20mph Zones - Government must go further say Greens

21st April 2009

Responding to today's announcement of a government consultation on reducing speed limits in residential areas and around schools, the Green Party has called for the government to show greater courage and go further to prevent the deaths of our most vulnerable road users.

Cllr Jillian Creasy said, "Green councillors in Sheffield have campaigned for safer roads and succeeded in getting extra pedestrian crossings across the city and an Accident Saving Scheme for Abbeydale Rd and London Rd. We welcome further measures and look forward to them being implemented in Sheffield, but they need to be enforced and the definition of "residential roads" must include arterial routes as well as side streets."

Martin Hemingway, Yorkshire & the Humber lead candidate in the European Elections on June 4th, said "Yorkshire has, according to the government’s own statistics the worst record on children killed and seriously injured in road accidents Green councillors around the country have long been pushing hard for this. But if the government is serious it should go further. Their own Department of Transport report shows that we do poorly in comparison to other European countries on child pedestrian road deaths.

"While we welcome the government’s suggestion that local authorities adopt lower speed limits outside schools, Greens are calling for comprehensive Safe Routes to School programmes everywhere. We must keep school children safe."

The Safe Routes to School package involves a joined-up approach. Local authority departments need to work with their local schools, communities and the health sector to assess the most appropriate measures for a given school, ranging from rearranging junctions and crossings to ensuring the best possible provision for cycling and walking.

Transport consultant and Lancaster Green Party councillor professor John Whitelegg said today, "You can implement a package like this for as little as £60,000 per school. If you do it for several neighbouring schools at once, the benefits reinforce one another. If we did this everywhere we'd make school travel safer and we'd cut morning peak-hour traffic by 10%."

ENDS

For more information please contact Eamonn Ward on 0114 2311548 / eamonn.ward@btopenworld.com

Click for Source Data : Child casualties in road accidents

Further information

1. Pedestrian deaths – H Naci et al 2009 Distribution of road traffic deaths by road user groups: a global comparison http://injuryprevention.bmj.com

2. European Road Safety Observatory http://www.erso.eu/data/Content/statistical_report.htm

3. Community database on accidents on the roads in Europe http://ec.europa.eu/transport/road_safety/observatory/statistics/care_en.htm