20mph Speed Limits will be imposed in built up areas in Wales but not everyone is impressed!
16/08/2022
From next year speed limits in built-up areas in Wales will be reduced to 20mph from 30mph in efforts to bring more safety to pedestrians. This is despite a Welsh council ditching the blanket 20mph limit in response to community backlash.
How will this affect drivers? Will it provide more safety, or will it be more dangerous?
Villagers in Monmouthshire, where the council has ditched the plan, complained that traffic was severely slowed down on main routes, and idling engines caused more carbon emissions to emit from the vehicles.
Drivers have complained that unnecessary time is being added on to journeys, and that the 30mph roads in the area have seen very few accidents. Why, they ask, was there a need for a change in the first place?
One driver complained that an elderly lady had had an accident at home and needed to get to the hospital but could not do so quickly because the speed restrictions.
Lorries are struggling to get up steep hills at 20mph, and such a slow speed downhill is hard on the brakes.
Risk-taking behaviour may increase due to the perception that 20mph is not a dangerous speed at which to be driving. A study by the RAC suggests that driving too slowly carries the same risks as speeding due to the higher incentive to make more dangerous manoeuvres[1].
These concerns have culminated in a petition opposing the amendments which is currently at 40,000 signatures.
However, advocates of the reduced speed claim that there will be a higher incentive for people to walk and cycle more, and that the chance of someone surviving a 20mph collision is seven times higher than that at 30mph. Indeed the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents found that 45% of pedestrians suffer fatally when struck by a car travelling at 30mph or less. This reduces to 5% when travelling at 20mph or less[2].
The Welsh government says the move will save £58 million over 30 years as a result of less demand on the emergency services and hospital treatment.
Drivers driving over 20 mph may be offered a speed awareness course if over the limit by 1-4 mph otherwise between 4 – 34 mph they are looking at a fixed penalty ticket of £100 and 3 points. 35mph and over will be taken to court and drivers can expect to receive a single justice procedure notice.
The penalties at court are :
21 – 30 Band A fine (50% of weekly income) and 3 points
31 – 40 Band B fine (100% weekly income) and 4-6 points/7-28 day disqualification
41+ Band C fine (150% weekly income) and 6 points/7-56 days disqualification
Another issue is whether the traffic process depts and the court can cope with increased number of prosecutions in addition to the overwhelming backlog of cases they already have. We are still dealing with speeding cases where our client is pleading guilty for offences committed in 2020 and one has to question whether it is in the public interest for these cases to continue any points endorsed would be inactive in 2023.
It will be interesting to see how the Welsh policy on 20mph speed limit pans out and whether England will follow suit.
[1] https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/over-half-of-all-drivers-speed-on-30mph-roads/ (accessed 15th August 2022)
[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/744077/reported-road-casualties-annual-report-2017.pdf, (accessed 15th August 2022).