London councils did not consider the economic cost of implementing the 20mph speed limits that are driving road-users up the wall, despite a cost-benefit analysis being a requirement. The Telegraph has the story.
Eleven boroughs in the capital have blanket 20mph speed limits across all of their roads, a move made in the hope of reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries among pedestrians and cyclists.
Transport for London (TfL) says that every year 1,000 people are injured or killed by drivers exceeding the speed limit.
However, eight of the 11 boroughs have admitted they have no record of carrying out a formal cost-benefit analysis before lowering their speed limits.
Cost-benefit analyses are supposed to be carried out before public bodies decide to spend taxpayers’ money on new projects.
Councils for City of London, Hackney, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lewisham, Richmond and Wandsworth, Southwark, and Tower Hamlets all said in freedom of information (FOI) responses that they had no records of any cost-benefit analysis being done before they introduced 20mph speed limits.
The lower limit now covers half of all roads inside the M25.
It comes after research from the satnav company TomTom found that London was the world’s slowest city in which to drive.
Ranil Jayawardena, the former International Trade Minister and the MP for North East Hampshire, said: “Pro-20mph local government officials often claim that ever slower limits are needed for safety reasons. They imply opponents don’t value life. It’s powerful rhetoric.
“Yet studies show the safety difference between 30mph and 20mph is limited, even negligible. It is certainly much smaller than that between 40mph and 30mph.”
Liam Deacon, the campaigner who asked councils for the evidence backing their 20mph speed limits, said: “Polling indicates that, where they have been introduced, blanket 20mph limits are opposed by large majorities.
“Yet many rural councils, TfL and nearly all London borough councils are energetically campaigning for them.”
Worth reading in full.
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