Updated December 2001
KILLING SPEED:
A GUIDE TO SPEED MANAGEMENT
Speed management is central to road safety. Speed is the
biggest single factor in road crashes, responsible for over 1,000 deaths
and 10,000 serious injuries in Britain every year. Controlling speeds at
appropriate levels is the most significant action that local authorities
can take to reduce casualties on Britain's roads.
This guide outlines examples of effective speed management
already tried and tested by local authorities in Britain and overseas.
It is based on the fuller study published by the Slower Speeds Initiative
Killing
Speed: A Good Practice Guide to Speed Management. All those involved
in road safety issues are strongly encouraged to consult the full report
(available by mail order).
Why manage speed?
Speed management offers great social, environmental and economic benefits. First amongst these is casualty reduction. Every 1mph reduction in average speeds brings a 5% reduction in the number of crashes, and hence in the number of people killed or injured on the roads. This means that even marginal reductions in speed can result in major road safety gains.
These gains are especially relevant to poorer communities, as poorer people suffer most from the effects of speed. Speed management also benefits children and young people, many of whom are denied safe, open spaces in which to develop and grow. And by reducing the massive costs which road traffic casualties impose on society, speed management offers significant economic benefits. On government figures, preventing the many thousands of road crashes in which speed is a major factor would save Britain over £5 billion per year.
Meeting public opinion
Speeding is not the activity of a minority of errant
drivers. Speeding is endemic. The majority of British drivers regularly
break the speed limit – on all classes of roads, at all times of day and
on all days of the week. Many do not even regard speeding as a criminal
offence.
Yet people are no longer prepared to be intimidated by speeding traffic. Speed management and road safety are regularly identified as issues of the highest priority in community consultations undertaken by local authorities and police forces. The majority of people – including drivers – want action on speed.
The government has set national targets for road casualty
reduction in its March 2000 Road Safety Review. These require all local
authorities to achieve, by the year 2010, a 40% reduction in the number
of people killed or seriously injured and a 50% reduction in the number
of children killed or seriously injured on their roads.
These targets are both realistic and achievable, given the increasing range of speed management measures now available. The initiatives described in this guide provide examples of how those measures have been applied in different urban and rural environments, and their success in reducing speed and casualties alike. The more widely such schemes can be replicated, the safer Britain's roads will be for all.
COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGIES
A number of local authorities in Britain have already
introduced comprehensive speed management strategies.
City of York
City of York Council has been a pioneer in the field
of speed management since the 1980s. The Council introduced its Speed Management
Plan in 1997, after detailed public consultation. The plan divided the
city's roads into a hierarchy of traffic routes, mixed priority routes
and residential areas, each with its own traffic calming measures and target
speed limits.
The Speed Management Plan also set a target that every one of York's 60 primary and 12 secondary schools should be surrounded by a 20mph school zone within six years. As a result of the plan and the Council's anti-speeding campaign with North Yorkshire Police, York met its national casualty reduction targets for the year 2000 well in advance of target dates.
Devon County Council
Devon County Council's Speed Management Strategy prioritises
driver awareness, road design and compliance with speed limits as its key
areas for action. It acknowledges that the fear of speed has a powerful
negative effect on many communities in Devon, and aims to reduce the intimidation
caused by speeding traffic in addition to reducing the number of casualties
themselves.
The strategy also includes the community-based campaign Driving Speeds Down in Devon, which enables communities to make their own contribution to reducing speeds. The campaign encourages the formation of local traffic groups, in which residents pledge to drive safely, 'treating the speed limit as an ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM'. This empowers communities to take action to reduce traffic speeds without waiting for the local authority or police.
Gloucester Safer City
Gloucester Safer City demonstration project has demonstrated
the full benefits of comprehensive road safety measures. The city was awarded
£5 million for the five years of the project (1996-2001) – the equivalent
of 30 years' worth of normal road safety work. This has enabled Gloucester
City Council to adopt a comprehensive focus on road design, public awareness
of speed issues and enforcement of speed limits through a contractual relationship
with the local police.
Public consultation revealed that 68% of people in Gloucester were concerned about traffic speeds. Research also showed that speed was the most common cause of road crashes in the city. As in York, a road hierarchy was established to facilitate the introduction of traffic calming measures on mixed use and residential roads. These roads now cover 70% of the city.
Results after just three years show how great the benefits of speed management can be. By July 1999 Gloucester had achieved a 47% reduction in road casualties, as well as a 10mph reduction in average speeds on mixed use and residential roads. This was accompanied by a 15% reduction in motor traffic on those roads, as more people switched to cycling, walking and public transport. Further public consultation revealed that 60% of people felt safer on the streets than they had done five years earlier.
SIGNS AND DESIGNS
Individual speed management schemes can also have a significant
effect in reducing speeds locally. Road signs play an important part in
'explaining' the road environment to drivers, and cautioning them as to
maximum safe speeds. In some rural areas, however, landscape values are
high and road signs are unwanted. In these cases it is possible to achieve
reductions in speed through adapting the road design.
Signs and markings
Where traffic is required to slow down from higher speeds
approaching a town or village, countdown signs can achieve substantial
speed reductions. A series of countdown signs and 'dragon's teeth' markings
on the A49 in Shropshire warn drivers that they are coming to the 30mph
villages of Dorrington and Craven Arms. These measures have reduced average
speeds at the gateways to each village by around 8mph, and 85th percentile
speeds* by even more. Speed limit reminders and speed cushions have reduced
speeds by 4-5mph in the village centres too.
Signs and markings combined with road narrowings can reduce speeds significantly on faster roads too. Traffic calming schemes in West Lothian using these measures show average speed reductions between 4.5 and 6mph, with 85th percentile speeds* brought down below the 40mph limit in almost all cases.
* An 85th percentile speed is the speed at or below which 85% of drivers travel.
Interactive speed limit signs
Norfolk County Council has used interactive speed limit
signs in several villages since 1992. The signs are fibre optic 30mph or
40mph roundels lit from within, with flashing amber lights above and below.
Each is triggered into action when a radar detects a motor vehicle approaching
above a threshold pre-set at 5mph higher than the speed limit on that particular
road.
Results have been impressive. For the 30mph roads, the overall percentage of vehicles exceeding the 35mph trigger speed fell from 36% to 7% after just one year. For the 40mph roads, the percentage exceeding the 45mph trigger fell from 20% to 6%.
Speed reduction through design
One Norfolk village has showed how it is possible to
reduce speeds without speed limit signs cluttering up the environment.
In order to meet local demands for lower speeds in the village of Starston,
Norfolk County Council proposed a design solution which developed natural
traffic calming features such as sharp corners and bridges.
The road surface in the village was dressed in an attractive brown stone chosen by local residents, who also commissioned a local artist to create a special village gateway sign. The measures achieved the desired result of reducing speeds through the village to 30mph.
LOWER SPEED LIMITS
The initiatives described above have focused on reducing
speeds to within existing limits. Yet more and more communities have decided
that the existing limits themselves need to be lowered.
20mph zones
There has been growing pressure for 20mph zones in urban
areas since the first were introduced in Britain in 1991. There are now
around 500 20mph zones across the country, and research has confirmed their
importance in reducing casualties and calming speed. Average speeds fall
by around 9mph where 20mph zones are introduced, while the total number
of crashes falls by 60% (and by 67% for crashes involving children).
Most 20mph zones include traffic calming measures such as speed cushions, road humps or narrowings. Physical restrictions of this sort have proved to be the most effective way of ensuring that 20mph are self-enforcing and that casualties are reduced. In 13 self-enforcing 20mph zones in Kingston Upon Hull, the total number of crashes has fallen by 56% while the number of people killed or seriously injured has fallen by 90%.
Even through 20mph signs only, without physical traffic calming measures, the introduction of 20mph zones brings significant reductions in speed. One trial across 27 Scottish councils reveals that imaginative signing can go a long way towards keeping speeds at a safe level. The signs were most effective where traffic had previously been fastest, bringing down average speeds by over 10mph.
More local authorities are now looking to introduce area-wide 20mph limits after the example of some European towns. The German town of Buxtehude has become a model for area-wide speed limit reductions, with large parts of the town given over to 30kph (19mph) limits. Casualties in these areas have fallen by 60%, while the numbers of people cycling and walking have risen by 27% and 17% respectively.
Lowering village limits
Many rural communities have also campaigned for lower
speed limits in their villages. In 1994 Suffolk County Council launched
a village speed programme with the presumption that all residential areas
should have a 30mph limit, even hamlets. By the end of 1996 the Council
had installed around 450 miles of 30mph-limited areas, probably the most
extensive implementation of new limits in Britain in recent times.
Speed reductions within the new village limit areas resulted in 20% fewer crashes than on the roads where no new limit had been introduced. Reductions were greatest where the speed limit had been lowered from 60 to 30mph. Other counties are now introducing their own village limit programmes too.
ENFORCEMENT
Given the widespread disregard for speed limits in Britain,
active enforcement has sometimes been considered problematic. Yet it plays
an essential role in many speed management initiatives.
Speed cameras
The first speed cameras in Britain were installed in
West London in 1992. The project was expanded to include red light cameras
on trunk roads in four London boroughs. Within five years the number of
fatal crashes on those roads had fallen by 70%.
One constraint on expanding the use of speed cameras
has been cost. A two-year pilot scheme that puts money raised from speed
fines back into buying and maintaining cameras began in April 2000 in eight
police forces. The cameras are placed at locations with a crash history,
and the funds raised are spent only on running costs for the project itself.
The success of the pilot has led the Home Office to announce
an early roll-out to all police forces. In Northamptonshire alone over
100,000 speeding tickets were issued in 2000, compared with 4,000 in 1999.
Average speeds of motorists in Northamptonshire have been cut by 13mph,
and there has been a 40% fall in the number of people killed and seriously
injured on the roads.
Police partnerships
Police engagement is critically important to the success
of speed management programmes. As well as enforcement of speed limits,
some police forces take on a wider educational role. As part of its Safer
Roads Partnership with local authorities, magistrates' courts and the Crown
Prosecution Service, Thames Valley Police has initiated a driver education
programme for motorists caught speeding. Speed checks at 19 sites in the
Thames Valley area resulted in more than 800 drivers being stopped for
speeding during May 2000 alone. As well as prosecutions and cautions issued,
485 of those stopped were given speed awareness training by road safety
officers.
Sussex Police has launched an initiative aimed at improving the standard of driving among drivers of commercial vehicles. Letters are sent to fleet operators whenever one of their drivers is stopped for speeding, urging the company to ensure that people using its vehicles drive safely. The letter also encourages companies to ensure that their own procedures do not put pressure on drivers to take chances on the roads.
Speed limiters
Looking to the future, automatic speed limiters could
offer great potential for enforcing compliance with speed limits. Driver-operated
speed limiters allow drivers to set the relevant restriction level themselves,
and to override that level in case of an emergency. Such technology could
be introduced in the near future, at minimal cost to motorists.
Field trials conducted by the European Commission indicate
the effectiveness of in-vehicle speed limiters. As a result the Commission
now recommends their introduction across Europe. The Parliamentary Advisory
Council for Transport Safety has recommended that the British government
join in further European research.
NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Recent legislation has provided new opportunities for
communities and local authorities to introduce speed management schemes.
Where local people express road safety concerns in Crime and Disorder audits,
for example, these should now be prioritised as areas for police action
and expenditure.
Many speed management powers have been devolved to local authorities too. Local authorities are now able (and encouraged) to establish their own 20mph areas, while the Transport Act 2000 gives local authorities the power to designate any road under their control a quiet lane or home zone, with speeds as low as 10mph.
Town and parish councils are already able to fund speed management schemes through the Local Government and Rating Act 1997. In addition, the Rural White Paper published by the government in November 2000 has created a Parish Fund of £15 million over three years to support transport projects at the local level. Parish councils are encouraged to apply to the Countryside Agency for grants of up to £10,000 to fund schemes which meet local transport needs. Parishes should explore associated speed management measures in this context.
For a free copy of the summary, please send an A4 self-addressed envelope to the Slower Speeds Initiative, PO Box 19, Hereford HR1 1XJ
The text is based on the full report Killing Speed: A Good Practice Guide to Speed Management, published by the Slower Speeds Initiative in 2001 and also available from the same address.
See also: