‘A Slower Pace - A Better Place’
Special conference attracts Ministerial support and nearly 100 delegates
23rd May 2013, Coventry Transport Museum
Research shows that road safety increases and carbon emissions can be reduced when vehicles travel at 20mph rather than at 30mph. As yesterday’s PTRC conference (23rd May) held at iconic Coventry’s Transport Museum showed, there has been has been increasing interest from national and local policy makers in developing 20mph limits in town centres and residential areas.
Nearly 100 delegates from around the UK and from Ireland representing local and county councils, transport planners, urban street designers, traffic and road safety engineers, local community and campaign groups attended the special one day conference. Transport Minister Norman Baker addressed the conference via a special video link and welcomed the momentum the initiative is gaining at local level.
In his presentation, Rod King, of 20s Plenty for Us highlighted this rapid progress. In May 2012, there were 8 million people living in neighbourhoods with 20mph limits. This figure has now risen by 50% to 12 million people, or one sixth of the whole UK population. Tom Platt highlighted Living Streets’s organisational perspectives from their 20mph campaigns in London.
Other leading expert speakers included Professor John Parkin of South Bank University, Keith Taylor, Green MEP for South-East England, Councillor Anna Semlyen from City of York Council and Emma Sheridan from Brighton and Hove City Council.
The conference was designed to provide delegates with a practical insight into the rationale for introducing 20mph limits including: key operating principles, legal issues to bear in mind, the environmental and health benefits for change. It also highlighted practical case studies of where the initiative has been done successfully, such as York, Brighton and Liverpool, and where work is being done to introduce 20mph areas, like Hertfordshire. The event also included a site visit to Coventry’s recently introduced city centre 20mph zone.
Organised by transport conference specialists, PTRC, the conference was organised in partnership with 20’s Plenty for Us and Living Streets. It was supported by The Local Government Technical Advisers Group (TAG) and the event was chaired by Phil Moore, President of TAG.
Zeenara Najam, Head of Technical Development, PTRC said: ”This conference was a resounding success. What started as a discussion around a road safety initiative demonstrated the benefits of 20mph for a host of health, lifestyle and environmental benefits.
“The conference included a full agenda of speakers and we hope that delegates found both the conference insights useful and relevant and enjoyed the opportunities to network with transport experts and planners from around the UK.”
PTRC is the leading organiser of training for the transport industry in the UK. PTRC specialises in training and staging events on all matters relating to transport and travel planning for consultants, local authorities, government bodies and universities. For more information about PTRC, please visit www.ptrc-training.co.uk