moving and safety. We all know roads are for cars and pavements for people, so why do I see so many people dashing across the road rather than using nearby crossings? Both sides need education and to take responsibility.
- Mark Curtis, London, 07/04/2008 15:26
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