Councillors set local road speed limits whereas MPs set them nationally. Please write urgently to your Councillors calling for 20’s Plenty for the NHS.  Health services face their greatest ever challenge from this pandemic.  Every crash victim fewer frees up capacity for Covid-19.  Empower local politicians. Example letter below. Circulate it to your elists and social media.

Please offer to speak on your local radio station about a national change to a 20mph limit for the NHS.  Health services are facing their greatest ever challenge from Covid-19.  Every road crash victim fewer frees up NHS capacity.  Spread this message to empower politicians. The example email to a radio station below is based on Prof John Whitelegg’s letter to the Shropshire Star.

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If you wish to make a donation towards our campaign to support the doctors call for a national emergency 20mph limit then please use this form.

As England re-enters lockdown we renew our support of doctors calling for the urban speed limit to be reduced to 20mph.

Today, April 9th, sees the launch of a national campaign supported by leading doctors to call upon the UK Government to demand 20mph as an Emergency National Urban Limit. We all want to help the NHS during the Covid-19 crisis. The doctors that we are relying on have called on the UK Government to change the national speed limit to 20mph from 30mph. They are clear that setting a 20mph speed limit will reduce pressure on the NHS now and for the future. 20’s Plenty for Us, the national campaign for 20mph limits with 460 local community campaigns, is supporting our doctors’ calls for the UK Government to act now.

There has never been a more urgent time for Government action to protect the NHS from having to treat preventable road casualties, so keeping resources and beds free for Covid-19 patients. Setting a national 20mph limit is an affordable, practical and cost-effective step that the UK Government is able to take to help the NHS and support our doctors at this critical time.

Doctors have named their campaign ‘lower the baseline’ load on the NHS https://lowerthebaseline.org/  

Dr Robert Hughes (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and 109 other doctors wrote in the Times on 25^th March

“..each month there are nearly 3,000 road traffic collision-related admissions to NHS hospitals in England alone.  Lowering and enforcing speed limits would reduce the frequency and severity of road traffic collisions.” 

A British Medical Journal blog[1] by population health expert Prof. Sunil Bhopal on 24^th March said

“First, we suggest an immediate reduction in motor vehicle speed limits. In England alone there are around 35,000 non-fatal admissions to hospital every year related to road traffic accidents; … In Canada, lowering the speed limit from 40km/h to 30km/h (20mph) was associated with a 28% decrease in pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions and a 67% decrease in major and fatal injuries. We therefore suggest that the government urgently explore an emergency reduction of all national speed limits to 50mph, and to 20mph in urban areas.”

Rod King MBE, Founder and Campaign Director of 20’s Plenty for Us said

“It is in the Government’s power and interest to change all 30mph limits to 20mph by making appropriate public announcements, without any need to change road signs. The precedent already exists to change national speed limits in an emergency. The Government changed national speed limits in the 1974 fuel crisis to save petrol and it must do this in the 2020 Covid-19 crisis to save lives. This move will match the mood all of us to do everything possible for our NHS resources and staff.”

Note :- Driving less fast prevents collisions and reduces the numbers and severity of road victims the NHS has to care for at this critical time. In 2019 the Welsh Government started planning a national 20mph policy. In February 2020, the UK signed up to an enforced 20mph national speed limit in the ‘Stockholm Declaration’ of global best practice[2] for speeds in built-up areas.

20’s Plenty can arrange spokespeople calling for the change: Dr Robert Hughes, Prof Sunil Bhopal and Rod King MBE. Also available are: Prof Adrian Davis, Edinburgh Napier University  and Dr. Sarah Jones, Public Health Wales. Contact Rod King at [email protected] or 07973 639781 for interviews with spokespeople

More at http://www.20splenty.org/lower_the_baseline

[1] https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/03/24/can-we-improve-the-nhss-ability-to-tackle-covid-19-through-emergency-public-health-interventions/

[2] http://www.20splenty.org/global_ministers_mandate_20mph

Open PDF

This section of our website is dedicated to our 20's Plenty for the NHS campaign.

Our campaign in support of doctors is very much one with public backing. Here we show videos from people  around the country saying why they support the doctors in their call for an emergency national 20mph urban limit. You can share a video on social media just by clicking on the paper dart symbol when you hover over a video. Please do.

If you would like to record a video for adding your support then please email us as [email protected] and we will provide instructions.

Dr Adrian Davis

Alice Berendt

Dr Claire Mason

Peter Goodman

Danny Dorling

Sandra Lane

Luca Machado

Louise Berendt

Matthew Snedker

Florence Trotter

Paul Holdsworth

Kevin Ambrose

Anna Barford

Vincent Walsh

Adrian Berendt

Rosie Semlyen

Prof Alan Tapp

Wyn Holroyd

Cathy Harrington

Marieke de Jonge

Jane McCourt

Kate Thomson

Jeremy Leach

Anna Semlyen

Rod King MBE

See our microsite dedicated to to supporting the call by doctors to lower the urban speed limit from 30mph to 20mph at www.20splenty.org/lower_baseline.  It includes Voxpops, FAQs, Supporters, etc

The Covid-19 crisis is severely straining our medical services and economy. As well as increasing medical capacity, doctors are calling to “lower the baseline” of NHS demand for preventable reasons like road crashes by rapid introduction of public health policies.  Medical experts want emergency measures to reduce speed limits.  20’s Plenty for Us support their urgent requests for 20mph limits in built up areas to help the NHS and economy by saving hospital beds and resources[1].

[1] http://www.20splenty.org/covid-19_and_lower_speeds

The current Covid-19 Crisis is of major concern and governments are looking at ways to protect their population and reduce the number of deaths from this new threat. We are not advocating 20mph limits as a cure, but we believe there is good evidence of how communities already implementing strong 20mph and 30km/h policies can better protect the public in such a crisis.

We know corona virus has made face to face activism hard. Yet the need to reduce speeds still exits. Tactics will evolve.  There’s plenty of good news on places respecting road users by going 20mph.

Global Road Safety Experts and Ministers from 130 countries adopted the “Stockholm Declaration” at a road safety conference on 20th February. It requires 30km/h (20mph) limits where vulnerable road users and vehicles mix - for safety, air quality and climate action.

Is increasing sustainable transport, like dieting,  as simple as asking individuals to drive less and exercise more?  No! Travel structures and societal norms don’t fully support the healthier choices as we’re afraid of injuries and dirty air. Politicians must prioritise road safety to nudge people’s travel choices. 30kph/20mph limits are foundational for mode shift from private car use to feet, cycles and public transport.

UK Places - Glasgow unanimously voted for a Total 20 policy for almost 600,000 residents. £4.35M will make the vast majority of its network 20mph. Birmingham is raising the proportion of its roads that are 20mph to 90%. Kingston upon Thames is consulting on wide area 20mph. Leeds announced almost every inner-city road will go 20mph. London’s TfL will make every road it controls (the Red Routes) inside the Congestion Charge 20mph by May 2020. We await consultation results from the City of Westminster for every road they manage to go 20mph.

County-wide campaigns are when 20’s Plenty branches across a highway authority area jointly call for 20mph limits.  Rather than compete for funds, campaigns work together for the policy commitment to giving all built up areas wide 20mph limits.  Unity is powerful and it’s the most cost-effective policy.

Ministers from around the world meet to adopt the “Stockholm Declaration” at a conference[1] in February which includes commitment to 30kmh (20mph) speed limits where vulnerable road users and vehicles mix.

[1] https://www.roadsafetysweden.com/

20mph reduces the power imbalance between road users so some drivers can choose to drive less far or less often.  It also smooths traffic flow. Independent travel by the young and vulnerable groups rises too.

20’s Plenty for Chester and Richmond groups have both won National 20’s Plenty Campaign Awards for 2019. Each did exceptional voluntary work with perseverance and success.

If your council’s policy doesn’t yet support wide area 20mph signed limits, then an update to align it with public health best practice is needed. How? Tactics include calling for a best practice update to the Cabinet Member for Transport, Leader, Director of Public Health, scrutiny or in manifestos.