Road Safety Bill [HL]

I am not sure that I can match those last two short contributions, but I will do my best. My name is attached to the amendment and to Amendment No. 83A. We need to recognise something about a proposal as emotive as a 20 mile an hour speed limit in urban areas. Government figures indicate that the current rate of deaths for pedestrians and cyclists per distance unit of exposures are respectively somewhere between 17 and 19 times those of car occupants. In other words, if you are on the road cycling or a pedestrian on the pavement, your risk of being killed is 17 to 19 times higher than in a car. We need to reflect on what the roads and pavements are there for, because that does not represent a socially desirable balance between mobility and safety. It affects people’s decision whether to walk or cycle rather than go by car. From the point of view of fitness, pollution and everything else, it is much better to walk or cycle, but if that clearly greater risk is reflected in the fear factor—that people do not walk or cycle because they are frightened—that is undesirable. For most roads covered by the amendment—as the noble Earl said, local authorities do not have to designate all their roads to by 20 mile per hour zones; they can sometimes be 30—that would send absolutely the right signal to car users, as well as pedestrians and cyclists, that that is a reasonable speed to which to limit yourself. It is sad that there is such a scarcity of these   zones. They probably occur only when there is tremendous pressure from pedestrians, cyclists or environmental groups. These will most likely arise in   the kind of suburb to which the noble Lord, Lord   Howie, was referring rather than in places where they are equally—or more—desirable. These amendments, or something like them, would send the right signals to local authorities and others, to consider 20 mph speed limits on the less well-used roads in urban and semi-urban areas. It would help people to reclaim the streets and use them for other things besides driving and make a major contribution to road accident reduction as well.