Pogmoor Area Residents’ Association are campaigning for a reduced speed limit on Pogmoor Road. 4 pedestrians all aged 55 and above have been killed over the past 10 years.
For full details see their site at.
‘20’sPlentyfor Sheffield’ – Representations to the Scrutiny Committee 28.03.2012.
The Council’s current intention to adopt a staged, piloted and analysed approach to the introduction of 20mph limits over some years may be seen as dilute and timid, and risks us being compared unfavourably with similar authorities such as Newcastle, Liverpool and now Bristol, who have indicated to their residents that they will have the benefit from 20 limits from this point on.
As it stands, the Strategy recommends that our seven Community Assemblies each consult their constituents, agree and nominate a trial scheme somewhere in their area from an as yet to be provided ranked list, spend all their allocated £40.000 on the expensive procedure of registering said scheme, evaluate its effectiveness by the number of mostly young and old people killed or seriously injured over a year or 2 before starting the process again for another area, and so on.
20splenty does not feel this gives good value, either financially or in terms of the expressed intention to win over ‘hearts and minds’ to 20mph limits. Such a ‘lottery’ approach as to who can and can’t benefit from safer streets will be bureaucratic and financially wasteful, and fails to give a coherent and clear message regarding the need for us all to reconsider how we move around our City.
The reduction in Road casualties, and the associated financial costs – estimated at £81m in 2009 for Sheffield – are of prime importance, however the wider point of changes to the design of the mixed public use areas which roads are, and to the way people drive, is also to facilitate other more far reaching and vital changes. It is fear of fast moving traffic in road corridors that are difficult for non- motorised users to negotiate safely that deters people from choosing non- motorised means of travel when it would be appropriate and beneficial.
Where people feel safer, they are able to choose whatever mode of transport best suits their journey, and this will impact positively on our Physical and Social health. Our population of both younger and older adults need to feel safe to go out and about under their own steam much than currently, and the annual obesity costs of housebound/taxied children for Sheffield are estimated at £150m.
20 mph limits give fantastic value for money. Slower speeds are paid for in many ways and funds combined to make communities safer and improve their quality of life. 20 mph limits cost from £2 per head.
In Portsmouth’s 2nd year of authority wide limits there was a 22% drop in casualties compared to previous 3 year’s average, 8% better than the 14 % downward injury trend. Note that cost effectiveness analysis which only looks at casualty reductions fails to recognise other benefits such as danger reduction, noise and pollution reduction, fuel savings and higher quality of life.
Implementing a 20 mph limit involves a public education campaign and consultation, signage, signposts or road markings, changing traffic regulation orders through advertising in local media plus local authority officer time. ‘Light touch’ (ie normal) policing can enforce it in the usual manner.
Portsmouth’s Total 20 mph implementation cost £573,000 for 1200 roads (94% of its network). This is £477.50 per road, £1,398 per km or £2.75 per head. £0.5m is two signal controlled junctions. Oxford spent £300,000 (£2 per head). The “value” of fewer casualties from an area-wide 20mph limit has given a First Year Rate of Return of over 800%.
Funding Options for 20mph Limits include
1) Local Highways/Transport planning department from central government funds – for instance the Local Transport Plan budget, or on going capital works programme. This is the most common route and was how limits were paid for in Portsmouth, Oxford, Islington, Bristol and many more.
2) Transport Authorities like Transport for London. For instance, Camden’s public realm Corridors and Neighbourhoods schemes funding, which often involve road speed reduction, comes from TfL.
3) Local Sustainable Transport Fund. A local authority can bid to the Department for Transport’s LSTF, which specifically includes 20 mph speeds. There are £5 million and £50 million pots.
4) Developer money as part of a Section 106 agreement to benefit nearby residents to new buildings. The New Homes Bonus and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) are also building related funds. Section 106 funds are being suggested for Worthing and Chichester’s 20mph schemes, subject to public consultation approval.
5) Prudential or Private Finance Initiative (PFI) borrowing. E.g. Prudential borrowing, combined with New Homes Bonus money is how City of York Council have allocated £250,000 to 20mph limits in 2012/3.
6) Councillor vote in deciding amendments when setting council budgets. E.g. a York Green Party budget amendment in 2009 succeeded in winning £30,000 to set up a 20 mph limit scheme.
7) Partnership pooling with the NHS. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and the new Health and Wellbeing Boards/Clinical Commissioning Groups gain if there are fewer injuries and increased physical activity due to slower speeds. Glasgow’s Health Commission recommended 20 mph zones. Councillors agreed £100,000 for 280 streets in 20 areas, 2 each in the 10 area health committees in Dec 2010. Liverpool’s PCT agreed 40% of funding for limits in November 2011 amounting to £665k of £1.665m. Bristol’s PCT also contributed to funding 20mph limits and provided 57% (£20k out of £35k) towards a knowledge transfer partnership on understanding best practice in the social marketing of driving slower.
8) Local ward or assembly funding. This was suggested in Sheffield where the City Council offered money to those communities who wanted it. However this method creates patchy coverage, rather than a community wide limit.
The whole process has been eased by the following recent Dft changes:
1) 20mph repeater signs and carriageway roundels are now classed as “traffic calming devices” and hence can be used in 20mph zones as an alternative to physical calming.
2) 20mph carriageway roundels may be used instead of repeater signs in 20mph limits to remind drivers of the speed limit.
Whilst calling for an unequivocal declaration of a City wide 20mph implementation now, 20splenty recognizes that, realistically, such an approach would necessarily have to be physically staged due to financial constraints, and the Councillor’s stated intention to initially focus on areas where vulnerable people are most at risk could be pursued, such as those where parents and children could feel enabled to choose from a range of options other than the ‘parental taxi’. We feel these would be well supported by Sheffielders.
20splenty notes that at the very few public consultations held so far, residents very readily nominated areas around school access corridors, busy shopping areas and recreational destinations which, when amalgamated, covered large areas of Community Assembly ‘plots’, thus supporting the argument for wide area 20mph limits.
So we ask the Committee to give consideration to these issues and concerns, and to recommend the appropriate actions to enable a wider and more balanced consideration of the economic and social benefits for Sheffield of a City wide 20mph scheme. To consider more imaginative and active involvement of Sheffielders in a full exploration of the options for achieving its stated aim to implement a City wide speed limit.
To give further consideration to funding options, and open minded consideration to adopting the bolder City wide approach being taken by other progressive authorities nationwide, giving a clear message that we should all feel safe and empowered to choose our own and our children’s transport options as best suits our purposes and preferences without feeling anxious or intimidated by other road users, so building a healthier and more socially inclusive society.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/statistics/releases/british-social-attitudes-survey-2011/
Interesting figures from the 2011 survey
73 per cent were in favour of 20mph speed limits in residential streets.
The proportion of people against speed limits of 20mph in residential streets fell from 15% in 2010 to 11% in 2011.
This response was originally due to appear in a Sheffield Telegraph article. As they had already published an article on the outcome this particular piece has been pulled, but they have kept it on file for future information.
Response from 20splentyforSheffield to the 20mph strategy adopted at the Cabinet Highways Committee 08.03.2012.
20splentyfor Sheffield (www.20splentyforsheffield.org.uk) feels that an important opportunity for Sheffield people as regards the implementation of 20 speed limits may be missed should the Cabinet Highways Committee’s decision to adopt the ‘piecemeal’ recommendations contained in the Cabinet Highways Report in Sheffield be carried through.
20splenty gave one of three separate public presentations to the Committee detailing concerns as to the nature and pace of the implementation of 20mph limits for the City, concerns dismissed on the grounds of cost and of an anecdotal ambivalence by Sheffielders towards a city wide approach.
Some of these concerns are shared by other Councillors, who we understand have subsequently led a successful bid under council procedures to have the decision to adopt the recommendations ‘called in’ for further scrutiny prior to any final and binding decision on the strategy’s implementation.
As it stands, the Strategy recommends that our seven Community Assemblies each consult their constituents, agree and nominate a trial scheme somewhere in their area from an as yet to be provided ranked list, spend all their allocated £40.000 on the expensive procedure of registering said scheme, evaluate its effectiveness by the number of mostly young and old people killed or seriously injured over a year or 2 before starting the process again for another area, and so on.
20splenty does not feel this gives good value, either financially or in terms of the expressed intention to win over ‘hearts and minds’ to 20mph limits. Such a ‘lottery’ approach as to who can and can’t benefit from safer streets will be bureaucratic and financially wasteful, and fails to give a coherent and clear message regarding the need for us all to reconsider how we move around our City. Rather we would ask that the Council members give further, open minded consideration to adopting the bolder City wide approach being taken by other progressive authorities nationwide, giving a clear message that we should all feel safe and empowered to choose our own and our children’s transport options as best suits our purposes and preferences without feeling anxious or intimidated by other road users.
Whilst calling for an unequivocal declaration of a City wide 20mph implementation now, 20splenty recognizes that realistically, such an approach would necessarily have to be physically staged due to financial constraints, and the Councillor’s stated intention to initially focus on areas where vulnerable people are most at risk could be pursued, such as those where parents and children could feel enabled to choose from a range of options other than the ‘parental taxi’. We feel these would be well supported by Sheffielders.
20splenty notes that at the very few public consultations held so far, residents very readily nominated areas around school access corridors, busy shopping areas and recreational destinations which, when amalgamated, covered large areas of Community Assembly ‘plots’, thus supporting the argument for wide area 20mph limits.
As regards the financial constraints, a collaborative, funding sharing approach could be more vigorously explored with potential partners such as the local Health Commissioners to ease the financial burden of the scheme, and for us all as we foot the increasingly catastrophic cost of Physical and Social inactivity in our populations young and old.
So we call on the Council to use this period of scrutiny to consider more imaginative and active involvement of Sheffielders in a full exploration of the options for achieving its stated aim to implement a City wide speed limit that will help us feel confident to choose from a range of transport options, so building a healthier and more socially inclusive society. So tell your councillor what you want, and visit the Star to enrol your street!
Good to see an active 20s plenty group just over the hills in Chesterfield.
Their contact details are on the link below
http://www.transitionchesterfield.org.uk/content/20s-plenty-0
Sheffield Star reports that the local Green Councillors say the 20mph plans to be discussed today don’t go far enough.
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/call-for-blanket-20mph-scheme-across-city-1-4319288#
Published on Wednesday 7 March 2012 11:39
PLANS for 20mph zones on residential streets around Sheffield do not go far enough, say Green Party members.
Couns Jillian Creasy and Rob Murphy want the plans, which involve allocating £40,000 to each of Sheffield Council’s seven community assembly areas, ‘called in’ for debate by a council board.
The Green members, who both represent Central Ward, are unhappy funding has been divided equally between areas, when they say some have more roads needing the lower speed limit than others and also that the new limit will not be introduced on all residential streets at once.
Coun Murphy said: “This report is a disappointment for campaigners for safe speeds.
“Our call for plans for a city-wide 20mph speed limit on residential roads has been reduced to a few small schemes dotted about the city.
“The administration is ignoring evidence in its own report that says a ‘blanket approach is more likely to produce positive results as the accompanying publicity and promotion can be pitched to give the scheme a much higher profile.”
Council officers have said funding is not available for a city-wide scheme and assembly members are being asked to nominate roads which could benefit in their areas.
That strategy is set to be approved by the council’s cabinet highways committee tomorrow.
The Cabinet Highways Committee Agenda for March 8th is now available on line.
Scroll to the bottom off the page to download the report on an implementation strategy for the introduction of 20mph speed limits in residential areas of Sheffield.
Lib Dem initiative, unanimously supported by Manchester Council today.
11. Motion – Twenty’s Plenty
This Council notes:
• the “20’s Plenty for Manchester” campaign group that proposes a 20mph default speed limit where people live, without traffic calming, such as has been introduced by many Liberal Democrat administrations like in Portsmouth, the UK’s first 20mph City;
• in 2010, 166 people were killed or seriously injured on Manchester’s roads and there were 1,962 road casualties in total.
• the success in bringing down road casualties in recent years from the 284 people killed or seriously injured on Manchester’s roads in 2005. However, much more must be done to reduce this figure further.
• the importance of reduced speed in reducing the risk for pedestrians and other road users.
• research from UK and abroad that has shown city-wide urban speed limits around 20mph have:
significantly reduced speeds in just the first year of operation; after several years in operation
reduced urban accident rates by up to two-thirds (with numbers killed and seriously injured reduced by even more); encouraged walking and cycling, especially for the elderly and younger children;
benefited communities, with residents a quarter more likely to stop and talk on footpaths;
increased the journey time of a 15 minute journey by just 1 minute; reduced vehicle emissions by
12% due to less acceleration and deceleration; and been supported by 72% of drivers surveyed as
part of the British Social Attitudes Survey
• John Leech MP, Manchester Withington’s Liberal Democrat MP has been awarded Brake’s Parliamentarian of the Year for championing road safety in Parliament. John Leech MP has previously tabled a parliamentary bill calling for 20mph to be made the default speed limit for residential roads.
This Council welcomes:
•
recent changes announced by Liberal Democrat Transport Minister,
Norman Baker MP to Department for Transport rules making it easier for councils to introduce changes to 20mph speed limits.
This Council believes:
•
that the implementation of a city-wide speed limit of 20mph on all non-
major residential roads, combined with a public information campaign and innovative inexpensive
traffic calming, would have an immediate
beneficial impact on accidents and fatalities in the City.
This Council:
• directs officers to produce a report for the Executive on the feasibility of
implementing a city-wide 20mph limit on all residential roads, excluding major routes as
appropriate.
(Signed: Councillors Chamberlain (proposer), Ramsbottom, Jones, Wheale,
DiMauro, Pearcey, Shannon)
Information from Sheffield South west Community Assemblies
www.sheffield.gov.uk/southwest
Later this year Sheffield City Councillors will be looking at the
potential for 20mph zones in Sheffield.
So that members of the public are better placed to feed into this
process the South West Community Assembly is holding a number of
Information Sessions in the local area.
Highways and Road Safety Officers will present information on 20mph
Zones and be on hand to answer your questions at these sessions. We
will also ask you about the areas that you feel should be a priority.
Sessions are as follows;
Monday 23rd January
Presentation at 6:00pm
Nether Green Infant School
Stumperlow Park Road
S10 3QP
Tuesday 24th January
Presentation at 6:00pm
Westways Primary School
Mona Avenue
S10 1NE
Thursday 26th January
Presentation at 6:00pm
Totley Library,
205 Baslow Road
S17 4DT
Tuesday 31st January
Presentation at 6:00pm
Ecclesall Junior School
Ringinglow Road
S11 7PQ
20 PLENTY UPDATE FOR SHEFFIELD ON THE MOVE FORUM 12.01.2012.
Good evening, my name is Richard Attwood, a member of the Sheffield 20 plenty campaign Group. I’m a Sheffield resident who travels around by cycle, on foot, on public transport and also on occasions in my car. Basically I’m happy to use whichever mode of transport suits my needs at the time, but I value having the choice.
Sheffield is also an improving place to travel judging by the outstanding increase in people walking and cycling, as reported in the Telegraph recently Preliminary analysis indicates that in the 2001 – 2011 period, cycling is now up by 91% and walking is up by 46%. (I’m just waiting for the Council to flatten a few hills now!)
There is of course room for improvement, enabling and encouraging residents and visitors to have a greater choice of options as to the means by which they get themselves about here in the City.
Whichever mode we choose, there is an increasing body of people and organizations who subscribe to the view that a 20mph limit on streets where people live will encourage those people to make wider and potentially healthier choices about how they get from A-B in Sheffield, and that the quality of life for all of us will be improved as a result of these choices.
The national 20 plenty website has masses of information detailing the many reasons why a 20 mph limit is a good idea, and I felt that rather than reiterate those, I thought it might be useful to look at what some of our significant National Organizations – Govt and Non-govt, have been thinking and saying around this topic lately.
Dept for Transport.
In its White paper (A safer way – 2009) the Dft notes that statistically here in the UK we are losing more of our pedestrians to traffic collisions than comparable countries, and the majority of this is taking place on smaller roads and urban routes.
Accordingly it then identified key road safety challenges ahead as reducing pedestrian and cycle casualties in towns and cities, and in particular focussing such efforts on the most at risk, which are children and young people.
Part of its response was to produce a Speed Limit circular in Dec 09 seeking to encourage all authorities to introduce 20 mph speed limits into streets which are primarily residential in nature.
This has the dual aim of reducing collision casualties, and also of increasing people’s confidence to adopt non-vehicular transport options. In Hilden, Germany, for example, the percentage of in-town trips made by bicycle increased to 23% since the introduction of an 18.6 mph speed limit in all residential roads.
The Association of Directors of public health et Al.
(Et al being over a hundred voluntary organizations and health bodies.)
These organizations collective ‘take Action on active Travel’ campaign proposes that ‘Perhaps the single biggest step in making the streets safer (and making them feel safer) is to reduce speeds’, seeing benefits such as increased Sociability as children and older people who will be enabled to get out and about in our public spaces, rather than being imprisoned in cars and houses by fear of risks associated with being near or crossing roads, and also an increase in Cycling and Walking.
In other countries, low traffic speeds on residential and urban roads are the foundation of their walking and cycling strategies.
With lower speeds almost every road becomes more cycle and pedestrian friendly.
Cycling and walking are the preferred way in which children say they would like to travel to school, but frightened parents and teachers say no. Increasing numbers of children walking and cycling will reduce obesity levels. Streets that are busy with walkers and cyclists also become safer streets.
Providing a safe road network for children to walk or cycle to school also reduces those parents driving their children to school. This “virtuous circle” then reduces traffic so making those same streets even more attractive for cycling and walking.
The Director’s report emphasises how roads play an enormous part in dictating the health of citizens - both in direct casualties and in deterring people away from active travel through the fear of collisions.
The North West Regional Directors of Public Health have published research entitled “Road traffic collisions and casualties in the North West”. 140 killed or seriously injured child casualties could have been prevented per year between 2004 – 2008 if residential 20 mph speed zones had been introduced across the region. It strongly recommends that wide-area 20 mph limits for residential streets (without traffic calming) be included in all Highway Authority’s Local Transport Plans
PCT’s.
Liverpool Primary Care Trust have just announced that they are to work collaboratively with the City council to finance the implementation of 20mph signed limits going forward, and importantly to use public health resources to fund engagement and promotion initiatives with local communities around the shift to slower road speeds and alternative and healthier modes of getting about.
The European Union.
In Sept 2011 the full EU parliament adopted the EU Transport Committee report on Road Safety for the next decade. One of the primary “calls” is for 30km/h speed limits for all residential and urban roads.
National Institute for clinical Excellence (NICE)
In its report ‘Preventing Unintentional Injuries amongst under 15’s’ NICE recommends 20 mph limits where children and young people are likely to be, and it specifically calls for 20 mph speed limits for residential roads or where pedestrian and cyclist movements are high, and backs up Department for Transport guidelines for wide-area 20 mph limits.(Rather than zones)
Professor Danny Dorling.
Our very own Professor of human geography and expert in how people die says that statistically of all causes the road is now the most likely potential killer of your child, and a 20 limit and Education as to its value goes a long way to reducing this terrible reality, and, because people would feel more enabled to get out, social cohesion would improve.
He goes on to make a clear case for us now needing to regard road deaths as the greatest avoidable public health epidemic, now that we have made such progress with open sewers and tobacco!
This lethality is most apparent with the children of the poor, who are most often the victims of collisions, however the children of more well off people tend to be kept very close by or ferried back and forth in vehicles, often by parents who are hurrying along our roads!
And finally – UK Local Authorities
Up to press 10 Local Authorities have committed to 20mph as the default speed limit for residential streets, and another 20 are actively considering this.
The drop towards 20mph has turned out to be even more significant as recent research by vision scientists at the University of London indicates that children cannot, for developmental reasons, make accurate judgements about speed/distance where vehicles are moving above 20mph.
Why a wide area 20 limit is better than Zones
20mph Zones can be good at what they set out to do – stop people driving at lethal speeds for a very short period, but simply don’t address the problem effectively. Why?
- Their implementation invariably causes a lot of strife (It tends to be irrational/flawed, the web is full of recipients complaining that they weren’t consulted/their bit was missed or shouldn’t have been included/they hate the physical calming installations etc etc). This is repeated at each phase.
-
- They are very poor value for the little money we have. (In the Central CA the ’20 zoning’ of just one residential street has swallowed almost half the CA’s total annual budget!)
- They ultimately miss the point that the problem we need to tackle is us moving around in heavy steel boxes, at speeds that are lethal on contact, in those public spaces where people are going at ‘normal’ non motorised speeds. As Professor Dorling points out, we simply haven’t evolved to the point where we can mix such speed differentials/modes of transport competently yet, and the people not in the steel boxes at the moment of contact will always lose.
For any given expenditure 20mph area-wide limits are 7.2 times more effective than physically calmed zones.
For the same expense as engineering a 20 mph zone for 250 houses and 500 people then over 25,000 could benefit from a 20 mph speed limit in their road for the same cost.
So in summary then the increasing body of research and recommendations of so many bodies who we commission to look after our health, and my own experience on Sheffields roads, has convinced me that we should up the pace of ‘Consultation’ with a view to using the fantastic forthcoming Pfi opportunity to make all non arterial roads 20mph, and so to let our health and our society blossom.
Richard Attwood. 12.01.2012.
