Schedule

Part of Orders of the Day — Expiring Laws Continuance Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 2 December 1952.

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Photo of Mr James Callaghan Mr James Callaghan , Cardiff South East 12:00, 2 December 1952

I beg to move, in page 3, to leave out lines 12 to 14.

This Amendment relates to the Road Traffic Act, 1934. I hope the fact that we are moving Amendments will not lead to the assumption that we automatically wish to divide on these issues. There is a case for exploring the Government's mind, if it has a mind, and for finding out what its policy and attitudes are on a number of these important Acts which the Committee is being asked to renew for the next 12 months.

Section 1 of the Road Traffic Act, 1934, which the Government ask us to renew, deals with the 30 m.p.h. speed limit, and it is our desire to find out the Government's attitude to the speed limit. The 30 m.p.h. speed limit was originally an experiment introduced in 1934 for a period of five years, to be renewed thereafter at the will and pleasure of Parliament. Since that time successive Governments have renewed it annually.

I am not at all sure that would have happened had the outbreak of the war not coincided with the end of the first five-year period. It might well have been that a Parliament with more time on its hands would have considered whether the 30 m.p.h. speed limit was the right means of trying to curb the number of road accidents which had been troubling the House when the legislation was first imposed.

However, that is what happened in 1940 and the provision was subsequently renewed and, because the Labour Government of 1945 had a substantial programme of beneficent legislation which brought the country through the post-war period in a manner unexampled in any other country in Europe, or, indeed, the world, it seemed to us desirable that we should also renew the legislation annually.

But now we are faced with a different situation. The Government has legislation about which—I have not the slightest desire to be controversial—there is a difference of opinion as to its merits. We feel that there is now probably a case for a more detailed review of the 30 m.p.h. speed limit than we have had for some time past. I want the Parliamentary Secretary, whom we are all glad to see here, to tell us what his view is about the effect of the 30 m.p.h. speed limit on road safety. He is the Chairman of the Ministry's Road Safety Committee, a most important job. It is a post which a number of Parliamentary Secretaries have occupied, and one which engrosses everyone who has to undertake it.

I want to know whether the Parliamentary Secretary has recently passed under review the question whether the 30 m.p.h. speed limit has been a major contributory factor in reducing the number of road accidents, the toll of which horrifies the country every time it is made aware of it but which seems to pass almost unnoticed daily in the newspapers.

I hazard the guess that when Parliament originally imposed the 30 m.p.h. speed limit in an attempt to reduce accidents it did not fully realise that the majority of the accidents in our cities and towns are caused not by the speed at which vehicles travel but by the density of traffic at busy street intersections.

7.30 p.m.

The number of black dots which appear on the maps I have seen have convinced me that the places where we have to beware of accidents are in the centre of cities and towns, and at the intersection of streets where traffic is heavy. It may well be the case, therefore, that if there has been any reduction in the number of accidents at these places it is due, not so much to the operation of the 30 m.p.h. speed limit as the erection of guard chains at these points; because it is the case that at most of these intersections people are not driving at 30 m.p.h., and could not do so in any case.

I would ask the Parliamentary Secretary whether he has any statistics or evidence to show how far the number of accidents caused is reduced when guard chains are put up, in comparison with the 30 m.p.h. speed limit which we are being asked to renew. I would hazard a guess that in the suburbs where the speed limit operates it is the overtaking of one vehicle by another, and the different speeds at which vehicles travel which makes for accidents; and it might be that the safety of a 30 m.p.h speed limit is more apparent than real.

It would be wrong to abolish the 30 m.p.h. speed limit in the towns, because it would remove a feeling of protection which many people enjoy. But even so, when, in the recesses of the Ministry of Transport, they are analysing these things, they might try to show what is the real truth about the situation, and whether the segregation of traffic, the prevention of overtaking, guard chains, and those sort of precautions, are more valuable in reducing the number of accidents, the toll of which horrifies the nation every year.

I would ask what review is undertaken, or is being undertaken, of the number of roads subject to the 30 m.p.h. speed limit? There should be a constant review which would turn upon the volume of traffic using the roads, the number of accidents, the built-up nature of the road, and so on. That should be constantly going on. I know that the work of the Ministry is limited by the number of staff and that these things cannot always be done. But when the initiative in putting on a limit is left to the local authorities, and when, in any question of taking off the 30 m.p.h. speed limit, the initiative usually comes from the Minister—who is held to be a creature in Whitehall who is trying to destroy the safety of local residents—there may well be good cause for such a periodical review.

There is the converse position of areas which are being de-restricted. I spent my summer holidays this year in Cornwall and I went to Tintagel. While there I visited King Arthur's Hotel. As many hon. Members will know, there is one narrow road which takes a visitor to the entrance of the hotel. Once he has entered the drive and gone for 150 yards, he can glide into the broad waters of the Atlantic. I was interested to see that five yards from the entrance to the hotel there is a de-restriction sign, indicating that anybody is entitled to drive at more than 30 m.p.h., if he desires.

I do not know for how many years that sign has been there. I am sure that the Parliamentary Secretary will be anxious to disclaim any responsibility for it on behalf of his Government. Perhaps it was put there in the bad old days before the war, and nobody has looked at it since. That is a small illustration of the importance of a regular review in order to realise the consequences of what we are doing.

Another point I would make regarding this limit, and one which I think the Committee ought to keep in mind, is that there is a tendency, when we have a limit of this sort, for people to be encouraged to drive up to that figure. If the limit is 30 m.p.h. one is within the law if one is driving at 29 m.p.h. Obviously, people do not carry on with that qualification, which is that one drives up to the limit of safety and that the maximum is 30 m.p.h. There is a great temptation to drive in such a restricted area at just under 30 m.p.h. so as to be within the limit. That is another consideration which should weigh with the Ministry in this matter.

I would ask the Parliamentary Secretary whether there are any areas for which a speed limit lower than 30 m.p.h. is proposed. I believe that there are one or two such areas in the country. In these days, when the number of heavy vehicles on the roads is increasing, and the number of military vehicles which do not fall within the terms of the Regulations laid down regarding the maximum width, and all the rest of it, is also growing, there may be places where consideration should be given to whether 30 m.p.h. is a sufficient restriction.

As the Parliamentary Secretary will remember, there was a case recently, involving a military vehicle belonging to one of our Allies, in which the driver said that he had no knowledge at all of the Regulations laid down for the safety of people in this country. I questioned the Minister about this, and I am aware that the Ministry are looking into this aspect of the matter. But all these things are important.

It is right to continue the speed limit of 30 m.p.h. in built-up areas; but, nevertheless, we should be giving ourselves a false sense of comfort if we assumed that, by doing so, we were automatically promoting safety. Such a speed limit is one of the minor measures in the promotion of safety. Other measures may well be far more important and, taken in conjunction with the operation of a 30 m.p.h. speed limit, may well prove the means of reducing the dreadful toll of road accidents.