Twenty can be plenty – but blanket approach is a step too far

The Capital’s prestigious newspaper the Edinburgh Evening News, came to our very own Jerry Stewart for his thoughts on the 20 mph city centre limit

With Edinburgh City Council proposing plans to make 80% of city centre roads a 20mph limit – it may come as no shock to hear that it has attracted ire from a very vocal campaign, and grabbed a good number of front page headlines.

The plans, which will cost the council an astounding £2.2million, are set to be implemented in the city centre in the summer of 2016. The whole six stage process will take over 24 months to be fully implemented, causing potential confusion for motorists forced to change engrained driving habits.

It would certainly appear that the plans are not sitting well with the majority of locals. A Facebook campaign set up in January 2015 called ‘Say No to 20mph’ – accumulated 6,982 likes – and states that the council never asked the public about the plans, highlighting the many issues that would be caused by drivers being reduced to 20mph.

However we were delighted when the Edinburgh Evening News approached our Co-Director, Jerry Stewart, for his opinion on the proposed plans.

This follows his comments when the initial plans were made in mid 2015 and in representing Scotland’s largest independent courier firm, Jerry has positioned himself over the years as a lead commentator and is always happy to give his opinions on transport issues across Scotland.

Overall Jerry stated how the effects of the new limit are unknown until the speed limit is in place across Edinburgh. He went on to say that if it does go through it will affect everybody not just those travelling in Edinburgh and doesn’t really see the need for it: “To be quite honest, I don’t see the point. Obviously road safety is important to us. Around schools and hospitals – I don’t have a problem with that. I can make sense of that.”

However he does agree that the new limit might be part of a solution to reduce congestion in certain areas of the city centre. But if this is the case it should only be implemented in those areas which need the limit either for safety or easing the congestion. Overall the effectiveness of the plans will not be known until they are in place but Mr Stewart hopes common sense will prevail.

Read the online version of the press article here