20mph in all residential areas

Despite Covid 19 being a devastating virus for many, the resulting lockdown has brought us some very significant benefits:
- less traffic meant that walking and cycling became much safer and more pleasant activities for all of us
- we got out into our communities, met our neighbours and talked to each other
- we were more active and got fitter (well some of us did!)
- many people enjoyed a slower, less frenetic pace of life
- it was brilliant for the environment and we loved hearing the birds and seeing more of nature.

As lockdown is eased and we are encouraged to get back in our cars (or continue walking or cycling), the roads are getting much, much busier and increasingly unpleasant for pedestrians and cyclists.

Brighton and Hove Council rolled out 20mph zones from 2013 and boy what a positive difference it makes! Over and above the less tangible experience of 'this is a much nicer place to be a pedestrian, cyclist, resident... a Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents study showed that at 20mph there was a 2.5% chance of pedestrians being fatally injured, compared to a 20% chance at 30mph. And a Department for Transport paper on setting local speed limits reports that on urban roads with low average traffic speeds, any 1mph reduction in average speed can reduce the frequency of collision frequency by around 6%.

We know that returning to the old normal is not sustainable for all of the reasons above, and this is a wonderful opportunity for a really positive change. Thank you.