The information that we gain from the survey will give us an idea of what people's attitudes are toward speed and will help to develop our road safety strategy.

Did you know that if you hit a pedestrian at 40 mph, nine out of ten pedestrians will be killed?  At 30 mph about half of pedestrians will be killed but if you hit a pedestrian at 20 mph nine out of ten pedestrians will survive. (ROSPA)

Exceeding the speed limit or travelling too fast for the conditions is a contributory factor in over 790 deaths and over 34,600 injuries every year (Road Casualties in Great Britain report 2005). On average, nearly nine people die every day on Britain's roads.

THIS SURVEY IS NOW CLOSED

Councillor Bob Greenland, Cabinet Member for Highways, said:

“This is a great opportunity for people to visit our website make their view known.  Obviously, a measure as important as this would take a lot of research and time to get running but it’s important to see if it’s worth the huge amount of work it would mean to lower speed limits by seeing what residents think first.”

The topic of lowering speed limits was discussed after County Councillor Rob Griffiths made a notice of motion at a meeting of County Council last year (22nd November 2007):

This Council supports the need to ensure pedestrians across the Authority are viewed as a priority and their safety prompted as a significant priority. To this end this Council supports the introduction of a 20 mph speed limit on all residential roads across the County and a signage policy which alerts drivers for the need to drive safely.

Following   a debate County Councillor Bob Greenland proposed the following revised amendment:

"This Council recognises the vulnerability of pedestrians using the roads in the County and through its Road Safety Strategy will give due consideration to their needs. It will monitor experiments elsewhere that have created 20mph zones in urban areas, and will consult with its citizens on suggestions to implement similar 20mph zones in the County. It will ask the relevant select committee to take forward the concerns of Council"

This revised amendment was carried by 19 votes to 9.