Request ID: FOI-0123-2324 Date published: 10 May 2023
You asked
Please supply all relevant documents relating to the proposed decision to reduce the speed limit to 20 mph on sections of the following roads: A205, A202, A3, A3204, A203, A23, A214 and A24 as per letter of 20 March 2023 from Penny Rees, Head of Healthy Streets to residents.
Please specify what account was taken of potential disadvantages of this proposal and whether alternative proposals were considered, including the reduction of the speed limit to 25 mph instead of 20 mph.
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-0123-2324
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 10th April 2023 asking for information about the introduction of 20mph speed limits on various roads in Lambeth.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
Specifically you asked:
“Please supply all relevant documents relating to the proposed decision to reduce the speed limit to 20 mph on sections of the following roads: A205, A202, A3, A3204, A203, A23, A214 and A24 as per letter of 20 March 2023 from Penny Rees, Head of Healthy Streets to residents.
Please specify what account was taken of potential disadvantages of this proposal and whether alternative proposals were considered, including the reduction of the speed limit to 25 mph instead of 20 mph.”
I can confirm that we hold the information you require.
Further to this, TfL’s Vision Zero Action Plan, published in July 2020, included action relating to roads in the London Borough of Lambeth. See the document published here https://content.tfl.gov.uk/vision-zero-action-plan.pdf and in particular Action 1a and 1b on page 33. Action 1a was completed in March 2020 with the introduction of a 20mph speed limit on all TfL roads in the congestion charging zone. Action 1b incudes the latest proposals launched for public comment in March 2023.
Please also see the attached presentation (Lower Speed Limit Scope Revisions v.4) indicating proposed changes to the Vision Zero Action Plan remit to ensure that the strategic output of proposed corridors aligned with DfT guidance and provided a consistent speed limit across corridors / boroughs.
Finally, please see the attached Lowering Speed Limits Phase 2 Business Case.
Note that speed limits are set nationally, with local highway authorities - including TfL - empowered to vary these in set ways on roads for which they are responsible. TfL has no power to set any limit lower than 30mph, other than 20mph. This is set out in the Traffic Signs Manual, 2019, as follows:
“8.1.3. Any maximum speed limit below 30 mph (other than a temporary limit made under section 14 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, or a 20 mph limit or a 20 mph zone) requires the consent of the national authority (paragraphs 13 and 14 of Schedule 9 to the Act as amended by the Road Traffic Regulation Act (Amendment) Order 1999); such limits are unlikely to be agreed.”
Consequently we did not consider alternative options such as 25mph.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely,
David Wells FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
