England to look at 20mph national speed limit
Scottish Green MSP Mark Ruskell has welcomed a call from the Chief Medical Officer for England to introduce a 20mph standard speed limit in built up areas.
In her new report on reducing childhood obesity, Dame Sally Davies recommends the UK Government “improve safety by reducing the national speed limit from 30 mph to 20 mph and improve the potential of smart technology to limit the speed of cars in urban areas.”
Mark Ruskell MSP introduced a similar proposal in Scotland, but it was defeated by the SNP and the Tories.
Commenting, Mark Ruskell said: “It is great to see English public health catching up with the overwhelming evidence that cutting speeds in urban areas can have a huge impact on safety, but also on the wellbeing of our communities.
“With Wales also looking to introduce 20mph by 2022, there’s a real danger now that Scotland will fall behind when it comes to road safety. That’s why it is so disappointing that the SNP sided with the Tories in the face of all that evidence to reject my members bill which would have rolled these safer speeds out across the country and made the places where we live, work and play much safer.”