Road safety in the Central London borough of the City of Westminster will be improved vastly in 2022 with two initiatives. Firstly TfL’s 20 mile a hour limit on red routes and the changes in the Highway code making pedestrians and cyclists more of a priority and thus making our streets safer.
After TfL held a six week consultation between 7 July and 18 August 2021 in which the proposed changes included:
- A reduced 20mph speed limit on 13km of roads within the borough, including Marylebone Road, Vauxhall Bridge Road and Edgware Road between the A40 and St. John’s Wood Road ( please see map )
- Raised tables at six existing pedestrian crossing locations on roads with newly lowered speed limits
- New road signs throughout to ensure that all drivers are fully aware of the new speed limit
Following careful consideration of the consultation responses, they have decided to proceed with the scheme as set out in the consultation.
Then we have the highway code changes at the end of the month covering all our streets and roads, where we have a new hierarchy of road users with pedestrians and cyclists coming top. So when vehicles had priority at junctions this will change to priority given to pedestrians at the junction. In addition cyclists will not be expected to ride near the curb as cars go past but the cyclist can ride in the middle of the lane! That should make many cyclists feel a lot safer!
This should all be welcomed as the City has some of the highest incidents of road fatalities in the whole of Greater London. Hopefully after these two interventions by TfL and DVLA with the their Highway Code changes, we will see the figures drop annually now.
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