A 20mph Lancaster & District: How & Why

‘What’s the biggest problem in your neighbourhood?’

Most of us want to live in a quiet, pleasant street. A safe street in which children can play out alone; a friendly street in which you can meet your neighbours. No one wants to live in a hostile street that you cannot walk across thanks to a fast-moving traffic; a noisy street that is an occasional race track.

Life Begins at 20 is Lancaster & District Green Party’s campaign to bring traffic speeds down to 20 miles per hour across the District, as part of a wider vision for creating the kind of streets in which we really want to live.

The 2003–04 British Crime Survey asked the public what they perceive to be the worst ‘anti-social behaviour’ problems where they live. By far the biggest problems related to the effects of motor traffic – 43% reported fast traffic as a ‘fairly big’ or ‘very big’ problem, and 31% felt the same about cars parked inconveniently or illegally.

A 20 mph Lancaster & District: why?

Communities grow where the streets belong to people, not just to vehicles. City streets can and should be lively, vibrant places which everyone can enjoy. Streets should be places in which you can hear yourself speak above the constant noise from vehicles; in which you can safely walk or cycle with your children.

Our streets should not be grim thoroughfares serving only fast-moving vehicles. Our streets should include everyone and allow a range of uses. Our streets should be a truly shared space in which shoppers and residents, pedestrians and cyclists, young and old, do not take a firm second place. Reducing vehicle speeds is the single most important factor in creating living streets.

There is strong and growing evidence to support a maximum speed limit of 20 mph in our towns and cities. Nationally the government supports the introduction of 20 mph, and the Conservatives under David Cameron now support 20 mph ‘in all urban areas’. However locally all other parties on the City Council opposed the introduction of a District wide 20mph scheme.

The Green Party believes the benefits of 20 mph should be felt throughout the district, in the streets where we live, shop and stroll. When traffic is slowed existing 20mph zones show that people begin to enjoy their environments and use the local amenities more.

Driver psychology

At 20 mph, drivers make eye contact with and engage with the people in the street they are passing through. This contact really matters: people in the street know they’ve been seen. It also makes drivers less inclined to bully their way along ‘their’ road, and more inclined to share the space. At speeds over 30 mph, drivers begin to become disassociated from the area they are passing through – and anti-social driving habits, especially speeding, creep in.

What are Life Begins At 20’s campaign aims?

We aim to persuade the people of Lancaster & District of the attractions of safer, quieter city streets. We aim to convince the city and county councils to make our streets more focused on people. In particular we aim to convince Lancashire County Council of the need for slower, pleasanter streets with 20 mph areas extended to cover all of the District, as it is the county council which controls most of the areas streets.

For information on national campaigning for 20mph zones see the Slower Speeds intiaitive.

What is happening elsewhere?

Lancaster & District – Life Begins at 20 Campaign is part of a movement being witnessed in towns and cities across the UK, and we draw our inspiration and much of our knowledge from other national organisations. Across Britain, communities are turning to 20 mph speed limits to civilise their streets. Here are some examples:

Kingston-upon-Hull – 20 mph champion The City now has more than 115 20 mph traffic calmed zones, covering over 30 per cent of the city’s roads, and they are pressing on to civilise more streets. Over 200 deaths or serious injuries and 1000 other injuries are estimated to have been saved since the first zones were implemented in the 1990’s. The total number of crashes within the 20 mph zones has fallen by 56 per cent, the number of crashes with deaths or serious injuries has been cut by 90 per cent and the number of child pedestrian casualties is down by 74 per cent.

Portsmouth – intending to be first city to introduce blanket 20 mph Portsmouth has recently agreed to implement 20 mph limits on almost all its streets by 2008. This will make it the first city in Britain to introduce a blanket 20 mph speed limit on all residential roads to reduce serious accidents. As well as reducing the number of injuries on the city’s streets, the £475,000 scheme is aimed at reducing noise pollution and improving air quality.

North Lanarkshire – 20 mph zones using signs only The results from a Scotland-wide trial of low-cost advisory 20 mph schemes in residential areas were so good that North Lanarkshire Council decided to extend the three trial areas in its own area to all suitable residential streets. By March 2002 advisory 20 mph speed limits covered the vast majority of residential roads in North Lanarkshire. Strathclyde Police was very supportive of the project. Householders were consulted to gain their support. So far, the scheme covers the majority of the council’s 325,000 residents. Just over £360,000 was spent on the various elements of the scheme up to March 2001, and since then there has been a significant reduction in casualties. The council is now piloting mandatory 20 mph sign-only zones in three large residential areas.

Aberdeen – set to pioneer a blanket 20 mph speed limit Aberdeen has pledged to become the first city in Scotland to impose a blanket 20 mph city-centre speed limit in an attempt to improve pedestrian safety. The city council’s environment and infrastructure committee backed the proposal for a central Aberdeen speed limit order. There was only a handful of objections to the plan during the formal statutory consultation exercise – most wanting the proposed limit to be extended further. Grampian Police, Grampian Fire and Rescue Service and the Scottish Ambulance Service have pledged their support for the new controls.

And that’s not all … With more and more 20 mph schemes being implemented the evidence is there for all to see. Lowering speeds to 20 mph really does create streets that everyone can use – the young, the old, and everyone in between; there are no age limits where civilised streets are concerned. Towns and cities across Britain, many of them similar in size to Lancaster, are looking at ways to extend 20 mph.