Media Stuff

Press Releases: 28th Sept 2009 - 20’s Plenty for Us calls for clarity from DfT on lower residential speed limits        18th April 2009 - 20’s Plenty For Us welcomes expected 20’s Plenty For UK           7th April 09 - 20's Plenty Success in York    29th October 08 - 20’s Plenty For Us welcomes Transport Committee support for increased use of 20 mph limits         19th October 08 - 20’s Plenty For Us now reaches ¾ million residents    17th Sep - 20's Plenty For Us to co-host National Conference        22nd June - 20's Plenty by 2010 campaign launched     31st May - 20's Plenty For Us submits evidence to Transport Commitee    18th May - Government support for 20 mph welcomed but flawed.    23rd Feb 08    Norwich - Another City chooses 20 mph for residential roads.       28th Jan 08 AA spreads misleading information on 20 mph and CO2 emissions.     24th Jan - 20's Plenty For Us welcomes London's proposed 20 mph default

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If you are from the media and creating an article on implementing 20 mph or on 20's Plenty For Us, then we hope that this page will give you some of the information that will help.

First a few useful facts :-

  1. The current 30 mph default speed limit for urban roads was set in 1934 when there were less than 2m motor vehicles registered on our roads. It was done to protect cyclists and pedestrians and the ambiance of our towns and villages. Today there are over 33m motor vehicles registered.
     
  2. There is a technical difference between 20 mph "zones" and 20 mph "limits". 20 mph zones refer to streets or collections of streets where some sort of traffic calming has been used to decrease speeds.

    20 mph speed limits are where no similar traffic calming has been used. Such initiatives rely upon the public to comply with the limit because of the nature of the environment and presence of vulnerable road users.

    Because "zones" are self-enforcing, the police have in the past generally left these streets un-enforced. However, 20 mph speed limits without traffic calming are just as enforceable as 30 mph speed limits and police do enforce these.

    Hence by wrongly calling 20 mph initiatives without calming "20 mp zones", you may inadvertently get a response from the police that "zones" are not generally enforced.
     
  3. In a recent British Social attitudes Survey around 3/4 of people were found to be supportive of 20 mph speed restrictions in residential areas, including 72 per cent of drivers questioned. However only 43 per cent of drivers favour speed bumps. (National Centre for Social Research, British Social Attitudes: The 22nd report, National Centre for Social Research, 2005)

And here are some pictures of typical 20 mph speed limited streets in Portsmouth :-

Click on images to enlarge

And here is a picture of a 20 mph speed limit on the main A61 in Thirsk

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You may use the pictures, but please attribute them to 20's Plenty For Us.

 

and of course if you need any further information then please email or telephone us.

       

For further details email rodk@20splentyforus.org.uk or call Rod King on 07973 639781 or Chris Mayes on 0151 706 4464