CIHT and PACTS convened a roundtable of experts on road safety to explore issues around speed management. To read the full briefing see below:

In November 2023 the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) and the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) held a roundtable with experts on road safety from across the UK to discuss:

- the main issues related to speed management
- how speed limits should be set considering the safe, functional, and intuitive speed of a road
- what speed management strategies should be consistent with a Safe System.

The recommendations in this brief are those of PACTS and CIHT and do not necessarily align with the exact policy positions of the other participants who provided input in this work.

Key messages

The Government needs to demonstrate leadership in road safety and should produce clearer evidence-based guidance in line with the safe system guidance on what ‘right speed limits in the right places’ means in terms of speed limit setting for local authorities that is informed by evidence 

Speed limits should be set locally to reflect:
o the type of infrastructure, mixed modes of transport used on roads, and traffic volumes;
o the function of a road to align the efficient movement of goods and people with the benefits and quality of places;
o the ability of drivers to intuitively adapt their driving according to varying weather and traffic volumes and respect the limits set.

Speed limits should be consistent to help build credibility, meaning they should allow drivers to intuitively understand and promote compliance of them. This may have to be supported by infrastructure changes and education. 

A national speed management strategy would help everyone with a role to play and ensure local authorities collaborate to ensure consistent speed limits across geographical areas. A review of the current national speed limits in line with safe systems is required, taking account of the Stockholm Declaration on road safety. 

All public sector bodies should be required to have intelligent speed assistance included in any new vehicles they purchase and a programme to retrofit the existing fleet. Then have a programme to make this a requirement of all their contractors where possible.

The government via DfT should set up and lead a Task and Finish group on the provision of speed related data for all the local roads so local authorities have easy access to data. This will help them prioritise schemes to ensure the right speed limits are in the right places. 

To improve the current situation and in readiness for Autonomous Vehicles the government should set up and lead a Task and Finish group on the provision of a portal where members of the public can:
- report incorrect speed limits shown by their vehicle satellite navigation systems, so that they can be amended;
- report areas where signage relating to speed is either not detected or incorrectly detected, so that it can be passed to the relevant local authority to review.

To support drivers the government should introduce General Safety Regulations (GSR) for new vehicles as this includes technology that will help drivers know what the speed limit is and help them comply. There are also technologies that will help prevent and mitigate the impact of a collision making it safer for all road users. 

The government should introduce a mandatory online test to accompany driving licence renewal so that drivers are kept up to date with changes to the Highway Code. 

The government should set road safety targets and ensure local authorities have the funds to ensure that best practice is shared and implemented nationally and locally. 

Government should update its transport appraisal guidance to include the safety, social and other benefits of appropriate speeds and give safety a higher weighting than it currently does.

Speed management: a need for greater consistency - CIHT and PACTS policy briefing