'Killer Roads' or Killer Speed Limits?

Why the ‘Killer Roads’ campaign won’t achieve its objective while the national speed limit is 60mph. The Government must take some share of the blame for the rural road deaths which it ostensibly seeks to address with the relaunch of the THINK! Rural speed campaign. It has abundant evidence, from research it has commissioned, that the national speed limit is too high. There is good evidence to suggest that the gap between the speed limit and actual speeds could be encouraging drivers to take risks which lead to death and serious injury

The 60mph national speed limit gives the wrong message to drivers about appropriate speeds on the majority of our single carriageway network. The review of speed limits which local highway authorities are now undertaking provides an opportunity to introduce a new system of speed limits which would give better information to drivers about appropriate speed choice. At the very least the current campaign should be revised to tell drivers what research has shown about rural road quality, speed choice and crashes. 'Killer Roads' or Killer Speed Limits? (248 Kb pdf)