NEWS RELEASE
KILLING SPEED:
GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE SHOWS LOCAL AUTHORITIES
HOW TO MEET CASUALTY REDUCTION TARGETS
8 February 2001
Since the government’s publication of road traffic casualty reduction targets in March 2000, speed management has become a key challenge for highway authorities throughout Britain. Today’s new report from the Slower Speeds Initiative, Killing Speed: A Good Practice Guide to Speed Management, shows local authorities just how they can meet those targets by controlling speeds and reducing danger on our roads.
Speed is far and away the biggest single factor in road crashes, causing over 1,000 deaths and 10,000 serious injuries in Britain every year. The government has confirmed that controlling speeds at appropriate levels is the most significant action that local authorities can take to reduce casualties on Britain’s roads. Research has shown that even a 1mph reduction in average speeds brings a 5% reduction in the number of road crashes.
Killing Speed examines the devastating impact of speeding traffic on local communities, and sets out the full range of measures which local authorities can use to control speed. The guide explores the comprehensive speed management strategies introduced by councils in York, Gloucester and Devon, and notes the reductions in casualty numbers which these have achieved. Within just three years Gloucester’s Safer City project reduced average speeds on mixed use and residential roads in the city by 10mph, and the total number of personal injury road crashes by 47%.
Killing Speed also looks at individual speed management initiatives introduced by local authorities in rural and urban areas across Britain. These include road design modifications, interactive speed limit signs, speed cameras and police enforcement schemes. Again, results show how effective even basic measures can be: speed cameras in Northamptonshire have cut average speeds by 13mph in just six months, with a 40% fall in the number of people killed and seriously injured on the roads.
Many local communities have decided that speed limits themselves need to be lowered. Suffolk County Council has introduced a radical programme of 30mph speed limits in all villages across the county, while 20mph zones are being installed in more and more towns and cities nationwide. Where such zones have been introduced in Kingston Upon Hull, the total number of crashes has fallen by 56% and the number of people killed or seriously injured has fallen by 90%.
Launching the good practice guide, John Stewart, Chair of the Slower Speeds Initiative, said:
"Slower speeds are the key to road safety and casualty reduction, as speed management initiatives up and down the country have shown. We urge all local authorities to look at the examples of speed management described in this new guide, and to set about reproducing them in their own local areas."Richard Rogers (Lord Rogers of Riverside), Chair of the Urban Regeneration Task Force, has added his personal endorsement:
Killing Speed: A Good Practice Guide to Speed Management is aimed at highway authorities, local road safety officers, community groups campaigning for road safety measures and anyone else with an interest in community safety issues.
The full report Killing Speed: A Good Practice Guide to Speed Management is available at £10.00 per copy, with some discounts available for voluntary groups. A 4 page summary report is also available free of charge.