PREFACE
"I very much welcome the publication of this timely report. Speeding traffic is one of the most important factors affecting the quality of life and community safety in many rural and urban areas. Excessive and inappropriate speeds are the cause of many collisions, leading to the unnecessary deaths and injuries of thousands each year, including thousands of children. But speed also adds to a feeling of more general road danger, deterring many from cycling and walking and causing severance within communities. Driving at speed can also add to environmental degradation by increasing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
The Slower Speeds Initiative has produced an excellent guide to how professionals and communities can tackle this vital issue, with up-to- date examples of policy and practice which can, and should, be applied throughout the country. I am in no doubt that this guide will prove to be a valuable resource to transport professionals, communities and politicians alike. I would recommend Killing Speed to anyone interested in providing safer, civilised and convivial streets."
Richard Rogers
Lord Rogers of Riverside
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 local authorities can take to meet national targets for reducing road traffic casualties. It also improves the quality of life for millions in urban and rural communities alike.
This Guide draws together examples of effective speed management from Britain and from overseas. It sets out the rationale for speed management and surveys the legislation under which local authorities can introduce their own speed management initiatives. The Guide examines comprehensive speed management strategies in three local authorities, as well as individual initiatives from many other areas. It assesses the results of these schemes and points to new ways of dealing with speed in the future.
Why manage speed?
Speed management offers significant social, environmental and economic benefits. Foremost 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. By reducing both actual and perceived danger on the roads, speed management benefits those communities that have lost their local environments to motorised traffic. And by reducing the massive costs which road traffic casualties impose on society, speed management offers significant economic benefits as well.
Speeding is not the activity of a minority of errant drivers. Speeding is endemic. The majority of drivers regularly break speed limits – on all classes of roads, at all times of the day and on all days of the week. Indeed, many drivers do not even regard speeding as a criminal offence.
This may seem to suggest that popular culture in Britain is not favourable to the concept of speed management. Yet public opinion audits reveal the opposite. 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.
Local authority responsibility
The context for local speed management is determined by central government policy and national goals. The government’s 10-Year Transport Plan and recent Speed and Road Safety Reviews have set out this policy context. Yet it is local authorities that bear the responsibility for achieving practical results in road safety and speed management. National policy should therefore be seen as an enabling framework for local speed management initiatives.
Over the past four years new legislation has provided many opportunities for local authorities to take forward their speed management work. The Local Government and Rating Act 1997 enables parish and town councils to contribute to the funding of traffic calming measures. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 provides a mechanism through which road safety concerns can be prioritised as areas for police and local authority activity. The Best Value consultations introduced by the Local Government Act 1999 require local authorities to address issues of concern identified by their local communities.
More recently, the Local Government Act 2000 requires local authorities to draw up community strategies to promote the social, economic and environmental well-being of the areas they serve. Local communities play an important role in determining the priorities for action, and the community strategies can expand the opportunities for speed management work. Finally, the Transport Act 2000 has given local authorities the power to designate any road a quiet lane or home zone, with speeds as low as 10mph. The Act also requires the Secretary of State to examine the institution of formal rural road hierarchies, in addition to the explicit advice on road safety given to local authorities in the government’s Guidance on Full Local Transport Plans.
Local authority initiatives
A number of local authorities in Britain have already introduced comprehensive speed management plans. The City of York Council introduced its plan in 1997, after detailed public consultation. Central to the plan is a road hierarchy which provides guidance on the function of each category of road and also the speed management measures appropriate for each part of the road network.
Devon County Council’s Speed Management Strategy prioritises driver awareness, road design and compliance with speed limits as its key areas for action. The strategy also includes the community-based campaign Driving Speeds Down in Devon, which enables local communities to make their own contribution to reducing speeds. This links with new initiatives to manage heavy freight traffic in South Hams District, examining road hierarchies at the same time as taking into account the full range of social, economic and environmental interests involved.
Gloucester’s Safer City project demonstrates the benefits of comprehensive road safety measures, seeking to raise public awareness and change driver attitudes to speed. Close collaboration with the police has played an important role in improving speed limit enforcement, including the introduction of service level agreements for police enforcement work.
As well as these comprehensive strategic approaches, many local authorities have introduced specific speed management schemes. Several authorities have introduced measures to keep drivers within existing speed limits. These include traffic calming measures, interactive speed limit signs and Quiet Roads projects such as have been initiated by local authorities in Norfolk and Kent.
Some local authorities have decided that speed limits need to be lowered, particularly in population settlements such as villages which previously had 40mph speed limits. These initiatives have been largely inspired by examples from continental Europe, such as Germany’s pioneering Tempo 30 zones. In particular, 20mph schemes have become more commonplace in Britain over the past 10 years.
Lower speed limits are supported by the majority of people in communities where they have been introduced. They have also been extremely successful in reducing casualty numbers, especially when accompanied by physical measures such as speed cushions, humps or road narrowings. The total number of crashes in the 13 most successful 20mph zones in Kingston Upon Hull has fallen by 56%. The number of people killed and seriously injured in those areas has fallen by 90%.
Several Scottish councils have participated in a trial of advisory zones using 20mph signs and markings in areas where the official speed limit remains 30mph. Results of the trial confirm that 20mph zones can reduce average speeds even without the introduction of additional physical restrictions. The trial was particularly successful in reducing average speeds in those areas where speeds had previously been highest.
Enforcement
Given the widespread disregard for speed limits, active enforcement has sometimes been considered problematic. Yet a speed camera demonstration project in the early 1990s which reduced fatal crashes by 70% showed how effective automatic, unattended enforcement of speed limits can be. Early results of the national speed camera funding trials initiated in April 2000 have underlined the importance of enforcement, as the rise in speeding fines has been accompanied by a significant reduction in crashes involving death or serious injury. There has also been improved speed limit compliance on roads which do not have cameras, as well as those that do.
Police engagement is critically important to effective speed limit enforcement. Some police forces also take on a wider educational role. Thames Valley Police runs a road safety awareness exhibition for drivers caught speeding, as part of its partnership with local authorities and magistrates’ courts. Sussex Police has developed a programme to address speeding by commercial drivers, contacting fleet operators whenever one of their vehicles is stopped for speeding or other road traffic offences. The company concerned is encouraged to ensure that people using its vehicles do so safely. It is also asked to consider its own procedures (driver schedules, job requirements and incentives) in case they put pressure on staff to take chances on the road.
Looking ahead, in-vehicle speed limiters could offer significant 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 MASTER Project indicate the effectiveness of in-vehicle speed limiters. As a result the MASTER Project now recommends their introduction across Europe.