Boris Johnson in action

Boris Johnson, the  Mayor of London has announced new measures to reduce the death rate through accidents on major residential roads in London. He announced 20mph speed limit zones for these areas, just like Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham.

The 20mph speed restriction will be introduced on eight busy roads to tackle road accidents and death rate. He said that the new speed limits are being introduced as a trial with the purpose of cutting the speed down on all red routes.  One-third of all London traffic passes through these roads.

Bristol also announced to spend £2.3 million on speed limit management in the city in July 2012 and the project has been a success.  Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh followed Bristol too with same positive results. Other cities and towns are implementing the go-slow limits as well.

London is already practicing 20mph on quarter of their roads, but a further expansion in speed cuts will help London to reduce accident rates. It will, by 2020 help reduce the road accident rate by 40%.  The causalities will also be reduced to 10,000 deaths by the end of 2020.

TfL has been handed the responsibility to implement the speed limits on trial basis on eight selected roads. These speed limits will be implemented within 18 months and are subjected to real-time monitoring. To judge the results, they will be closely monitoring the traffic data for speed, causality rates, safety measures, number of cyclists and walking trips on the road. Commercial Street in Shoreditch will be the first road to face 20 mph.

Boris Johnsons said: “Lower speeds have the potential to significantly improve road safety while enhancing the environment for walking and cycling. As well as actively supporting and funding the installation of 20mph zones and limits on borough roads across London, we have also been looking at the TfL Road Network to see where further 20 mph limits could provide significant benefits.”

“These locations will help us to better understand the role that 20 mph limits could play going forward.”

What do you think of  speed limits? Will they help in decreasing accident rates or will they just shift the majority of Londoners on to Public transport? Share your thoughts below.