Fleets face new lower speed limits on roads in London

New, lower speed limits will be introduced on roads across London in an effort to improve safety, says Transport for London (TfL).

Using a risk-based approach to identify sites to lower speed limits, TfL says that four 20mph speed limits will be introduced, including the A10 – A503 corridor in Haringey, the A13 Commercial Road in Tower Hamlets, the A23 London Road in Croydon and the A107 corridor in Hackney.

In addition, a 30mph speed limit will be introduced on the A10 Great Cambridge Road in Enfield.

The new speed limits will be supported by new signs and road markings.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), says TfL, will significantly increase speed enforcement to tackle the risk and harm caused by speeding.

This will be done by increasing MPS capacity to enforce up to one million offences by 2024/25, introducing new technology to improve effectiveness of enforcement and rolling out new powers to Police Community Support Officers so that they can stop speeding vehicles and take enforcement action against drivers.  

Lilli Matson, chief health, safety and environment officer at TfL, said: “We are determined to eliminate deaths and serious injuries from London’s roads in line with our Vision Zero goal.

“Millions of walking and cycling journeys are made across London every day and people are much more likely to be killed or seriously injured if hit at 30mph than if a vehicle is travelling at 20mph or less.  

"We’re committed to eliminating unsafe speeds and dangerous driving across our network and are working closely with our Metropolitan Police partners to ensure the new speed limits are robustly enforced.”  

In March 2020, TfL introduced a 20mph speed limit on all of its roads within the central London congestion charge zone as part of its Vision Zero commitment to eliminate death and serious injury on the capital's roads by 2041.

Today, some 80km (50 miles) of its roads are now 20mph and TfL is now working to lower speeds on its road network in inner and outer London, including on the inner ring road, high-risk roads and roads in town centres.

The police reported speed as a contributory factor in almost half of fatal collisions in 2020.