’20′s plenty’ for Birmingham Friends of the Earth

• Mar. 4 by Laura Hogan (1)

Birmingham Friends of the Earth is campaigning for all residential areas to have a 20mph speed limit.

The aim is to make roads safer for all road users, particularly cyclists and pedestrians.

The 20mph speed restriction has already been trialled with great success in Portsmouth, Hull and parts of London, so it’s natural that Birmingham be the next city for the speed restrictions to take place in.

Driving at 20mph will allow traffic to flow more smoothly; resulting in less braking and gear changes. It will also attract more people to cycling and walking as the streets will be safer: consequentially leading to a decrease in CO2 emissions.

Even though Britain’s roads are considered to be some of the safest in Europe; a child pedestrian is three times more likely to die on Britain’s roads than in Italy and twice as likely as in France.

However, it’s been shown that when the speed limit is reduced to 20mph there is 70% drop in accidents to child pedestrians (Transport research Laboratory).

Speaking of the 20’s Plenty scheme, Joe Peacock from Birmingham Friends of the Earth said:

‘This is a great opportunity for Birmingham City Council to tackle two of the biggest problems facing us now; obesity and Climate Change.

If we can make the roads safer for people to walk and cycle they will exercise more and emit less CO2, so it’s a win-win situation.’