NEARLY 100 new 20mph zones could be introduced in Bristol – among them major routes such as Gloucester Road and Kellaway Avenue.
Bristol City Council is considering lowering the speed limit from 30mph to 20mph as part of a wider push for safer streets.
It will open a six-week consultation this month on proposals for 97 roads. Councillors on the transport policy committee, meeting in March, approved plans to seek views about the proposed lower limits.
But opinions were split, with the plans being welcomed by members representing Hotwells and Totterdown as well as Clifton, where Upper Belgrave Road next to the Downs is included, but opposed by councillors from other areas.
Green Councillor Serena Ralston, representing Clifton Down, said: “When I was 11 my best friend was knocked down by a speeding hit-and-run driver on a zebra crossing just outside her home. She was in hospital for months and sustained a brain injury. We know that lower speeds save lives and reduce injuries.”
It’s expected that public opinion will also be divided, with people tending to want lower limits where they live but not where they drive through. The last time limits were lowered en masse, a decade ago, was also controversial.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Nicholas Coombes said: “I’m not clear that the public consensus has been built up yet. Are drivers, pedestrians and cyclists in favour of these changes? When this was implemented in Wales a couple of years ago, there was pushback that caused a political U-turn on several of those roads which are going through the process of being reversed now.”
The Tories are criticising the plans, which they say could lead to more congestion, longer journeys and higher emissions. Drivers might also be encouraged to divert onto “unsuitable residential streets”, which would be less safe than using main roads.
After the meeting, Cllr Mark Weston, leader of the Conservative group, said: “The proposal to include long stretches of the A4018 (Westbury Road and Falcondale Road) on a round‑the‑clock basis makes absolutely no sense. At peak times, traffic is already at a standstill. Outside those periods, there is no justification for artificially slowing vehicles unless the intention is to push motorists off the road through pressure and disincentives.
“These creeping restrictions look like the latest phase of an ongoing anti‑car agenda pursued by successive administrations and now enthusiastically adopted by the Green‑led council. I urge the travelling public to take part in the consultation and make their objections and suggestions known.”
The council has come up with a list after assessing all roads in Bristol with a 30mph speed limit. It would mean further restrictions on a total of 59 miles, or about five per cent of the city’s road network. Three in 10 of serious and fatal casualties in Bristol happen on these roads. If all 97 roads had lower speed limits, that could mean 46 fewer slight casualties and seven fewer serious or fatal casualties every year.
Between 2010 and 2014, many roads across Bristol had their speed limit lowered to 20mph. This is estimated to have saved between four and five lives every year, as well as preventing 11 serious injuries annually and boosting active travel by a fifth.
Some roads would have their speed limits changed only on sections, rather than the whole road. Main roads such as Bond Street and Temple Gate already have low average speeds of around 10mph. The full list of proposed roads is as follows:
These are some of the roads that would be affected:
Westbury Road and Falcondale Road South
Filton Road and Gloucester Road
Filton Avenue
Kellaway Avenue
Muller Road
Southmead Road
Wellington Hill West
Southmead Road and Henleaze Road
Clifton Down
Shirehampton Road
Parrys Lane
Avonmouth Way
Henbury Road
Westbury Road and Falcondale Road North
Penpark Road
Stapleton Road and Bell Hill
Upper Belgrave Road
Greystoke Avenue
Sylvan Way, Dingle Road, Canford Lane and Canford Road
Kings Weston Road
Stoke Hill, Druid Hill and Stoke Road
Shaldon Road and Romney Avenue
Avonmouth Road