Police Force Says it Can't Enforce 20mph Zone

Source Telegraph, 20th January 2010

A police force has criticised the use of 20 mile an hour zones, saying they cannot possibly work without speed bumps alongside other traffic calming measures to force drivers to slow down.

Oxfordshire County Council has recommended cutting the limit on a minimum of 24 of the town's roads. However local police said that the scheme would only reduce motorists' average speeds by two miles per hour.

David Paull, a Thames Valley Police spokesman, said the new restriction was unnecessary. "Simply putting a different number at the end of a road and relying on enforcement alone to achieve compliance is not the answer. Any 20mph limits should only be sought where there is a need to protect residents, particularly children and the road is either engineered to encourage compliance or the mean speed now is 24mph and below. We feel that additional traffic-calming or engineering would be required to reduce speeds to within the proposed 20mph limit. Unfortunately, the council does not currently plan to include this in their proposal."

Abingdon resident Steve King who organised a petition against the speed limit proposals and said the scheme was a waste of time from the start. "For the most part of the day, you cannot achieve 15mph, let alone 20mph, Where we need the 20mph limits is around our schools. Thames Valley Police has objected to the scheme because they don't have the manpower to enforce it."

A council spokesman said the scheme was being introduced to cut excessive speed throughout the day. The council transport decisions committee will consider the proposals on February 4.