The places 20mph roads won't revert to 30mph due to fears collisions and injuries will go back up
Transport Secretary Ken Skates says they won't compromise on safety as some roads across Wales are set to return to 30mph. The new 20mph default limit was introduced a year ago sparking a major backlash from drivers.
Despite the criticism the early collision data on 20mph and 30mph roads has been positive - with a fall in crashes and injuries. This could potentially be impacted as certain roads revert to 30mph under new guidance for local authorities.
Mr Skates said they won't put the speed back up on roads where they believe the 20mph limit is making a significant impact on making them safer.
These will include roads in built up shopping areas and outside places like playgrounds and schools. He said they did not want to take action that would leave children less safe.
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The minister also responded to early data about an increase in crashes and injuries on higher speed roads since the new 20mph default limit came in. In the first six months since 20mph was introduced there have been more total deaths (44) on Welsh roads than the same quarters (38) before implementation despite the positive gains on 20mph and 30mph roads.
On whether the changes could potentially reverse the positive safety results on 20mph and 30mph roads in Wales in the first six months, he said: "I always caveat the publication of snap shot data with the point that numbers can go up as well as down, however, what is emerging is a positive trend; the number of serious injuries is reducing, the number of collisions is reducing, that has to be a good thing and was always the principal policy objective. However we recognise that from month to month, quarter to quarter there will be fluctuations, the overall trend is what we are looking at very closely and we are very encouraged by that."
He added: "Only those routes that are currently 20mph which revert back to 30mph where change can safely be made will actually undergo that change, so it's often the ribbon development areas on the outskirts of towns and villages which are safest for reverting back to 30mph.
"Obviously on roads that are currently 20mph outside of schools, outside of built up shopping areas, outside playgrounds, they will not revert back to 30mph because it is just not safe to do that. We are not going to put people, particularly children, at risk.
"Councils now have revised guidance - we published that earlier in the summer and that has been incredibly helpful in making sure they are enabled and empowered now with the flexibility to be able to make a balanced decision on what's right for each community. I firmly believe that councils know better than Welsh ministers in terms of what is best for communities across Wales when it comes to knowing intimate details about communities and that particularly relates to what speeds are right on what roads."
On the increase in crashes on faster roads in Wales since the limit came in, he said: "It would have to be thoroughly interrogated and we've not looked at that yet. It is something that has been raised that would be worthy of investigating and the key thing here is we are hoping to resolve that anyway."
He said he hoped reversing 20mph on key arterial routes that were adding on journey time would solve any potential issue of increased speed on other roads.
He added: "So even it was the case of people speeding up in areas of 40mph, 50mph, 60mph, by addressing the through routes and the arterial routes, thereby shortening the journey times, we hope that that resolves the problem anyway. But there are a number of factors that drive collisions up, time of the year, road conditions, so it's very difficult to make a judgment on basis on just a snapshot of the statistics that come in. We are very, very conscious of the long term trends relating to 20mph."
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