IAM RoadSmart responds to Wales' introduction of a national 20mph speed limit

Nicholas Lyes, Director of Policy and Standards at IAM RoadSmart, said: “Changing to a default 20mph speed limit in built up areas in Wales will provoke plenty of emotion, yet the road safety benefits of blanket 20mph areas are not yet firmly established. Local, individual schemes to reduce speed through communities are often popular with residents but poor compliance can often lead to pedestrians and cyclists having a false sense of security.

 “As a road safety charity, we support efforts to reduce speeding through training and education. However, given the limited resources that roads authorities and police forces have, we believe it would be better to have 20mph limits on specific streets where there are schools, hospitals and where risks to vulnerable road users are at their highest, along with traffic calming measures and effective enforcement. If this were the case, we suspect compliance would be far better than simply sticking up 20mph signs and hoping for the best.”