Edinburgh’s 20 MPH rollout comes West

Tomorrow marks the start of the third phase of Edinburgh’s citywide rollout of lower speeds to residential and shopping streets with many roads across north west and west Edinburgh becoming 20mph.

Signs and road markings have been put in place across the Phase 3 areas, marking which streets have changed to 20mph. As with the whole rollout project, a strategic network of roads has been retained at 30mph and 40mph, such as Calder Road, Maybury Road, Queensferry Road (as far as the junction with Dean Park Crescent) and Lanark Road.

Police Scotland are supportive of the 20mph rollout and are carrying out enforcement, having handed out nearly 600 warnings and 26 tickets and made five reports to the Procurator Fiscal since the programme began.

Below is a map on how the changes affect Wester Hailes. Streets in blue will be changing to 20mph with streets in green already at 20mph. The darker roads will remain at their higher speed limits. You can see the full interactive map of the roll out here.

Transport Convener Councillor Lesley Macinnes said:

The Capital is blazing a trail by becoming the first city in Scotland to introduce slower speeds in all residential and shopping streets, as well as our city centre. We’re in excellent company internationally and closer to home – cities like New York, Paris, Milan and London are all championing the benefits of bringing speeds down in urban areas. And the World Health Organisation recently called for 30kmph (about 19mph) to be the limit ‘wherever motorised traffic mixes with pedestrians and cyclists’.

Calming traffic is better for everyone – first and foremost, it’s far safer, with anyone hit at 20mph SEVEN times more likely to survive than someone struck at 30mph. It’s quieter, too, and helps people feel more comfortable walking and cycling, creating more pleasant streets and neighbourhoods which boosts community cohesion and encourages support for local businesses as people choose to spend more time in an area.

Smoother driving through less unnecessary acceleration and deceleration, coupled with an increase in people choosing active travel and public transport over private cars, means less congestion and better air quality for everyone.

Police Scotland Temporary Superintendent Mark Rennie said:

Road safety is a priority for police in Edinburgh, and we are continuing to work with the City of Edinburgh Council to raise awareness of the 20mph zones. We will continue to carry out proactive speed checks to enforce the limits where operational demands allow, with priority being given to new zones, areas around schools, and locations where there have been previous collisions where speed was a factor.

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