Wales urged to snub 80mph motorway limit plans

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

From walesonline.co.uk

Wales should go its own way on motorway speed limits – and not take part in proposals to bring in an 80mph limit, a coalition of Welsh organisations has said.

The UK Government is set to launch a public consultation on raising the motorway speed limit from 70mph to 80mph by 2013. But a group of 25 Welsh organisations has called on the Welsh Government to use its power to set its own speed limit should the government in England decide to raise the maximum speed for cars.

The Sustainable Transport Cymru alliance argued that increased speeds will lead to more accidents, higher casualty rates and increased carbon emissions.

Lee Waters, chairman of Sustainable Transport Cymru, said: “The Welsh Government has a strong record on road safety, but to sustain this we must continue to make bold decisions that are in the interests of all Welsh people, not the speed of a few.

“Ignoring the argument that this decision has the potential to raise our oil consumption and carbon emissions at a time when we need to cut both, this decision also has the potential to devastate family lives.”

The coalition, which includes bus operators, public transport user groups and campaigners, pointed to a recent editorial in the British Medical Journal which opposed the speed increase.

The BMJ said: “It is intuitive that higher speeds will result in more collisions and that collisions at such speeds are likely to result in more serious injuries and deaths, a perception supported by the evidence. However, the health consequences extend beyond road safety. They include greater emissions and consequent air pollution, and, potentially, rising levels of obesity as a result of increased car use among those taking advantage of shorter journey times.”

Analysis of Department of Transport (DfT) figures suggests an increase in average traffic speeds of just 3mph – a typical change for a 10mph rise – would be expected to cause more than 25 extra deaths a year on motorways and more than 100 serious injuries.

DfT figures also show that every death on the roads costs £1.5m by the time police, ambulances, hospitals, inquests, funerals, prosecutions, insurance companies and loss of earnings are all factored in.

The coalition warned additional deaths and casualties associated with raising the speed limit would cause a further burden on the emergency services in particular at a time when their budgets are already stretched.

In announcing the consultation in September, the then Transport Secretary Philip Hammond claimed increasing the speed limit on motorways for cars, light vans and motorcycles “could provide hundreds of millions of pounds of benefits for the economy”.

However, the Transport Committee Report on Road Traffic Speed found that higher speeds would do little to reduce journey times.

On the congested motorways of England an 80mph limit might well increase them because it would create an uneven flow.

Recent experience with the Highways Agency’s managed motorway programme further supports this – when traffic congestion builds up, cutting the speed limit to 50 or 60mph means everyone drives more steadily, helping to prevent jams.

The government’s own analysis suggests an extra 670,000 tonnes of CO2/yr will be produced as a result of the raised speed limit.

However, this is considered an underestimate by Jillian Anable, a transport expert at the University of Aberdeen, whose own modelling indicated the rise to 80mph would cause an increase in emissions of 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 per year, double the increase claimed by the Department for Transport.

A spokesman for the Welsh Government said: “The potential to increase the national speed limit from 70 to 80mph on the motorways in Wales is being examined in order to provide feedback to the proposed UK Government consultation.”

“The safety implications in particular will be considered with a view to presenting appropriate options to the Minister.”