http://www.manchester.gov.uk/news/article/6588/health_cash_set_to_fund_20mph
Manchester City Council is committed to installing 20mph speed limits on all non-major residential roads across the city, and has identified £500,000 of public health funding to set up the first phase of this project.
We have an open meeting booked for the evening of the 6th June, starting at 7pm.
The venue will be in the upstairs function room of the Red Deer pub, just off Mappin Street, & a short walk from the West Street tram stop.
http://www.red-deer-sheffield.co.uk/location.htm
A full agenda will be posted nearer the event, do please send us any items for discussion.
We will also have a chance to hear reports back from the National Campaigns Conference in May.
http://www.20splentyforus.org.uk/4th_conference.htm
Last meeting on 28th March – (Community Assemblies structure now defunct)
Upperthorpe 20 mph area:
Bounded by Oxford st > Infirmary > Daniel Hill > Fulton Rd anticipated completion by October 2013.
Note some pre-allocated money that was not needed for Amey related stuff was sensibly shifted to fund an extension of the original scheme, so as to meet up with the adjacent South West’s CA 20 mph scheme at Steel Bank
Central CA Speed Indication Device (SID)
currently on Manchester Road – should be rotated to other areas 8 weekly – Howard Rd next.
NOTE – these devices keeps a record of speeds as well as instant readout – good to request if making a case for limits etc…
The brochure and booking forms are at
http://www.20splentyforus.org.uk/4th_conference.htm or http://www.ptrc-training.co.uk/Events.aspxOur new mailing list is on Google groups (you don’t need a Google account to use it)
Its at
http://groups.google.com/group/20splenty4sheffield
or email us on
info@20splentyforsheffield.org.uk
and ask to be added
20’s Plenty for Us welcomes new DfT guidance on Setting Local Speed Limits
Press Release Jan 2013
The DfT have once again added further support to 20mph limits in towns and villages in its latest 2013 guidance to local authorities on setting local speed limits.
On 18th January Stephen Hammond in a written statement to the house said that the new guidance “incorporates recent changes that create more flexibility for authorities to implement 20mph limits and zones.”
The new guidance encourages 20mph limits in a number of ways :-
Full press release and quote
see also
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-speed-limit-guidance-for-councils
The Community Assembly system in Sheffield is to be axed as a cost saving measure.
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/business/cull-of-assemblies-1-5304741
As reported previously on this site, the Council devolved the decision making process for new 20 mph areas to the community assemblies Each assembly area was allocated a budget to roll out two new 20 mph areas each year.
20s plenty for Sheffield members will be attending the final round of community assembly meetings to ask what processes will now be in place for the continuing roll out of 20 mph residential streets.
Woodthorpe and Lowedges join the growing number of wide area 20mph schemes.
As reported by the Star
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/business/more-20mph-zones-for-sheffield-1-5275899
Published on Friday 4 January 2013 07:10
TWO more areas of Sheffield are set to have 20mph zones as Sheffield Council aims to cut road accidents which are estimated to cost the city £90 million each year.
A report to Sheffield Council’s cabinet highways committee has revealed the total cost of road accidents, which is £425m for South Yorkshire as a whole, includes the impact on emergency and health services, damage to property and vehicles and lost economic output from people left dead and injured.
The latest 20mph zones are proposed for Woodthorpe and Lowedges – despite huge apathy from residents during a consultation process.
The council spent hundreds of pounds sending leaflets to 5,000 households on the estates – but just nine people in Lowedges and 11 in Woodthorpe gave their views, with eight to one in favour in Lowedges and eight to three in favour in Woodthorpe.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service also failed to respond to the council.
No objections have been made by the fire service or bus operators and police said they supported the schemes.
Rysz Szumski, a community worker with Woodthorpe Development Trust, welcomed the lower speed limit but added that without traffic calming such as humps or enforcement measures he likened them to ‘lions without any teeth’.
He said: “I think the 20mph zones are an absolutely fantastic idea but it’s just going to be signs and what is to stop drivers from ignoring the lower limit?
“On some streets you see cars doing as much as 40mph. You need humps or enforcement action to make the zones work.”
Five more 20mph zones to be set up within the next 15 months are Steel Bank, Upperthorpe, Parson Cross West, Spink Hall in Stocksbridge, and Charnock.
The council aims to bring in 20mph zones in residential areas across the city but admits that they will be marked by signs and lines only due to insufficient funding for any physical traffic calming.
Zones set up in previous years, such as in Nether Edge, Shiregreen and Woodseats, have been accompanied by road humps to ensure vehicles slow down.
The council cabinet highways committee meeting on Thursday has been recommended to approve the Lowedges and Woodthorpe schemes.
Highways officers said they would assess how the seven new ‘sign-only’ 20mph zones work before deciding whether to continue the cheaper approach in more areas of the city.
See
Editorial: The logic of 20mph speed limits
That more than a third of local authorities have either already instituted a 20mph speed limit on some residential roads, or have plans to do so, can only be applauded. And with public support for more stringent restrictions in built-up areas now running at more than 60 per cent, as reported by this newspaper this week, it can only be hoped that 20mph will soon become the new normal.
The most compelling argument is, of course, the question of safety. Not only do drivers travelling at slower speeds have more time to react. The damage inflicted by hitting a pedestrian at 20mph, as opposed to 30mph, is also markedly reduced. Indeed, the human skull’s ability to withstand impact drops sharply beyond 20mph, perhaps because that is our own top speed.
Statistics on accidents point the same way. More than half of deaths and injuries occur in 30mph zones, so the effect of a blanket 20mph limit in residential areas would be far from marginal. It might also help shift Britain from the top spot in the European league for pedestrian fatalities. Indeed, with the most recent figures showing sharp rises in accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists (up by 5 per cent and 9 per cent respectively), it is difficult to argue convincingly in defence of the status quo.
Safety is, however, not the only consideration here. There are also broader environmental benefits. Motorists’ reservations might be shaken, for example, when they consider that traffic is more likely to keep flowing if cars maintain a steady (albeit more leisurely) pace, rather than moving faster but braking more often. Pollution – both noise and particulate – also noticeably decrease at slower speeds.
There is a downside, of course: journeys may take slightly longer. But it is a matter of less than a minute, on the average urban journey, when congestion, traffic lights and so on are taken into account. Set against the trauma of broken bodies and ruined lives, a few seconds longer in the car is surely a price worth paying?
Yesterday’s Front page article in the Independent may be found at http://tinyurl.com/indy20mph
TRO’s Just in:-
Loxley Rd 40 MPH Speed limit (Down from 60 – also 30mph zone extended.)
Worrall Rd 40 MPH Speed limit (Down from 60)
High Green North – 20MPH Zone (Area-wide)
We’ll be writing to support these, of course.
