MPs accused of wanting to “make car use more difficult” over proposal for 20mph default limit
MPs are considering adopting a default 20mph speed limit across England – but critics have argued they are being sidelined in the debate and claim the evidence supporting similar schemes is flawed.
Earlier this month, the Transport Select Committee invited road safety experts to discuss evidence about 20mph limits and explore whether England should follow Wales in reducing the standard restricted speed limit from 30mph to 20mph.
Among the experts were representatives of Transport for London, which manages the lowering of speed limits on the capital’s busiest main roads; 20’s Plenty for Us, a group that campaigns for the nationwide adoption of 20mph speed limits in towns and villages; and the Welsh government’s 20mph Task Force Group and 20mph Steering Group.
A spokesperson for one leading transport organisation criticised the committee’s choice of experts, however.
“There’s no balance in the parliamentary discussion,” said Declan Pang, director of policy and public affairs for the Road Haulage Association, which represents HGV, coach and van operators.
“My name was on the list of witnesses circulated by the committee ahead of the meeting but I was not actually invited.
“The RHA does not support the blanket use of 20mph speed limits on major and arterial roads, because they’re seen as not being applied in an appropriate and measured way, which reduces driver confidence in them.”
Brian Gregory, policy director at the Alliance of British Drivers, said the panel of experts appeared to be composed of anti-car campaigners drawn from politics and academia. “Their motivation is about making car use more difficult,” he said.
“We’re all road users and we should work together to maximise road safety, but [the UK] government has a policy of setting one group against another, so they don’t resist the crazy measures being brought in.”
Gregory also questioned the basis on which 20mph limits are adopted and, like Pang, warned that drivers wouldn’t comply with limits that they don’t believe are appropriate. “They need to set limits scientifically, but that’s not what is happening,” he said.
“We have places where instead of setting limits at the 80th percentile [the speed at or below which 80% of drivers travel under free-flowing conditions], they’re being set at the 50th. This criminalises 50% of the speed distribution, including the statistically safest drivers.
“If you set a speed limit that doesn’t chine with motorists’ perception of what is an appropriate limit, you won’t get sign-on to that from road users unless you use heavy, overbearing enforcement.”
Impact of Wales’ 20mph limits
Some drivers opposed to the suggestion of a default 20mph speed limit refer to Wales, which adopted the lower threshold in 2023. This affected around 35% of roads and attracted widespread criticism. In 2024, the Welsh government agreed that some roads would revert to their previous 30mph limit.
But recent data suggests the change is beginning to have a positive impact on Wales: serious or fatal collisions fell by 19% in 2024, while casualties on 30/20mph roads dropped by more than a quarter.
Reviewing the impact of the Welsh scheme, Sue Nicholls of 20’s Plenty for Us said it and similar schemes had reduced deaths and serious injuries on the roads.
“Including two years of data from Wales, there is now a large body of evidence from London, Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders and Cornwall, which have adopted similar schemes, that they significantly reduce casualties,” she said.
“The figures show that every 1mph reduction in speed equals a 6% reduction in collisions. Casualty figures in Wales dropped dramatically after implementation of the 20mph limit [there], while in England they flatlined.”
English towns already rolling out 20mph
Some local communities in England have already started adopting 20mph limits in response to the government’s new road safety strategy.
Introduced in January, this set a target of a 65% reduction in those killed or seriously injured – and a 70% reduction for children – by 2035.
The Surrey village of Ash is among the latest to propose such a scheme, and a spokesperson for the county council said: “The results from the first stage of informal public engagement showed that, across all groups, more respondents supported the scheme than opposed it. Support was markedly higher among residents on the impacted roads, and families with children travelling to school expressed the strongest support overall.”
Gregory remains unpersuaded, claiming that emotion and not science lies behind the push for lower speeds.
“Road safety should be treated rationally and not with emotion and bold straplines such as ‘speed kills’,” he said. “Those implementing the new speed limits need to measure casualties in relation to traffic levels, but that’s never done.
“Whatever those pushing for a default 20mph speed limit may claim, the three primary causes of road traffic accidents are ‘did not look’, ‘looked but did not see’ and ‘failed to judge the path or speed of converging road users’.
