Borough-wide 20mph speed limit from tomorrow!

Islington has had 20 mph speed limits since 2011, Camden since 2013, Hammersmith & Fulham introduced a 20mph limit on all residential roads in 2016, City of London introduced it for all streets within the Square Mile on 2 March (and plans to adopt a City-wide 15mph speed limit by 2022). On the same date in March, TfL introduced 20mph on all its red routes within the congestion charge zone (and promised to expand the speed limit to many other TfL roads in a second phase), and, following a public consultation in 2019, Westminster introduced 20mph on 15 July 2020 and had it fully implemented by mid October.

Kensington & Chelsea announced the 20mph limit in a short press release on Thursday, stating:

“All Council-managed roads in Kensington and Chelsea will have a 20mph speed limit, starting from 13 November 2020.

The new measure is part of active travel plans to make walking and cycling safer during the coronavirus pandemic and follows a successful pilot scheme in the north of the borough.

Signage and road markings will begin to be unveiled at the border with Westminster and an experimental traffic order will be in place from 13 November. Police will be able to enforce against speeding where signage is in place. Full implementation across the borough, including road markings will be complete in January 2021.”

In a separate message, Councillor Johnny Thalassites, who is lead member for transport, wrote to resident associations and local businesses:

“As you will know, over the last six months we have been doing all we can to protect lives and protect livelihoods during the Coronavirus pandemic. As the borough began to get moving again in the summer, we announced our Active Travel plan to help people to walk and cycle safely and attract shoppers and diners to some of our most famous streets again.

As part of this announcement we said we would join other parts of London in introducing a borough wide 20mph speed limit. This follows a successful pilot scheme in St Helen’s and Dalgarno wards.

We will be introducing this new speed restriction from this week. Signage and road markings will begin to be unveiled at the border with Westminster and an experimental traffic order will be in place from 13 November. Police will be able to enforce against speeding where signage is in place. Full implementation across the borough, including road markings will be complete in January 2021.

If a car hits a person at 30 miles per hour it is five times more likely to cause fatal injuries than it is at 20. I hope you will support this new measure, which will keep our borough safe for cyclists and pedestrians, while limiting environmental impact.

I know there has been an increase in congestion recently, which has been impacted by a number of roadworks and bridge closures. We are monitoring this closely and I would like to reassure you that we do not expect to see a further increase in congestion, journey times or emissions as a result of the new speed limit.”

As a consequence of Westminster’s implementation of a 20mph limit,TfL has already announced that it will impose 20mph on all its roads within Westminster, except the Westway A40, so it’s highly likely that the same thing will happen in Kensington and Chelsea. This would mean that A4 (Cromwell Road), the many roads that constitute A3220 between Shepherd’s Bush Roundabout and Battersea Bridge, and A3212 (Cremorne Road and Chelsea Embankment) will switch to 20mph as well.

As the RBKC press release makes clear, police enforcement of the new speed limit will begin as soon as 20mph signs are up, so enforcement will come street by street, as the signs go up – and all the signs should be up before February 2021. Westminster had its signage completed by mid October.