TfL Ref: 1780-1819

Thank you for your email received by us on 5 October 2018 asking for information about the numbers of times buses exceed areas with a 20mph speed limit in Southwark.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.  You asked for:

information of the numbers of times buses exceed 20mph within 20mph limit areas in Southwark.

As a cyclist who commutes to and from work daily, predominantly on 20mph speed limit roads, I regularly notice buses traveling at speeds which seem in excess of 20mph.

Since each bus is tracked by GPS and since the safety of all road users will clearly be a priory for TfL, I presume that data is kept to record the speed buses travel at. If that presumption is correct please provide details of the number of occasions where buses have exceeded the speed limit.

I now that this may be a data intensive exercise, if it assists please time limit the request to 2018 or recent period during 2018. If necessary I will also gladly provide particular roads where I have witnessed buses apparently speeding.

Transport for London is committed to making our roads safer through various initiatives such as our Vision Zero for London action plan as our website explains at: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/safety-and-security/road-safety/vision-zero-for-london The Metropolitan Police are also responsible for the enforcement of speed limits on the capital’s roads.

To collate this information is an analytical exercise where the data has to be extracted for each vehicle. To provide this information for the whole of Southwark would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. As you have mentioned seeking this information for the most recent period of time, we would be grateful if you could also name the roads of concern in the Southwark area.

Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with requests if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. In this instance, we estimate that the time required to retrieve, collate and analyse this information would exceed 18 hours which, at £25 per hour (the rate stipulated by the Regulations), exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’.

Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, TfL does not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request. If you have specific questions relating to these topics we may be more easily able to respond to these than to a request for any information held.

If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information

Yours sincerely

Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
Information Governance
Transport For London