Walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman on 20mph roads in London

Transcript

00:00So this research is the most comprehensive analysis to date of the impact of 20 miles

00:05an hour on London roads. It takes over 150 schemes across the capital on borough roads

00:11that have been delivered and takes looks at the data three years before and three years after

00:15of the impact of those those that change in speed limits to 20 miles an hour and what it shows it

00:21conclusively proves those results conclusively proves that 20 miles an hour is saving lives in

00:26London. We've seen a 40% fall in the number of people being killed on on these roads compared

00:31with 7% on the rest of the roads. For kids it's even more there's 75% fall in the number of kids

00:38being killed on the roads and a 50% fall in the number of children being seriously injured. Now

00:42that is significant it proves the case that the lower speed limits are saving lives for Londoners.

00:48Will this now lead you on to putting 20 mile per hour speed limits on more roads in London?

00:55Absolutely we've been investing in making more speed uh smaller more roads safer for people

01:00in a whole range of ways including putting in safer speed limits. We've been doing that in

01:04conjunction with the boroughs. Now there are 21 boroughs out of the 33 that have a default of 20

01:10miles an hour. That's not a blanket 20 miles an hour that's a default so you ask the question

01:15this road should be 20 miles an hour unless it's 30. We will continue and we've just announced the lift

01:20investment of 87 million pounds which includes more 20 mile an hour zones and TfL are continuing

01:26its programme of investing in safer speeds on the main roads and that research also shows that lives

01:31are being saved with those changes too. Are there any particular roads or locations you can tell us

01:37about today where 20 mile per hour zones are coming in? At the moment what we need to do with all of these

01:43schemes is go through due process in terms of consultation and that analysis. So what will happen is the boroughs and TfL will be

01:50consulting with local communities from this summer onwards looking at those changes on the roads.

01:56How are you going to enforce the 20 mile per hour speed limits? So we work very closely with the

02:01Metropolitan Police to ensure that people actually adhere to the speed limits. That is through both

02:06cameras and mobile operations on the street. We've increased the capacity for the Met to actually deliver

02:12and issue more speeding tickets. That is not a cash cow for TfL. None of that money comes to London,

02:18it all goes to government and in an ideal world I wouldn't want a single speeding ticket to be

02:23issued in London. What I would want is people to be driving at the right speed so that there is much

02:28less risk for people who are walking, cycling and driving around the city. Despite the spread of these

02:35zones are you nevertheless concerned about the amount of speeding that happens in London?

02:40Certainly speeding continues to be a problem on London streets. About 50% of the fatalities on

02:46London roads are related to speeding so it's absolutely essential. We set lower speed limits,

02:52we continue to enforce but we also embrace new technologies such as the automatic speed limiters

02:57on buses and new vehicles which are helping calm down our streets making it safer for everybody.