Why 20mph speed limits don’t save lives and harm the environment

UNDER the headline ‘Investment to improve safety’ (The Yorkshire Post, February 28), Steve Horton, director of communications for Road Safety GB, suggests spending should be considered on speed reduction in urban areas and more use of 20mph zones.

Let me declare that Steve Horton is no relation of mine and I profoundly disagree with him, and so does North Yorkshire County Council who recently completed a study into the use of 20mph zones, and the council concluded that they were unrealistic in terms of cost and enforcement.

They also said that speed limits should reflect the nature 
of the road and should be “self-explaining”.

Slowing traffic and extending journey times would have an economic impact, and modern driver safety aids have helped to make 20mph zones unnecessary.

On this point I note that, before the year 1930, Britain had a universal speed limit of 20mph and there were 7,300 road deaths in the last year before its abolition.

In the years immediately afterwards, deaths fell to around 1,900 a year.

We are supposed to be reducing air pollution and we shall not achieve this by driving in low gears at an artificial low speed.