Is Twenty Plenty?
Girton Parish Council are launching a questionnaire to gauge residents’ support for extending the 20mph zones in Girton. The areas for which we need your input are from A14 bridge to Girton Corner including all side roads. To complete our questionnaire and let us know your views, please click here.
IF you would prefer to complete the survey in word and either email back to clerk@girton-pc.gov.uk or pop through the post box at the pavilion. You can find the survey here
Why 20mph?
Introducing a 20 mph speed limit on our roads has a range of anticipated benefits.
- Research by the UK Transport Research Laboratory has shown that every 1mph reduction in average urban speeds can result in a six percent fall in the number of casualties. It’s also been shown that you are seven times more likely to survive if you are hit by a car driving at 20mph, than if you are hit at 30mph. If a child suddenly steps in front of a car, you are much less likely to seriously injure or kill them if you keep to a 20mph limit.
- Research indicates that people are much more likely to walk or cycle when vehicle speeds are lower as they feel safer. The installation of 20mph zones or limits, especially in urbanised areas is expected to have positive impacts on the amount of people walking, cycling or horse riding. This has additional benefits to the environment as well as lowering the speed limit could encourage more people to use non-motorised means for shorter journeys such as walking to school or visiting the shop.
- Research shows that slower speeds encourage a smoother driving style with less stopping and starting which helps traffic to flow. Evidence from other areas shows that slower speeds encourage more people to walk and cycle.
- Driving at 20mph causes some vehicular emissions to rise slightly (mainly Heavy Goods Vehicles) and some (car) to fall. Reduced acceleration and braking will help to reduce fuel consumption and the associated particulate emissions from items such as tires and brakes.
How would a 20mph be implemented?
Signs and lines will be installed in line with current traffic and road safety manuals. If a new area is changing to 20mph local residents will be informed in advance. Signs will mark the entrance and exits of a 20mph area where the speed limit changes. Smaller repeat signs or on road markings will supplement these signs.
Funding opportunities
Cambridgeshire County Council have created an annual 20mph funding programme to install either 20mph zones or limits countywide. This is open to town and parish councils. Once an application has been submitted, it will be prioritised and scored by officers. This will produce a long list which will then be worked through until all the schemes applied for have been delivered.
For this scheme specific areas will be considered for a 20mph limit. In general, these will be areas with features that justify the lower speed limit for driving, for example, an area that has:
- evidence of traffic incidents or potential dangers within an existing 30/40mph
- vulnerable road users e.g. pedestrians (of all ability), cyclists, equestrian users and motorcyclists
- visible homes, shops, and business frontages
- a school or a school route
- a cycling route
- a quiet lane designation
- an area that would benefit from more active travel such as cycling and walking
Process
Our questionnaire will be available from Thursday 9 March to Tuesday 11 April. Members of the Parish’s Land, Assets and Infrastructure committee will analyse the data and prepare a proposal in the week beginning 27 March. This will allow us to make both the CPCA and county application deadlines. If successful with either opportunity, we anticipate working on detailed design and a formal consultation between September 2023 and March 2024. If agreed upon construction would then go ahead March to July 2024.
To complete our questionnaire please click here
Information from Cambridgeshire County Council
To view more information on Cambridgeshire District Council 20mph Funding and the Scoring Matrix for submissions from Parish Councils, please click here
Note: CCC Application window closes – at 5pm on Sunday 30 April 2023
Good idea to have 20mph restrictions for the residential streets with lots of parked cars. I would leave that bit of Girton Road at 30mph.
Leave that at 30, the main high street by Coop and church yes 20mph but no need to extend further
Whilst a collision is less likely to cause injury at lower speed, do you have data on the effect on collision rates of such a reduction? The net effect may well be increased overall injury. If no clear benefit can be shown, then no action should be taken.
Vehicle gear ratios are selected for likely highway speeds, and so I find claims of reduced emissions improbable.
More effective risk mitigation strategy could well be improving sight lines.
I suspect this will be the same as the consultation they sneakily ran over the Christmas holidays where they had already decided they will impose speed bumps between Oakington and Girton.
Stand by for more poorly targeted restrictions on our daily lives…
I disagree with some previous comments about only having the 20 mph zone to the main high street. There is a pressing need to extend the 20mph to Girton Corner, as this will help to protect school children and elderly people in particular who need to cross the road to the bus stop on Girton Corner. The bend in the road just by St Margaret’s Road is particularly dangerous as cars speed up significantly when getting to the end of the village (often to speeds of 40 mph and over), and have very nearly hit me (and presumably other residents) on numerous occasions when I have been turning right into St Margaret’s Road in my car. If you set a 20 mph limit then in practice you may have people driving that part of the road at 30 mph rather than risking 40mph. Or install cameras along the route. This should also apply to the increasing number of e-scooters in this area.
This seems an unnecessary cost and restriction on the lives of residents, 30mph is appropriate.
More nonsense to ruin everyones driving experience, main roads with decent visibility and no parked cars and you want it at 20 to appease the cycle lobby and few OAPs with nothing better to do.
I have filled in the survey. I applaud the initiative, and I am very grateful to the Council for taking this forward and consult widely.
Being a (very) local resident, I struggle on a daily basis to cross Girton road in that exact area that’s being consulted on. I would love protected crossings to be installed in the future (e.g. near Girton corner to access Bunkers Hill, and to access the beautiful grounds of Girton College which are open to residents) – until then, lowering speed will certainly help.
We have a lot of vulnerable residents in that area (young and less so): school children crossing Girton road at rush hour to catch their bus to IVC, two retirement homes on Wellbrook Way, not to mention the new community centre on Wellbrook way. We need to make this area safer for all who need to walk to get places.