Livingstone favours 20mph limit in residential London
Monday, 7 April 2008 12:00 AM
London mayor Ken Livingstone has attacked Boris Johnson for failing to support a 20mph speed limit on the capital's residential streets.
Speaking at a conference hosted by road safety group RoadPeace, the incumbent mayor said those areas with a 20mph limit already in place had seen a 60 per cent fall in the number of children killed or seriously injured in car accidents.
At present only some areas of London have the 20mph limit in place but Mr Livingstone says their ongoing expansion is important in reducing pedestrian deaths in the capital.
"There are few more important issues for our local neighbourhoods than having safer streets, which is why I want to see 20mph become the standard speed limit on all of London's residential streets."
Conservative candidate Mr Johnson has made clear in the past his support for making London's roads work more "smoothly", favouring a traffic light rephasing.
His stance is opposed by Mr Livingstone, who attributes the additional two seconds he has given to pedestrians crossing the road and more pedestrian crossings to a fall in road collision accidents.
A statement from Mr Johnson's campaign said road deaths should not be used as "political tools" by the Livingstone team.
"These claims are absurd and ridiculous. If there were ever a demonstration that this Mayor has had his day and lost the plot, this is it," the Evening Standard newspaper quoted the statement as saying.
Over 500 fewer children have been killed or seriously injured each year since 2000, he claims, but the London mayor now insists a 20mph blanket limit - with exemptions for those roads which need faster traffic - is the solution to further improvements.
"RoadPeace sees the introduction of a 20mph default speed limit key to not only reducing road deaths and injuries, but also to tackling climate change and obesity," the organisation's executive director Amy Aeron-Thomas said.
"Thus a 20mph default speed limit, pledged by the mayor, offers a win-win-win solution."
Over 100 people die in road collisions in London every year.
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