Plans to cut traffic speed limits

21/04/2009 12:12:32

Proposals to bring down speed limits in areas where there is a higher risk of accidents have been announced by the government's road safety minister. Reductions from 30mph to 20mph in urban locations and 60mph to 50mph in the countryside are being considered.

Jim Fitzpatrick said the way people learn to drive and how they are tested is also set for major reform.

The plans are part of a new strategy to reduce road deaths in England and Wales through to 2020.

Safety research

Mr Fitzpatrick said in a statement: "We've already made real improvements to the safety of our roads - there are now almost 17,000 fewer deaths or serious injuries in a year than there were in the mid-1990s. But it is intolerable that eight people are still dying on our roads each day.

"The major changes to the driver training and testing process will create better prepared drivers while our plans for the next 10 years aim to make the roads and vehicles they use safer and so prevent many of the terrible crashes which cut short lives and tear families apart."

Places such as Newcastle, Portsmouth, Oxford and Leicester already use 20mph speed limits in residential areas, and other local councils will be given new guidance to cut speed limits in residential areas and outside schools.

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Ministers say they are on course to hit the government's current target of cutting deaths and serious injuries on the roads by 40% by 2010.

There will be a new section in the driving test where candidates will be asked to drive without being directed by the examiner.

Young learner drivers who opt to take a new pre-qualification course will be allowed to sit a shorter driving theory test.

Road safety researchers say only one in 40 people who are hit by a vehicle at 20mph die, compared with one in five at 30mph.

Robert Gifford, of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, said: "The 20mph zones are proven to save lives and that is especially important when thinking about children and the elderly."

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