Proposal : Whitby 20mph scheme
Residential areas should be places to relax, and mix with neighbours. Town centres should be places for the community to meet. Society became car dominated years back, and roads determine how a residential area feels to its occupants. Using a 30mph speed limit in a strictly residential area is a danger to pedestrian and cyclist safety, even though it became the fallback option many years ago. Figures from the Welsh Government show that the first 2 years of the default 20mph resulted in 1,270 fewer people being injured on urban / village roads in Wales, a 26% reduction. Nowadays we have cars parked in the road in residential areas, meaning that there is not a free flow of traffic anyway, hence even less need for 30mph as being the default.
Currently all primary schools offer Level 1 and 2 Bikeability training for children, however the absence of cycle paths close to home means they have nowhere to feel safe using what they have learned. Parents have understandable reticence in allowing them out on bikes for this reason. Additionally, they are also deprived of the chance to cycle to school – something with proven benefits to educational results.
Whilst providing cycle paths (whether shared or segregated) is possible in some areas, we accept that it is sometimes impossible to retrofit cycle infrastructure to some existing areas, where road space is limited or there are no suitable greenways to utilise, and this particularly applies in residential areas. The fact is that even in a 30mph area, the majority of people consider riding a bike on a road as dangerous (see UK Government LTN1/20 guidelines), and exemplified in the figure below from that report (what cycle infrastructure to provide based on the road conditions) – for a low traffic road and for bicycles to be in “mixed traffic” (i.e no bike segregation) the speed limit has to be 20mph for it to be considered “safe”, otherwise a cycle lane of some form would be needed, so it would be simplest / cheapest to avoid this infrastructure imposition in residential areas.
The Proposal
We propose that all residential areas as well as town centre areas should be 20mph zones, using a signage-only implementation. In addition, outside all schools the speed should be 20mph, perhaps during school arrival/leave times.
There already is support for 20mph in Whitby Town Council (WTC) : they voted to support the 20’s Plenty for North Yorkshire campaign and to call on North Yorkshire County Council to work in coordination with WTC to investigate a scheme to implement 20mph in Whitby in December 2022.
The proposal aligns with the Whitby Active Travel Plan, that will allow travel between areas of Whitby and District. People need to be able to get to / from their homes, workplaces, retail venues to the nearest cycle path (once they are built in Whitby and District’s case), which is why we propose a 20mph speed limit in these areas. This means that, in principle, people can then cycle on roads with a level of safety without the need for specific cycle infrastructure over the relatively short distances needed, and pedestrians would be safer also due to the lower traffic speeds.
The proposed implementation of 20mph is shown on the map below.
Specifically
- Residential : marked all residential estates as 20mph (blue) – Abbots Road and Fishburn Park already are 20mph;
- Town Centre : expand the current town centre 20mph zone (yellow) to reach the end of Bagdale, Flowergate, Skinner Street and St Hilda’s Terrace;
- West Cliff : whilst not residential per se, it is the location of many hotels, B&Bs and holiday lets as well as the destination for many tourist attractions so should be a lower speed zone.
- School Zones : the road outside Whitby schools should be 20mph to match per current NYC policy. The extent of these areas remain to be defined.
- Whitby Business Park : significant numbers of people visit the retail outlets on the main road, and the Whitby Business Park action plan aims to promote sustainable modes of transport in getting to / from all outlets, so should be considered for 20mph also.
Whilst there is evidence that including arterial roads (such as Mayfield Road, Upgang Lane, Stakesby Road, Love Lane etc) in such schemes is effective, we have omitted these from this proposal so that we focus on something providing direct benefit but minimising the overall impact on road users.
Benefits of the Proposal
The rationale behind this 20mph proposal is
- Safety : This would reduce the likelihood of any road collisions between motor vehicles and pedestrians / people on bicycles (2/3 of all serious collisions with people happen in 30mph zones). There are ample reports describing the safety benefits of a 20mph speed limit, such as this one from ROSPA, this one in the BMJ, as well as governmental analysis of the effectiveness. Roadwise UK estimate that the mortality rate for a pedestrian from a collision at 20mph is 2.5% whereas at 30mph it is 20%. Given that road collisions involving pedestrians or cyclists are on the rise, and that 20mph could significantly reduce this, it should be a high priority for highways authorities. You can view road collision report history for North Yorkshire on this page.
- Reduced pollution : Healthier places to live. Tests have demonstrated reduced emissions (CO2, Particulates and NOx) by moving to 20mph.
- Reduced road noise : Makes neighbourhoods more pleasant places without the drone of traffic. Tests have shown that there is typically a 3dB reduction in noise by going to 20mph from 30mph.
- Promote cycling : It would make it more viable to utilise a bike within that area, as part of getting to a cycle path, and also children can make use of their Bikeability training and gain confidence in their own areas before going out on to bike paths.
- Cost effective : It would mean the provision of physical cycle infrastructure in those areas (and in the majority of existing residential areas the roads are too narrow to provide infrastructure) would be reduced. Dropping a speed limit to 20mph from 30mph is significantly cheaper than providing bike segregation, particularly with a signage only scheme. Deployment across the UK has shown that this typically costs between £3 and £5 per head to implement, a one-off cost that pays for itself in months due to lower collision rates and fewer potholes.
Costings
To establish a basis for a signage only scheme we firstly need to calculate the number of entrances to each zone. We are then assuming the following at each zone entry/exit point.
- 2 posts (1 either side of the entrance / exit).
- Each post will have a “20mph” sign on one side and a “30mph” sign on the other side.
- 20mph painted road marking across the road.
| Zone Name | Number Of Entrances | Number of Posts | Number of 20mph signs | Number of 30mph signs | Number of 20mph road Marking | No of “Through” Roads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stakesby | 10 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 10 | 4 |
| Mayfield Road North | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Eskdale / Larpool | 6 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 6 | 4 |
| Sneaton Castle | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Mayfield Road South | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| St Peters / East Whitby | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| Castle Park | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 3 |
| White Leys | 10 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 10 | 2 |
| Whitehall/Abbots Rd/Green Lane | 3 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| Holmstead Ave | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Town Centre | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 2 |
| West Cliff | 7 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 7 | |
| Whitby Business Park | 3 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| Total | 59 | 118 | 118 | 118 | 59 | 27 |