Roads in areas where Londoners “live, work and play” will be prioritised for more 20mph speed limits, the capital’s road safety chief has revealed.
Last week the Evening Standard revealed that 51 per cent of all roads in London had been converted to 20mph as part of Mayor Sadiq Khan’s efforts to eradicate road deaths by 2041.
Transport for London says the proportion of its Red Route network – the arterial roads that carry almost a third of the capital’s traffic – that is limited to 20mph will increase from 16 per cent to 20 per cent by the end of 2024.
At the same time, it will require borough councils to consider installing more 20mph limits as a condition of receiving TfL funding. Some 52 per cent of local roads are already 20mph.
Lilli Matson, TfL’s chiefâ¯safetyâ¯health and environment officer, said: “We are looking at places where people live, work or play. I think that will influence how we prioritise any future roll-out of the 20mph programme.”
Parts of the A205 South Circular Road in Greenwich and Woolwich, the A4 on Cromwell Road and Brompton Road and the A20 in Lewisham will be the next Red Routes to become 20mph.
Ms Matson said TfL would focus on “high street”-style main roads and parts of London with greatest levels of deprivation when it decided where to cut speeds.
The aim was for 20mph to become “normalised” in urban areas, she said. This would be reinforced by greater levels of police enforcement. TfL wans the Met to have the capacity to issue a million speeding tickets a year by 2024/25.
“The Metropolitan police have really scaled up their enforcement, and they are enforcing 20mph zones,” Ms Matson said.
“There was a feeling before that the Met didn’t enforce on 20mph zones. They genuinely do. It’s a significant.
“But we can’t win this compliance by having a policeman on every corner. It’s got to be part of the wider culture.”
Buses are being retro-fitted with “intelligent speed adaptation” devices that limit their speed – and effectively force following traffic to keep to 20mph.
Speeding is the biggest cause of road deaths. In 48 of the 99 fatal collisions in London last year, police reported it as a contributory factor. There have been at least 73 road deaths this year, though the number in which speeding was a factor is not yet known.
Dr Lynn Sloman, chair of TfL’s safety committee, said: “Ultimately we stand no chance of reaching the point where there are no deaths and serious injuries on our roads unless we can create that calm environment in which people drive at a speed that means it’s less likely there is a collision, and if there is a collision it’s less likely to be serious.”
