Liberal Democrats in York have criticised the Labour-run council’s plans for citywide 20mph speed limits on residential roads. The Lib Dem group has expressed its unhappiness with the plans in response to the council’s consultation on implementing 20mph limits in the west of the city.
“We continue to support a targeted use of 20mph limits at known accident blackspots and in areas such as outside schools and shopping areas,” say the Lib Dems. But they say evidence for the effects of blanket 20mph limits is “very mixed in regards to accident levels, reducing speeds, helping produce a modal shift away from car use and in reducing emissions. The evidence from the UK’s first city-wide 20mph scheme [Portsmouth] showed that serious accident levels went up slightly, the average reduction in speeds was just 1.3mph, and the scheme made little different to the majority of respondents in the amount they travelled by their chosen mode.”
Discussing the specific plans for 20mph limits in York, the Lib Dems say: “The folly of the current approach is shown in the speed and accident data … showing that average speeds on many of the roads proposed for the new limit are already below 20mph and accident rates on the roads proposed are either zero or very low. This means that in many areas the £600,000 cost of the project will make little discernable difference on the ground, except to increase street clutter and spend taxpayers’ money.”
The Lib Dems say there remains confusion about how 20mph limits will be enforced. “The evidence is that locally and nationally the police do not have the resources or inclination to enforce all new 20mph limits,” they say.
Lib Dems are exactly right. Blanket Zones do not address the accident black spots and where average speeds are already below 20 MPH
