Project information
Organisation: Welsh Government and Welsh Local Government Association
Contacts: Ian Bradfield and Kaarina Ruta
Contact emails: ian.bradfield@gov.wales, kaarina.ruta@wlga.gov.uk
Case study title: Introduction of default 20mph speed limit on restricted roads in Wales
Links:
Introducing default 20mph speed limits | GOV.WALES
Default 20mph speed limit on restricted roads | Transport for Wales (tfw.wales)
Which Safe System Components does your case study cover?
• Safe Speeds
• Safe Road Use
Which Safe System Operators does your case study cover?
• Leadership and coordination
• Legislation and regulation
• Standards and training
• Education and communications
• Compliance and enforcement
• Research, monitoring and evaluation
Please explain how this case study relates to the key principles of the Safe System?
Reducing speeds on roads where pedestrians and cyclists mix with motorised traffic relates to most of the key principles at the core of the Safe System. It is the acceptance that human beings are vulnerable and their resistance to sustain forces in a collision diminishes with higher impact speed. Reducing speeds supports the moral understanding that it should be unacceptable to die or be seriously injured on our roads. A more proactive approach where we do not wait for collisions to happen but decide that the speeds need to be such that collisions will not lead to death or serious injury.
What did you seek to achieve and how did you go about it?
Although it had been possible to introduce 20mph limits locally for quite some time in Wales, only a very small part of the urban road network (ca 1%) had 20mph limits. They were mostly around schools, albeit some local authorities had introduced them to a wider extent (e.g. Cardiff and Newport). The Wales 20mph Task Force Group was formed in May 2019 on the direction of Lee Waters, the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport. The Task Force Group Report was published in July 2020.
The Senedd voted to accept the recommendations of the report, and the Welsh Government (WG) started working on implementing a default national 20mph speed limit. A Partnership Delivery Board with key partners and a Steering Group with a wider set of stakeholders were set up with representation from the WG, the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), Transport for Wales (TfW), local authorities, the Police, Public Health Wales, third sector organisations, academics and experts to help inform the project. A dedicated project team was also established to deliver the project.
TfW developed a GIS tool for identifying potential exceptions (roads that could remain at 30mph) to the national default 20mph speed limit for restricted roads. The WG then invited local authorities to express interest in being part of a Pilot Settlements project to make an early start on the development and refinement of the various processes (including the use of the GIS tool) needed to implement wide area 20mph limits. Eight first phase settlements, in seven local authorities were chosen and they implemented area-wide 20mph limits between 2021 and 2022.
The Welsh Government also led an important communications campaign that ramped up in the last few months before the coming into force of the legislation, including leaflets sent to all households and businesses, TV and radio adverts and advertising on petrol pumps and the sides of buses.
The Welsh Government published guidance on setting exceptions in November 2022 and Technical and Procedural Guidance to help the highway authorities through the implementation of changes needed.
The legislation to change the speed limit on restricted roads was passed in July 2022. An amendment to the Traffic Signs and Regulations and General Directions was passed in 2023 to make changes to road signs that were required.
The legislation came into force in September 2023. A review of the guidance on exceptions was announced in December 2023 and a WG appointed review team published their final report in May 2024. The WG then published updated guidance on setting 30mph limits on restricted and other 20mph roads in July 2024.
What were your aims and objectives?
The rationale for reducing speed limits on restricted roads to 20mph is much wider than simply reducing traffic speeds. It is intended to be a major behaviour change programme which benefits communities and the well-being of people in Wales.
Introducing a lower speed limit for traffic is expected to reduce the likelihood and severity of collisions on our roads. This will lead to fewer pedestrians and cyclists being seriously or fatally injured. The lower speed limit is designed to support the Welsh Government’s vision for walking, wheeling and cycling to be the natural mode of choice for short everyday journeys.
There are three core objectives:
• Reduce injury and death.
• Encourage a change in travel behaviour.
• Reduce negative effects of vehicle use on the wider environment.
Nested within the three core objectives are five specific measurable objectives for 20mph speed limit implementation. These objectives are:
• Reduce the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed or seriously injured on the road network.
• Encourage mode shift from private car to walking and cycling for shorter journeys in built-up areas.
• Reduce motor vehicle dominance in vehicle and pedestrian interactions.
• Reduce carbon emissions from transport as a result of mode shift from private car to walking and cycling for shorter journeys in built-up areas.
• Maintain or improve local air quality due to smoother traffic speeds with less acceleration and deceleration.
Which other stakeholders and partners were involved?
The other stakeholders involved were the local authorities, Transport for Wales, Public Health Wales, 4 Police forces, 3 Fire and Rescue Services, GoSafe, Sustrans, Living Streets, academics, RAC Foundation. Many others were engaged with during the process, like logistics and haulage companies, bus companies and delivery companies.
How are you measuring/did you measure the effectiveness of what you delivered? What results did you achieve?
TfW is undertaking monitoring on behalf of WG. There is a monitoring framework which sets out the key performance indicators: Default 20mph speed limit on restricted roads | Transport for Wales (tfw.wales). There is also a separate Evaluation Framework that the WG’s Knowledge and Analytical Services Team are in the process of setting up, which will aim to look at some of the wider impacts on people’s health and wellbeing, the effectiveness of the policy and its economic impacts.
The latest data was published in June 2024: Default 20mph Speed Limit on Restricted Roads | Transport for Wales (tfw.wales) and the next report is due end of September 2024.
The number of police recorded road collisions in 2024 Q1 is the lowest quarterly figure recorded in Wales outside the COVID-19 period. Longer term data will form part of the monitoring framework for 20mph and wider evaluation.
In 2024 Q1, there were 606 police reported road collisions in Wales. Of these collisions:
• 16 (3%) were fatal.
• 163 (27%) were serious collisions.
• 427 (70%) were slight collisions.
The total number of collisions is 18% lower than in the previous quarter (737) and 17% lower than in the same quarter in 2023 (733).
Police recorded road collisions: interactive dashboard | GOV.WALES
Police recorded road collisions: January to March 2024 (provisional) | GOV.WALES
What challenges did you encounter on the way?
There are a lot of different strands to this project, and they have all posed their own challenges, however the most challenging by far has been the fact that this was one of the first times anything like this was introduced on such a large scale, so many roads changing from one day to another. Nobody had foreseen that even if all the benefits of the policy had been communicated to the public and the awareness before the coming into force of the legislation was very high, many still saw this as a first big limitation to their freedom and car-driving. It is something most people do every day, so it impacted a lot of people’s lives. Adding to this is also the fact that the disbenefits of the policy are instant and individual yet most of the benefits will only become evident in the longer term.
It is the communication and engagement with the public, dealing with a changing political landscape and managing different expectations that have been challenging throughout. The media and in particular the social media have also exacerbated the divide between people supporting and those against the policy and it has unfortunately led to polarisation of society. Combating mis - and disinformation have also posed some obstacles along the way.
There has been some tension between national and local – consistency vs local differences. On the one hand, this being a national policy and national legislation, coming from the centre, a wish to have consistency of approach and outcome, yet on the other hand the implementation of it being a local matter and local politics and local needs and differences coming into play.
There is also a question of how quickly something on this scale can be introduced. Doing it quickly will yield positive results quicker and makes sure that the project gets over the line, yet it means that there isn’t necessarily sufficient time to pilot and refine processes and changes will need to be made afterwards.
What advice would you give to other organisations seeking to deliver something similar?
First of all, you need strong political leadership, but also a lot of political allies. You cannot make big changes relying on only one strong personality. The cooperation between key stakeholders and partners and a strong delivery team are key to success.
• Having a strong communication and engagement plan is essential and sufficient funding to back it up.
• Having evidence to support what you are doing will help in convincing those who might be against what you are planning to do.
• Planning and setting up good monitoring and evaluation of your scheme is also paramount.
What are the next steps for you and your partners in relation to this initiative?
It had always been clear that with a change of this scale there were going to be adjustments that would have to be made in time. Highway authorities are now going through the feedback that they have received from the public over the last few months (summer 2024) on roads that are currently 20mph or 30mph and they are then going to assess those roads using Welsh Government’s newly published guidance to decide whether they want to make any changes to roads that are currently 20mph and 30mph.
• Compliance with the new speed limit and realising the benefits of lower speeds for people are the key challenge going forward.
• Enforcement and engagement will have an important role to play and continued collaboration with the police forces, GoSafe and other road safety partners will be needed.
• Highway authorities will also start to look at roads where any engineering or additional signing might be needed.
• Equally important to enforcing speeds is building on the success of lower speeds and safer communities to encourage more people to walk and cycle for short journeys and for them to realise the benefits of safer and more pleasant communities.