ACPO has revised its speed enforcement policy guidelines to reflect a tougher approach to enforcing 20mph limits.
The new guidance recommends that at speeds between 24-31mph a driver should be offered the option of attending a speed awareness course or a fixed penalty notice fine. At speeds of 35mph plus a summons will be issued.
“That said, we hope that this updated guidance will go some way to ensure that enforcement is appropriate and proportional, and that roads are carefully designed to ensure that drivers habitually self-enforce when it comes to speed limits.
“The principal alteration to our guidance relates to areas under a 20 mile-per-hour limit.
“We are now introducing speed awareness courses as a key part of enforcement in these areas for those who breach the limit between 24 and 31mph. Often, these drivers are mistaken or require further education on the local limit and therefore we are very pleased that the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS) are developing a speed awareness course tailored to these zones which will run from November 2013 until 2016.
“Enforcement will be considered in all clearly posted limits, but limits are only one element of speed management and local speed limits should not be set in isolation. They should be part of a package with other measures to manage speeds which include engineering, visible interventions and landscaping standards that respect the needs of all road users and raise the driver’s awareness of their environment, together with education, driver information, training and publicity.
Welcoming the revised guidelines, Rod King MBE, founder of 20’s Plenty for Us, said: “This is very timely as many of our cities are rejecting the 30mph limits for most roads in favour of a life enhancing 20mph limit that is becoming the norm rather than the exception.
“Whilst compliance comes from people understanding the benefits that come to communities when we all drive below 20, the police play an important role in endorsing that through enforcement.
“Good policing comes from responding to communities and elected representative wishes and the overwhelming number of those want the police to play an active role in making those communities safer, more liveable and secure.”
Click here to read the new ACPO guidelines.
Of course it isn’t fair and reasonable to prosecute for exceeding a 20mph speed limit that operates 24/7/365 without regard to the actual road and traffic conditions at the time and place, but think of the money!
Dave, Southampton
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If I stated that I always obey the 30mph speed limit, I would be classed by many as a ‘good driver’. So the council comes along and reduces the speed limit to 20mph and hence I now must be some sort of maniac for driving at 50% above the current limit. Overnight I have become dangerous!
The whole thing makes no sense. We need through education, to get people to drive at a safe speed for PREVAILING conditions. Are we really expected to drive for miles at night at 20mph, when 99% of the population are asleep in their beds!
All this started off around schools, on the pretence of saving child injuries, even though there was no evidence to support it, but there is not one council in Great Britain that employed a lollipop person twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week! So we really have to look at the political agenda of 20mph supporters.
Terry Hudson
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Whilst I understand that the Police must respond to the concerns of their local residents I think we are missing the point here. The point is that 20mph restrictions IMPOSE a limit which must be obeyed by each and every motor vehicle travelling through that restriction because it is an area where young or vulnerable people are present. This is not an area where drivers are allowed to self-regulate their speed, hence traffic calming measures.
20mph restrictions should be fit for purpose and where evidence of non-compliance is obtained then the local authority have a responsibility to rectify the situation to engineer the required limit.
Police enforcement should not form part of a 20mph restriction speed reduction strategy. If there is evidence of non-compliance then the limit has failed and is therefore inappropriate by default and should probably not have installed in the first place.
Darren, Humberside
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I wouldn’t expect RPU to bother too much with the quiter urban areas either as they’re better suited to the faster, busier roads, but that doesn’t mean that these residential 20 zones can’t be policed when requested by other non traffic officers eg. community, PCSOs etc. even road safety officers! Prosecutions do not have to be the goal – simply having a presence and issuing the occasional caution goes a long way. Word soon spreads around the community.
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
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With regard to Alan’s comment about lack of RPUs present during his trip to the North and back. It is reasonable to assume that perhaps Alan was not actually present or within sight of those RPUs that were actually on the road.
Keith
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Bob, once you are in a zone there only needs to be repeater signs so there should not need to be “double signage on both ends”. Also any money from fines or NDORS won’t be paying for the 20 limit schemes.
Mark, Caerphilly
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In Gloucestershire, CC Davenport’s own force, there is barely a traffic section. Speeding is a county wide issue and no visible deterrent.
Ian, Gloucestershire
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Bob and Alan are right on both counts – follow the money and the practical impossility of meaningful enforcement.
One more point – have any speed measuring devices yet been authorised for speeds below 30mph? This would be something of a joke were it not already beyond a joke.
But what we REALLY need is reliable data on what actually happens when limits are lowered, for all 20mph areas – the absence of such data may in itself be significant.
Idris Francis Fight Back with Facts Petersfield
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A large volume of words talking about how transgressors will be dealt with but absolutely no words about the appearance of roads police vehicles to catch those transgressors. The police are not out there catching the speeders that are breaching higher limits and they will be the ones who breach the 20’s as well.
Last week whilst on holiday and travelling from Keynsham to Berwick on Tweed and back, and some 400 miles whilst in that neck of the country, I saw one Roads Policing Unit during the 1,100 miles travelled. Do not hold your breath expecting to see RPU vehicles in your favourite neighbourhood road.
Alan Hale – South Gloucestershire.
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Only to be expected. At a time of austerity it is a means of gaining revenue. Plus many more motorists will be paying for a day’s instruction on how to drive slowly and hopefully more safely. The millions of soon to be erected new 20 mph signage will have to be paid for somehow so let the motorists pay for it. It’s now looking like towns and cities will not adopt a blanket policy so that may mean double signage on both ends of many streets. Four signs in all.
bob craven Lancs
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