To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to reduce urban traffic speeds to encourage more cyclists to cycle on roads.

The Department has no plans to change national speed limits.

Local traffic authorities are responsible for setting speed limits on local roads and for targeting their funding on measures that are most effective in ensuring that their roads become safer. To assist with this, the Department published guidance to local highway authorities on setting speed limits in 2013, and furthermore last year published an evaluation into the effectiveness of 20mph speed limits. The 2016 update to the TSRGD (Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions) also made significant changes to facilitate and reduce the cost of providing 20 mph zones in England, allowing traffic authorities to place repeater speed signs and/or speed roundel road markings as well as traffic calming features.

In April 2017 the Government published its first statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, setting out its ambition to make cycling and walking the natural choice for shorter journeys. And in July 2019, the Government published the Road Safety Statement 2019: a lifetime of road safety. This includes a two-year action plan to address a range of road safety issues which will improve safety for cyclists.