Local highway authorities will have until 2011 to review all speed limits on their A and B roads, under the new Department for Transport guidance which demands limits reflecting the road environment and instinctively understood by drivers.
The long-awaited guidance calls for a more objective basis in setting speed limits, and aims to promote greater clarity and consistency. It will replace the previous advice, originally published in 1993, and will cover English local authority areas. The Scottish Executive is issuing guidance for Scotland and the Welsh Assembly is expected to publish guidance in due course.
‘Our new guidance encourages lowering speed limits where the evidence warrants it, but equally, traffic authorities should consider increasing limits, if it can be done safely,’ said transport minister, Stephen Ladyman.
The document contained few surprises but will allow a more consistent approach to camera signing on 30mph roads and maintained the DfT’s cautious stance on 30mph repeaters.
The County Surveyors’ Society welcomed the guidance and updating the framework for reviewing limits. Rob Salmon, of the traffic & safety working group, said the key activity would be the review of speed limit criteria and, particularly on A and B roads, it would be important to balance safety against mobility.
‘We have to find the balance,’ he said. ‘Much work has been done on priority roads over the last five years, based on casualty rates, but we haven’t had a common framework to take it forward.’
The AA Motoring Trust said the main issue would be how councils interpreted the guidance, since people were confused by current inconsistencies. While work was needed, especially on rural A roads, there had been a massive growth in limits not based on sound science.
But safety charity Brake said the guidance was a lost opportunity, which would fail to lower casualties because it didn’t demand lower limits. Head of campaigns, Cathy Keeler, said it was ridiculous to expect 20mph zones to be self-enforcing through traffic calming and only put in where traffic speeds exceeded 24mph. She urged an approach to limits based on risk analysis.
The UK Metric Association has said the speed review will be a ‘waste of taxpayers money’ unless it is combined with plans to convert speed limits to kilometres per hour. Chairman Robin Paice said: ‘The review is a golden opportunity to save money by doing the metric conversion at the same time as changing speed limits.’