CUTTING the speed limit to 20mph in all urban areas in Scotland will end a "throwback to the 1930s" and "align Scotland to best practice across the world".
Walking charities Living Streets and Ramblers Scotland and not-for-profit road safety group Plenty for Us have spoken out in support of the move by Green MSP Mark Ruskell to bring forward a Member’s Bill at Holyrood to cut the speed limit.
READ MORE: Cut speed limits to 20mph to save lives, says MSP
Later this week, Holyrood's Rural Economy & Connectivity Committee will begin its inquiry into the Safer Streets bill .
Supporters for the plan include road safety, environment and transport campaigners, along with experts at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Faculty of Public Health in Scotland.
Fife councillors are among those who are opposed the change, on the grounds of cost, the time it would take to time to implement – and a general low confidence that the bill would work.
In 2018 a study by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH) found road casualties could fall by between 531 and 755 incidents a year – saving between one and five lives – if the speed limit in built-up areas dropped from 30mph to 20mph.
In their written submission to the committee, Living Streets and Ramblers Scotland say: "It is already established that 20mph is the appropriate speed outside all schools in Scotland.
"However, these school gate zones account for only a small part of most children’s overall school journeys.
READ MORE: Cut speed limits to 20mph to save lives, says MSP
" A more effective 0.5-mile (10 minutes’ walk) cordon extending around Scotland’s 2,031 primary schools would be greater or equivalent to the entirety of urban Scotland’s road network. The only sensible way to achieve this is a default 20mph limit.
"The bill is a simple and elegant piece of legislation, which updates the urban default speed limit to a 21st century standard. The existing 30mph default is, by comparison, a throwback to the 1930s and is being replaced across Europe and in many Scottish council areas, where community safety has been made a priority."
In their commentary, the not-for-profit road safety group Plenty for Us say: "It provides a huge opportunity to align Scotland to what is becoming best practice across the world and especially in more socially aware countries. It aligns Scotland with such countries as Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany and Japan where 30kmh is the accepted norm in communities whether urban or rural.
"20mph limits are a key platform to increase road safety that has widespread acceptance across the world. Even small reductions in speed have measurable and beneficial reductions in crashes and casualties.
"[In] many other European countries 30kmh (18.5mph) is the norm and 'going faster' with a limit of 50kmh (32mph) is only deemed appropriate in certain roads where adequate segregated provision is made for pedestrians and cyclists."
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