Open Letter On 20mph Speed Limit For Wandsworth


Richard Tracey AM explains why it won't necessarily work

"The Mayor's Roads Task Force report is filled with exciting ideas but trying to direct a London-wide 20mph speed limit is simply unworkable. A more effective approach to improving road safety would be to allow specific local areas – where a majority of residents want a 20mph limit – to become 20mph.
 
Expanding the 20mph limit to all residential roads is likely to lead to excessive numbers of drivers breaking the law and ignoring the speed limit especially where it is clearly possible to drive safely at up to 30mph AND there is no specific reason to lower this limit.

Given that the police will confirm that 20mph zones are unenforceable and thus rely on public acceptance, their indiscriminate introduction would be a mistake.

Furthermore, decisions such as this should very much be taken at a local level. What might work well for some inner city boroughs would not necessarily be right for the whole of Wandsworth."

Richard Tracey, London Assembly Member and GLA Conservatives Transport spokesman


July 16, 2013