The road safety charity Brake has again highlighted the need for slower traffic speeds in residential areas. This is an issue I have recently raised with the City Council again, following discussions with residents. Although the city has 20 mph speed limits outside schools when school children are coming to/going from school, there is a paucity of "Twenty's Plenty" zones in residential areas in Dundee and I feel this should be addressed where there is resident demand for safer speed limits in areas of residential housing, children out playing and elderly residents.I have received the response below from the City Council's Head of Transportation regarding one residential street in the West End that is a large cul-de-sac and, in the view of residents there, would be an ideal candidate for a lower speed limit to emphasise its residential nature. In light of Brake's recent campaign, I have highlighted their views with him and will be discussing the matter further with him in the near future. I have also contacted Brake about the issue.
Feedback from the City Council's Head of Transportation :
"I refer to your email dated 25 May 2011 regarding council policy on 20mph speed limits and home zones. There is currently no local policy on 20 mph limits and the Home Zones trials has certainly led to design standard that achieve the Home Zone principles for 'traffic calming' / shared space at new build stage - the 20 mph speed limit issue (aside from part time outside schools) is fairly embryonic and a few urban areas are progressing city wide or area specific schemes but there is an element of a watching brief throughout the UK to gauge effectiveness. I am aware of groups of the community that are very vociferous in favour of the default urban speed limit being reduced but I am yet to see this transferring to the predominant view (although I believe this is only a matter of time).
With particular reference to River Crescent it is quite possible the perceived speed of vehicles in this cul de sac may seem inappropriate but as is often the case on small residential streets the actual recorded speeds usually found from 7 or 14 day automatic surveys are well within the 30 mph national urban speed limit. I would be very surprised if anything unusual would arise in this quiet / low traffic cul de sac.
As indicated above there are no recorded policy documents relating to Twenty's Plenty in Dundee. I believe the Twenty's Plenty installed at Gowrie Park was part of a national pilot scheme. The only current policy on 20mph speed limits is that for part time operation around schools as referred to in agenda note AN159-2008. This agenda note refers to the accepted P & T committee report on Making Schools Safer on 24th January 2004. City Quay is the only other 20 mph order within the City which I recall was related to the need to maintain low speeds owing to the proximity of the docks (and is an engineered solution with regular speed bumps curtailing vehicle speeds).
Dundee City Council approved the Home Zones consultation report by Government in P & T Report No. 39-2002. This report supported the use of residential streets for multiple use with vehicles a necessary but not dominant feature of the area, as indicated previously this relates to new builds from that point in time on.
I anticipate that in the coming years this will become an issue discussed widely around Dundee, Scotland and the UK, however at this current moment in time there is no provision to create a 20mph limit in this street and ultimately any traffic concerns are very likely to be local and as is often the case best resolved through neighbourhood efforts."