Jury still out on 20mph speed limits
Some things on Edinburgh City Council never change, and it feels so 2017 to be still arguing about the merits or otherwise of extending 20mph speed limits when the already under resourced police still don’t have, and never will have, the capacity for proper enforcement.
In fairness, the number of fatal and serious collisions in Edinburgh fell to 125 in 2023, from an average of 283 in the four years between 2014 and 2018, and the only significant, consistent change is the 20mph speed limit.
Then again, the argument at the time was it would save lives, but the statistics show fatalities actually rose from seven to eight, and there is little evidence that legitimate speed was the problem, as opposed to bad driving, criminality or tragic bad luck.
There are two other considerations before the authority goes off and spends upwards of £300,000 on the extension, which is whether this is value for money when it has been shown to make little difference on test journey times, because congestion is already doing the job.
The other is whether theoretical claims about safety are borne out by reality, in other words, how many pedestrians were injured by drivers doing between 20mph and 30mph on the streets where the new restrictions are planned?
It’s also common sense to delay for a further assessment of the impact on bus services, which Lothian Buses has made clear will be considerable on arterial routes at off-peak times and on the night services where there is no need to go at a crawl.