Mike Rutherford's column

	The Beyond 2010 report doesn’t contain the usual anti-car hysteria. But a blanket 20mph speed limit in ‘all’ built-up areas isn’t right

Peter Bottomley wasn’t exactly the most popular transport minister when he was in the job two decades ago. But he was certainly the most approachable. He listened – and this is an important point – and he tried harder than any other transport politician I can think of in recent years.

This is a man who didn’t wait for me to request a meeting with him at the Palace of Westminster. Instead, he visited me at the offices of Auto Express, not long after the launch of the magazine. Then, after shunning the posh restaurant lunch I felt I owed him (he settled for humble canteen grub instead), Bottomley insisted on taking a ride in my car, which happened to be a BMW.

After moaning that I had a German motor rather than a British one, he asked if we could drive for an hour or two so that we could discuss the good and bad aspects of motoring in the UK. He watched, listened and made notes. Genuinely, he tried to make life better for drivers, bikers and pedestrians.

Nearly 20 years on, he’s still trying as hard as ever. As the Parliamentary Chairman of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS), Bottomley is behind a just-published report called Beyond 2010 – a holistic approach to road safety in Great Britain. The document is different in that it does not contain the usual anti-car hysteria. Instead, it features some rational arguments and sheer common sense. For example, while most politicians continue to adopt the over-simplistic ‘Speed Kills’ mantra, PACTS refers to those who drive too fast for the conditions.

Bottomley and his colleagues have also been thinking outside the box,
by acknowledging that driving is risky and always will be – but that it need
not be more than twice as dangerous as everyday life away from the roads.
I also like their suggestion that new residential developments should
be constructed a maximum 10-minute walk away from shops (or vice
versa, presumably), thereby encouraging residents to walk rather
than drive to buy their newspaper every day.

But one of the PACTS recommendations worries me. It’s the one that
says there should be “a default speed limit of 20mph in ‘all’ built-up areas”.

Every town and city is “built-up”, isn’t it? And don’t many villages fall into
this category? With that in mind, I fear that this proposed 20mph limit
could be imposed on the roads the majority of us use most of the time.

Can I suggest a compromise? Let’s have a 20mph speed limit outside every place of learning – nurseries, schools, universities and venues that hold evening classes. Let’s have the same reduced speed at historic and tourist landmarks. Let’s have 20mph in every road, street or lane that has rows of parked vehicles in it. Let’s also adopt the 20mph-or-less rule in places such as city, town or village high streets, especially those that have chairs and tables on the pavement where the citizens sip coffee or do lunch. There are other locations where such a limit should be obligatory in an effort to reduce accidents. Nobody in their right mind would object to such a restriction outside the youth club, old people’s home, hospital or other vulnerable site.

But a blanket 20mph speed limit in ‘all’ built-up areas cannot be right. I’m therefore surprised that such a seasoned and well meaning campaigner as Bottomley is backing such an unreasonable and unworkable proposal.