Blanket Speed Limit of 20mph to Be Imposed on Chiswick Roads

High Road to be included in new scheme aiming to enhance road safety

Resident roads to get the speed limit are in light blue colour with main roads in darker blue

Chiswick will turn into a 20 mph zone under Hounslow Council's latest plan to make drivers take slower speeds in all borough roads.

The plan to introduce 20mph zones across residential streets has been extended to take in all of Chiswick High Road from Chiswick roundabout, to the junction with Stamford Brook, and Chiswick Lane as well as Turnham Green Terrace. Bath Road is also set to get a 20 mph limit. Only the Great West Road (A4) and the A316 will be excluded from the scheme.

The extension is partly as a result of similar speed limits to be introduced by Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham Councils and to ensure that there would not be a 'patchwork' of different speed limits, which the Councils said would be confusing for motorists.

Cllr Amrit Mann, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, is expected to approve the new speed limit for Hounslow borough next week as a delegated decision. 20 mph limits around schools will be in place by the end of 2017 but the implementation to residential streets across the borough will take up to four years.

Hounslow Council says a recent consultation which drew over 600 respondents, showed "broad support" among residents for the scheme. About two-thirds of those who responded said they approved the 20 mph limit on residential roads which did not carry through traffic, and a similar percentage supported the limit on main roads.

Strand -on-the-Green Residents Association supported the 20 mph limit, with a caveat that effective enforcement was required. Residents in the Thames Road area have long demanded a lower speed limit on what is often a 'rat run' from the A315 to the South Circular and Kew Bridge. The West Chiswick and Gunnersbury Society was in favour of the new limit on both residential and main roads, while the Bedford Park Society supported 20 mph on residential but not on main roads. Ealing Council is also set to introduce a scheme which will affect roads in W4 which are part of the borough.

In the five year period from 2010-2014 the total number of casualties in Hounslow was 4,834. 1,243 of these casualties (26% of the borough total) occurred on those roads proposed to be 20mph.

"The evidence from other areas where 20mph schemes have been implemented suggests that a 1% reduction in average speeds is a reasonable expectation and that this would deliver 6% fewer casualties," according to a Hounslow Council report. Over a 5 year period Hounslow Council expect the impact of this measure to be 75 fewer casualties on the borough’s roads.

The Council plans to use signage and road markings to enforce the police, and not more speed cameras or traffic calming measures. Revenue from speeding fines would not go to the council but to central government. Speeding is a road traffic offence punishable by fixed penalty fines and points on the offender's driving licences.

Some Chiswick councillors had expressed concern at a meeting last year that that the introduction of a 20 mph limit would be a "largely a cosmetic exercise" and could provide a false sense of security and safety.

"Those motorists that already break the current 30 mph limit will probably also break a new 20 mph speed limit. The only benefit will be that accidents involving law abiding and generally safer drivers will occur at low impact speeds", said one recently.

The move is part of a London-wide plan to curb urban speeds in residential areas. In June 2015, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, announced his target to halve the number of people killed or injured on London's roads by 2020.

Some 175 miles of residential streets, about a quarter of London’s roads, already have 20mph limits. 20mph zones have already been imposed in residential areas in Camden, Islington and the City of London.

January 19, 2016