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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT AND TECHNICAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY G.C.L. BAUDAINS OF ST. CLEMENT
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 31st JANUARY 2012
Question
Given recent speed limit changes where many urban areas remain at 40mph whilst limits have been reduced on some rural main roads with no accident records and, in one case, a road bordered by a single house, would the Minister inform members how he ensures consistency and provide details of his current speed limit policy?
Answer
The current speed limit policy was approved by the States in 2005. In summary it is: -
40mph all island speed limit (30 mph all island for vehicles over 3.5t laden weight) 30 mph on urban/built up areas
20mph on housing estates and discrete residential areas
20mph part time in areas outside of schools
15 mph on green lanes
The previous Minister for TTS established a speed limits review group and presented the group's review and proposals to the States in April last year, but the States agreed to a request from the Environment Scrutiny panel to defer the debate, as the panel did not consider the review group's work to be adequate. The previous Minister subsequently informed the Panel that the matter would be referred to the Road Safety Strategy Group. That group has been established and will identify proposals to reduce the number of road injuries on our roads and will advise on the role speed limits have to play.
The Minister for TTS receives numerous requests for speed limits from the Parochial Authorities and I concur with my previous Minister that it is not satisfactory to ignore those requests whilst waiting for further review of speed limit policy. Consequently the previous Minister approved requests for six locations to be added to those areas subject to a 30 mph limit and I have recently approved the required Traffic Order. These are generally in urban areas where parochial authorities have identified a justification for lower limits in order to improve road safety and protect the local community.
Whilst a consistent approach is desirable, inevitably in practice there has to be some degree of flexibility in determining the exact location of speed limits.