Update on the new 20MPH speed limits in Wales

13 November 2023

One month on from the implementation of blanket speed limit reductions in Wales, it was discovered that the 20MPH roads saw an average speed reduction of just 2.3MPH.

Research and analytics company Agilysis provided the data, relating to 10,000 vehicles within a sample area, which shows that many drivers are not slowing down to comply with the new speed limit.

One week after the limit changes, speeds had dropped by 3.1MPH, which increased to 2.3MPH after one month.

Agilysis CEO and author of the report Richard Owen stated, “The evidence on this smaller sample of roads indicates there is no room for complacency. Although the majority of motorists are sticking to the limit, there will be concerns about the minority who haven’t adjusted their speed choices enough.

“Understanding which roads are seeing lower levels of compliance could be critical in targeting education and enforcement to achieve better compliance.

“To add some context, the industry usually considers the top 15 per cent – referred to as the 85th percentile – as an indication of where to look at speed management, whether that’s engineering like speed bumps or gates or some kind of enforcement”.

Richard Owen also said that it currently seems impossible to enforce 20MPH limits in the UK because the equipment required must first go through an approval process which is ‘taking an age’ to progress.

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