Birmingham wants 20mph limit on majority of roads

Birmingham City Council wants 90% of its roads to have a 20mph limit.

The UK’s biggest transport authority with over one million residents has said the default should be 20mph and introduced through ‘limits’ rather than ‘zones’.

Suitable for inclusion at 20mph are: all residential roads; those with a designated high street function; A and B roads with school entrances or schools; and roads with other amenities such as parks/leisure facilities, health centres, hospitals, public transport hubs and interchanges(1).

The total capital cost is an estimated £7 million, primarily funded through Local Transport Plan (LTP) integrated block allocations, which are ring-fenced for transport schemes. Other funding has been secured through the recent Cycle City Ambition fund bid with £800,000 going towards 20mph schemes.

The value of resulting casualty prevention is reported to be £5 million per year based on a conservative estimate in the reduction of 78 collisions per year.

Founder of 20’s Plenty for Us, Rod King MBE, said: “With Birmingham City and City of London becoming the latest traffic authorities committing to wide 20mph limits this creates a pivotal moment in enhancing the safety and active mobility of our communities.

“This is an opportunity for the Department for Transport (DfT) to recognise that most of its larger cities are rejecting the idea of the 75 year old 30mph national limit for urban roads. It’s time to say that 20’s Plenty where people, live, work shop and go to school.

“Local authorities are playing their role in this transformation but it could be implemented far more cost effectively if the DfT were to update its signage regulations so that only the exceptions of 30mph and above needed repeater signs.”