Welcome for Extension of 20mph Zones

By Ben Aulakh

Environmental charity Friends of the Earth have welcomed an announcement by Leicester’s Mayor, MP Peter Soulsby, to extend 20mph speed limit zones in the city.

Currently more than a hundred streets in the city have a maximum speed limit of 20mph, however the vow by Mayor Soulsby has promised to increase their number.

A spokesman for Friends of the Earht said, “Twenty mile per hour speed limits make an enormous difference to road safety – their introduction on residential roads in Portsmouth has resulted in a 22per cent drop in casualties.

“Leicester City Council has not been meeting its targets for reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured in road accidents in the last few years.”

“In order to make our roads safer, we must reduce the speed of the traffic. This would particularly help to ensure the safety of children, who are always overrepresented in accident figures.”

However, while the organisation has welcomed the proposed extension, they are also calling on the city council to ensure that all residential roads in the city are covered by the 20mph limit.

“Lower speeds means less fumes, when 20mph speed limits were introduced in Germany, they discovered that drivers were using 12 pre cent less fuel because they were braking and changing gear less often.

“Safer roads would encourage people to cycle and walk more; the City Council say that they intend to ‘plan for people not cars’; we ask them to prove it.”