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Edinburgh looks set to introduce 20mph zone across city

Trial last year found jump in kids cycling to school and residents in favour of lower limits

Less than four weeks remain until a consultation in Edinburgh to apply a 20mph speed limit to most streets across the city, including those with high numbers of cyclists, closes. A trial last year in the Scottish capital’s south central boroughs saw residents give a resounding ‘Yes’ to the concept.

According to City of Edinburgh Council, the 20mph speed limit is intended for “the city centre, main shopping streets, residential areas and areas with high levels of pedestrian and/or cyclist activity.

“Streets that do not fall within these categories will generally have a speed limit of 30 mph.”

Following the pilot scheme last year, a report from the Transport and Environment Committee of Edinburgh City Council found that people felt safer, and that cycling and walking journeys had risen by 5 per cent and 7 per cent respectively, while car trips fell by 3 per cent.

The percentage of children riding a bike to school rose threefold from 4 per cent to 12 per cent, and by a factor of seven among older primary age pupils, up from 3 per cent to 21 per cent. The proportion of parents willing to let their children play outside more than doubled from 31 per cent to 66 per cent.

Prior to the trial, 68 per cent of residents were in favour of a 20mph speed limit but that rose to 79 per cent afterwards. Meanwhile, the proportion of people who consider cycling to be unsafe fell from 26 per cent to 18 per cent.

The consultation, which opened at the end of August, runs until 17 October and can be found on the Edinburgh City Council website, where there are also links to a map and an FAQ.

A 20mph speed limit in residential areas is one of the key points contained in the manifesto of the Scottish cycling campaign group, Pedal on Parliament, which says:

“There are significant road safety benefits to a 20 mph speed limit. In residential areas, the presumption should be that roads authorities should apply 20mph speed limits as the norm in these areas. Lower speed limits should also be considered for unclassified rural roads where all road traffic faces a completely unacceptable risk of accident.”

Reacting to the consultation and the scope of the area planned to be covered, Rod King, founder and campaign director of the charity 20’s Plenty for Us, said: “Edinburgh’s results prove again how wide-area 20mph limits can civilise streets and win popular endorsement.

Extensive 20mph areas exist in cities including Oxford, Portsmouth and Brighton & Hove and in London Boroughs including Islington.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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15 comments

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jacknorell | 9 years ago
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Sure, there are costs.

KSIs are pretty expensive as well, not to mention the chilling effects on more casual cyclists when they hear of another death.

Then you have further costs to health care due to fewer cyclists...

And so on.

Safe roads are cheaper than the alternative.

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hampstead_bandit | 9 years ago
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There are costs to introducing these 20 mph blanket rules:-

- the legal and admin costs of creating the legislation.

- then you need all the signage; Camden roads are covered in ringed "20 mph" paint markings.

- Then you need proper, active Police enforcement and political will / funding to keep applying enforcement.

No point in these new laws, unless its taken seriously, like the ASL boxes which seem to be completely unenforced in London, they are full of motorbikes, buses, cars leaving no space for cyclists.

Which makes me think just how much has been wasted marking the ASL boxes which has required road junctions to be completely remarked or rebuilt in some cases.

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rxpell | 9 years ago
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Aberdeen has had a blanket city centre 20mph limit since 2006 - don't think its enforced much at all. If I'm doing 20mph on my bike I get overtaken by loads of vehicles. You need good enforcement to make it work.

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brooksby | 9 years ago
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Bristol has had 20 mph limits across most of the inner city for a while now.

It didn't take long for the usual suspects to start clamouring that it was all a waste of time, "all the people I know think its stupid", and that they weren't going to obey the new speed limits because they're"stupid". I don't know if they thought that thinking it's a stupid limit somehow exempted them from the law?

We also get lots of letters to the local paper complaining about cyclists breaking the speed limit ("I was driving along at 12 mph in rush hour and some cyclist just went racing past me" type stuff...) and threatening unspecified vigilante action.

When driving, if you obey the speed limit and stay under 20mph, within literally seconds you will find some other car sitting about a foot from your rear bumper.

Ah well, Edinburgh has all that to look forward to  105

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hampstead_bandit | 9 years ago
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I live in Camden and the 20mph limit is a joke.

Shortly after its introduction the local police commander admitted to 'Camden new journal' newspaper he did not have the resources to effectively Police the new speed limits.

I ride through Camden borough every day to Docklands and all I see is a lack of Police on the streets, whether Camden or across London.

Today there was a Police team on commercial road doing security marking and Dr.bike; I expressed my view that there is simply not enough Police policing the traffic and motorists have realised this, no one disagreed.

5 minutes before this, by moor field eye hospital, a huge lorry with skip was inching forward into the ASL where 6 cyclists were waiting, I pulled alongside and driver clearly on mobile phone. He saw me and turned away but still on phone.

I warned all the cyclists to move away before he squashed them, he was still moving forward ended up 2 foot off the back wheel of a woman on a hybrid. I told the Police team about this, they suggested contacting the local station with time/date and details, said they could use CCTV and cell phone info to track the incident and prosecute.

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Kim | 9 years ago
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The consultation of the existing trial left the local people feeling rather frustrated as they were roads left out of the trial which the community councils wanted included were left out due to objections from a bus company. There is the issue of enforcement, but overall the trial has been a success.

The main worry now is that the city wide consultation will be treated the same way as the trial consultation where people living next to busy roads will be ignored, as commercial interests take presidents.

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Joeinpoole replied to Kim | 9 years ago
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Kim wrote:

The main worry now is that the city wide consultation will be treated the same way as the trial consultation where people living next to busy roads will be ignored, as commercial interests take presidents.

It's 'precedence' ... unless the commercial interests are actually kidnapping 'presidents'.

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edster99 replied to Joeinpoole | 9 years ago
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Joeinpoole wrote:
Kim wrote:

The main worry now is that the city wide consultation will be treated the same way as the trial consultation where people living next to busy roads will be ignored, as commercial interests take presidents.

It's 'precedence' ... unless the commercial interests are actually kidnapping 'presidents'.

Or indeed, set precedents.

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ironmancole | 9 years ago
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It's just genius with all of this sign placing when there is no enforcement, utter waste of time.

Thought there were many instances when the police openly stated they would not enforce a 20mph zone so further evidence of it being another publicity stunt whilst not actually doing anything to control the 'harrassed motorist'.

Can you imagine if tax was collected in such a half arsed way? Just a sign put up somewhere asking you to pay your money in but with no tax officers to enforce?

That'll never happen of course - cash is important but lives are cheap.

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jacknorell replied to ironmancole | 9 years ago
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ironmancole wrote:

It's just genius with all of this sign placing when there is no enforcement, utter waste of time.

Thought there were many instances when the police openly stated they would not enforce a 20mph zone so further evidence of it being another publicity stunt whilst not actually doing anything to control the 'harrassed motorist'.

Can you imagine if tax was collected in such a half arsed way? Just a sign put up somewhere asking you to pay your money in but with no tax officers to enforce?

That'll never happen of course - cash is important but lives are cheap.

It only takes a small fraction of drivers sticking (close) to the speed limit to lower the pace for everyone. So, even when not enforced, it's still valuable.

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harman_mogul | 9 years ago
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We have had a 20 mph limit in the London Borough of Camden for several years and it has had zero effect on how people drive.

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zanf replied to harman_mogul | 9 years ago
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harman_mogul wrote:

We have had a 20 mph limit in the London Borough of Camden for several years and it has had zero effect on how people drive.

Without being back by punitive action by police, it will be. How active have the police been in enforcing it?

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Dnnnnnn replied to zanf | 9 years ago
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zanf wrote:

How active have the police been in enforcing it?

They haven't: http://is.gd/C6W0xp

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mrmo replied to harman_mogul | 9 years ago
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harman_mogul wrote:

We have had a 20 mph limit in the London Borough of Camden for several years and it has had zero effect on how people drive.

from experience of London drivers not in the least surprised that they have no effect. I really can't work out why London is so much worse than most other cities I have driven in?

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Joeinpoole | 9 years ago
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Excellent news. Delighted to read that so many more children are cycling to school in the '20 zone' areas.

If kids get used to cycling to school in all weathers from an early age then there's a good chance that they will view cycling as a viable means of transport for the rest of their lives.

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