MANY residential roads could receive a 20mph speed limit under new proposals from the Governemt, The Times newspaper has reported.
Specs styles average speed cameras will be used to monitor driver speeds instead of speed humps and variable limits will be introduced around schools if the moves are successful.
The measures are being considered as part of plans to significantly reduced the number of fatalities on UK roads during the next decade. Research suggests that a pedestrian is eight times more likely to die when hit by a car travelling at 30mph than by a car travelling at 20mph.
Government targets for the reduction of road deaths stand at no more than 2000 for the year 2020, following advice from the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety. In 2006, 3172 people died on the UK's roads.
According to The Times, the Home Office is likely to have approved the use of 20mph average speed camera in residential zones by the end of 2008.
