SETTING SPEED LIMITS IN FUTURE
71. A new system of speed limits is required. Ideally
they should:
- be understood, consistent, respected; and
- take into account a wider range of factors than
the speed of the traffic, including the need to protect all road
users.
In its Road Safety Strategy in March 2000, the Government
promised significant changes along these lines. These were to:
- create a "national framework for determining
appropriate vehicle speeds on all roads, and ensuring that measures
are available to achieve them".[124]
- revise its "guidance to local authorities
on the setting of local speed limits to achieve appropriate and
consistent standards nationally to reflect, as far as possible,
the needs of all road users on different classes of roads"[125];
- in rural areas, "develop a new hierarchy of
roads defined by their function and quality, which combine flexibility
at local level with consistency nationally"[126];
and
- in urban areas, in the longer term "develop
an urban hierarchy of roads to provide clearer guidance in this
area, in a similar manner to that proposed for rural roads".[127]
72. Unfortunately the Government has not undertaken
most of these tasks and failed to complete any. There has been
a report on a rural road hierarchy but it failed to provide an
immediate and implementable solution.[128]
A major problem is that the proposed changes to date have been
too complicated.
73. Despite the problems there is sufficient evidence
to indicate that a new system of speed limits is required as a
matter of urgency. They are best set, as at present, by local
authorities following national guidance. A national framework
for speed assessment and a new classification of the urban and
rural road network could describe in more detail how those limits
should be applied. The Government should publish as a priority
revised Guidance to local authorities on setting local speed limits
and principles for speed management. The Guidance should also
offer information on the range of interventions available to local
authorities to act as preventative measures in advance of crashes
and injuries occurring. Local authorities should subsequently
be guided by a national framework for determining appropriate
vehicle speeds on roads and by a new hierarchy of roads defined
by their function and quality in urban and rural areas.
WHAT THE SPEED LIMITS SHOULD BE
AND THE USE OF ENGINEERING MEASURES TO ENFORCE THEM
74. According to a significant number of witnesses
there are four main types of road which are wrongly classified
or where existing speed limits are unsatisfactory. They are those
in some villages, in country lanes, on single carriageway A and
B roads, and in urban areas. The key issues raised by witnesses
in the inquiry were whether the speed limit:
- on urban residential roads should be 20 or 30 mph
- should be a 20 mph limit outside schools
- in villages should be 30 mph
- in country lanes should be 40 mph
- on single carriage A and B roads 50 or 60 mph.
There was little pressure from witnesses for a change
in motorway limit.[129]
75. We recommend that the following guidance on
speed limits be issued to local authorities. We discuss below
the rationale for these limits.
Proposed guidance to local authorities re speed
limits for cars
