Report calls for urban 20 mph limit

Car insurance holders may be interested to hear that a new government report has strongly advised that a speed limit of 20 mph be instituted in all towns and cities.

Such a move has the potential to halve the number of deaths on Britain's roads in the future, the report stated. It also called for a swathe of new speed cameras to be installed in order to enforce existing speed limits.

Currently, an advanced new kind of speed camera which can gauge a driver's speed over a certain distance is undergoing tests.

Robert Gifford, executive director of the parliamentary advisory council for transport safety, which produced the report, told the BBC that 20 mph zones do create safer environments.

He said: "These do work. People were thinking 'I could actually make that journey on foot, on my bicycle because the road feels safer as the remaining traffic is going more slowly'.

"What you get is more walking, more cycling, fewer people being killed or injured and the environment benefits."

Mr Gifford added that an in-depth survey by the Transport Research Library discovered that 20 mph zones cut child road accidents by a full 67 per cent. And accidents involving cyclists were cut by 29 per cent, the survey found.

The Association of British Drivers has already come out against the introduction of 20 mph speed zones.

Nigel Humphris, from the association, told the BBC that drivers would be too distracted by looking at their speedometers to pay attention to the roads and that "ten times as many" accidents would result.

In 2006, 3,172 deaths were reported on Britain's roads, according to the Department for Transport.

Even one speeding conviction can potentially result in a drastic rise in car insurance premiums.

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