Returning to school: The impact of new pedestrian safety measures imposed in Wales

A new 20mph default speed limit in residential areas will come into force in Wales in September 2023, with Scotland looking to adopt the new 20MPH limit in 2025.

The new 20MPH limits are currently being trialled in eight communities and are due to be rolled out across the whole of Wales in September 2023.

Wales will be the first UK country to adopt the 20 MPH limit, which ministers say will save lives by reducing road traffic collisions, develop safer communities, improve the quality of life and encourage more people to make more sustainable choices by walking and cycling, rather than automatically getting in the car.

Pedestrians are five times more likely to survive being hit by a car at 20mph than at 30mph, according to Lee Waters, Wales’ deputy climate change minister.

“This will save lives and it will improve the quality of people’s lives locally,” he said.

In an interview with BBC Wales, Mr. Waters stated that the new legislation would increase levels of cycling, walking and friendliness, and that stopping and talking to neighbours had all been shown to rise when traffic speeds were lowered.

The Alliance of British Drivers, however are opposed to 20mph speed limits.

Director Ian Taylor told the BBC, “We do not believe one-size fits all, we believe the limit should fit the road.”  His concern is that the 20MPH limit was “asking for non-compliance” and that, whilst the Alliance does not advocate breaking the law, many safe drivers would be potentially criminalised.  He stressed the fact that drivers should have their eyes on the road, rather than on the speedometer.

The proposals stipulated that the characteristics of each road, such as its geometry and adjacent land use, should be a key factor when setting a speed limit. Drivers are more likely to adhere to lower limits where they can see potential hazards, for example outside schools, areas populated by the elderly and town centres.

The new legislation does not apply a blanket 20MPH speed limit on all roads, rather enables a default of 20MPH on all roads, allowing local authorities, to decide as a community, which roads, if any, should remain subject to the current 30MPH limit.

The move is expected to increase the current 2.5% of 20 MPH roads to somewhere in the region of 35% following the implementation of the new regime.

Despite public protestation, with over half of households in Wales opposing the move, Ministers insist that the slower speeds will save lives, however motorists are complaining of more accidents being caused by motorists having to give their full concentration to a speed, which they feel is unnaturally slow, coupled with the broader issues of roads being further congested and congestion journey times being increased, putting further pressure upon commuters.

Whilst many Welsh communities will notice a remarkable difference, those in highly populated towns and cities with heavily congested roads will perhaps be less affected than most, as driving in some cities often forces lower speeds upon drivers naturally.

The data used by the Parliamentary committee included statistics from a number of sources:

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents concludes that 45% of pedestrians get killed when struck by a car going at 30mph or less but only 5% when going at 20mph or less, whilst The World Health Organisation states that the most effective way to improve pedestrian safety is to reduce the speed of vehicles and documents that 50% of casualties on our roads in 2018, occurred on 30mph roads.

According to statistics, just 3% of collisions involving casualties in 2021 occurred on 20MPH roads whilst 50 percent happened in 30MPH limits.

Stopping distances often play a key role in the avoidance of collisions and although it may have been mandatory to learn these parrot-fashion when revising for a driving test, they often become less familiar to motorists over time:

The Highway Code provides typical stopping distances here:  https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/control-of-the-vehicle.html

Perhaps some motorists will be surprised when reminded that the stopping distance at 20 MPH is 12 metres, including thinking and breaking distance, which equates to 3 car lengths, whilst the stopping distance at 30MPH is significantly longer than perhaps realised at 23 metres or six car lengths.

In terms of outcomes, drivers may be at risk of accumulating penalty points where they fail to notice or adhere to the new restrictions.  Drivers with full UK licences are subject to the totting provisions, once they accumulate 12 points or more.  Driving on routes with changing speed limits often increases the risk of driving in excess of the limit and therefore attracting penalty point endorsements.  Any driver reaching the 12 point threshold will face disqualification of the statutory mandatory 6 months, unless the Court is persuaded to depart from their guidelines.  New drivers, those driving for 2 years or less, will be in a similar position, when they reach 6 points, in that their’ licence will be revoked by the DVLA.

There are clearly pros and cons to the new legislation and the subject is certainly divisive.