CycleBanter.com - View Single Post - Reducing speed to 20mph ‘created more deaths than injuries’ but council can’t afford to scrap them

**Nightjar** · December 21st 17, 05:42 PM posted to uk.rec.driving,uk.rec.cycling,uk.legal

On 21-Dec-17 11:09 AM, wrote:
....
I doubt anyone expects cars to stick to 20 anyway. I imagine the thinking
behind it is that at 30 cars do anything up to 40 so put 20 signs up and
they'll do 25-30 which is acceptable.

The aim really is to reduce speeds to 20mph, or not much above it. This
is based upon the 1979 findings that pedestrians struck by a car doing
30mph have a 20% risk of dying, as compared to 2.5% at 20mph. More
recently, this has been revised down to 8% and 1.5%, which may be due to
improvements in vehicle design since the first report. However, it is
the most ignored limit of all, with 84% of cars exceeding 20mph, as
compared to 46% exceeding 70mph on motorways.

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Colin Bignell