Birmingham City Council has asked the Government to allow it to introduce a default 20mph speed limit on restricted roads across the city.
The Birmingham Transport Plan, which was adopted in 2021, says the council will establish 20mph as the default speed limit for all residential streets and local centres, but retain a 30mph limit on strategic and distributor roads.
It is awaiting a response from the Government on its proposal, which would stop it having to put up lots of ‘repeater’ signs when an area has the limit reduced to 20mph and therefore save the cash-strapped authority money.
Rod King, founder of campaign group 20’s Plenty For Us, said: ‘What Birmingham is really going, rather than doing it road by road, is say, “if you come into this city it’s 20mph as a default”.
‘It’s about process and signage rather than policy – it’s sensible. It makes it a straightforward process cheaper to implement.’
Birmingham is also consulting on plans to reduce ‘almost all’ roads with 40mph limits to 30mph. The changes, if approved, will be made early next year.
This summer, Birmingham declared a road safety emergency after a number of deaths caused by ‘unacceptable acts of road violence’.
