Speed limit cuts in uk

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The relationship between speed limit and accidents cannot be emphasized enough . In fact there have been many studies that have proven that as the speed limit goes up so does the number of road accident causalities The obvious conclusion that can be drawn is that if the speed limit is reduced , the number of road accidents decrease . UK has followed a policy of a 30 mph speed limit on roads that have a number of vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and a speed limit of 60 mph on the

countryside or A-grade roads since 1978 . However , recently the government has revealed plans to reduce both these speed limits by 10 mph i .e . 20 mph for vulnerable zones such as residential , and 50 mph for national roads (BBC News 2009 . This is in light of the number of accidental road fatalities which is currently 3000 per year . With this limit cut , the government hopes to reduce this number by 1000 (Webster 2009 . However , speed is not the only cause for road accident fatalities and the limit-cuts are definitely problematic to regular driving population

This study hopes to understand the public reactions towards the proposed limit cuts . For this purpose , the researcher plans to talk to various road users such as drivers , cyclists , pedestrians etc . regarding their reactions towards the proposed speed limit cuts as well as their opinion as to the major causes of road accidents . The questionnaire would be qualitative in nature and the results would...