Speed limit in Britain might just be lowered to 40mph

The old quote, Speed Thrills but Kills, always gets justified by the cars on the roads across the globe. If a road accident happens and you try to get down to the root of it, chances are very high that you’ll find that it was the vehicle’s speed that led to the mishap. Road deaths have always been an issue of concern for the governments all across the world.

The British Department for Transport has been reported to have announced suggestions that referred to cutting down the speed limit on rural roads to 40mph. Currently British rural roads have a speed limit of 60mph. The proposal is certainly a step forward to minimize road deaths.

As of now, the proposed reduction would be applied on roads with many bends or junctions, places with substantial development quotient and the places with appreciable pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists or even horse riders’ count.

The speed limit reduction has just not been proposed to 40mph. However, the average speeds of the vehicles in transit on lower quality A and B roads are already below the national speed limit of 60mph, but there are chances that the speed limit might also be lowered to 50mph on such roads.

Quantitative analyses have suggested that out of the total road accidents in Britain, 68% of them occur on rural roads. The figures were enough to incite the proposal to cut speed limit on rural roads. As per Britain’s Road Safety Minister, Mike Penning, suitability of speed limit as per local conditions is very crucial.

Now the question is how to implement the proposals if they get accepted. Councils already have powers that enable them to reduce speed limits on rural roads. But one thing has to be ensured that the councils don’t lag behind in putting up costly speed limit signboardsso that drivers are aware of lower speed limit. In case the proposal gets accepted, rural roads might see introduction of “40mph ZONE” signs wherever the lower speed limit zones start from.

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