{"id":785188,"date":"2026-09-28T10:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T10:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785188\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T10:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T10:42:09","slug":"why-are-more-towns-and-cities-moving-to-20mph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785188\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are more towns and cities moving to 20mph?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Supporters say the evidence increasingly points to safety benefits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Research <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-bristol-43050841\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">by the University of the West of England<\/a> found average speeds fell by 2.7mph after 20mph limits were introduced in Bristol, while the Welsh government also reported reductions in vehicle speeds following its rollout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Campaigners argue lower speeds not only reduce the likelihood of collisions but also make any crashes that do happen less severe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sue Nicholls, director of the charity 20&#8217;s Plenty For Us, said lower speed limits could bring wider benefits, including reduced traffic noise, improved air quality and safer conditions for walking and cycling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Prof Panos Georgakis, an expert in intelligent transport systems at the University of Wolverhampton, said the physics behind lower-speed collisions was clear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;A vehicle travelling at 30mph has just over twice the amount of kinetic energy as one travelling at 20mph, so the force that will hit an individual is double,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If an accident takes place, the injuries will be much more serious, especially for vulnerable people such as the elderly or young children.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supporters say the evidence increasingly points to safety benefits. Research by the University of the West of England&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-785188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}