This week, schools and communities throughout North Somerset are invited to celebrate United Nations Global Road Safety Week, running from 17th to 23rd May.
You can look at the photos and slides sent out to each school at https://winscombeandsandford.org.uk/category/20splenty/
Traffic speeding through our village and town streets is a worry for all of us. Now lockdown is easing, traffic flow and speeds are increasing.
Children are most at risk on the streets where they live, play and travel to school. Every day 3000 children and young people are killed or seriously injured on the world’s roads. A child hit by a car at 20 mph can survive, but if hit at 50 mph most will die.
The key message of United Nations Global Road Safety week is for 20 mph to become the normal speed limit, in places where people on foot or on bicycle mix with motor vehicles. Our country has signed up to 20 mph becoming the normal speed limit, along with the other UN countries, in the UN Stockholm Declaration on Road Safety of 2020.
Most of the UK’s larger local authorities have adopted 20 mph for their residential streets, including Bristol, and Bath and North East Somerset. Wales is about to bring in a 20 mph national default speed limit for residential roads. Around one third of the people in our country live in 20 mph speed limit areas. 20 mph speed limits for residential streets are successful and popular in the areas where they are brought in.
Communities can decide that 20 mph is the right limit where people live. Low speed, liveable streets, encouraging people to walk and cycle, are good for our health, good for community life, good for cleaner air, and good for reducing climate change emissions.
North Somerset Council is responsible for setting local speed limits. Please email the Leader of North Somerset Council, donald.davies@n-somerset.gov.uk ‘ I support 20 mph for residential streets throughout North Somerset’
We can all ask our MP to take action on the government setting 20 mph as the national default urban/village speed limit by emailing him using this link
See more information at https://www.unroadsafetyweek.org/en/home
20’s Plenty For Us campaigns for a speed limit of 20mph to be normal on residential streets and in town and village centres, unless full consideration of the needs of vulnerable road users allows a higher limit on particular streets: We believe that communities can decide that "20's Plenty Where People Live”
Contact us at www.20splenty.org, northsomerset@20splentyforus.org.uk or find us on Facebook.
