Safety officials believe that expanding 20mph zones could help prevent dangerous, speeding drivers from causing devastation on West Midlands roads.
The region’s Road Safety Commissioner Mat MacDonald said evidence from elsewhere in the UK demonstrated that 20mph was the ‘right’ speed limit for areas where pedestrians and vehicles share space,. says Coventry Live.
He made the comments whilst delivering a presentation on road safety to the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Transport Delivery Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Figures revealed that whilst the total number of people killed and seriously injured on local roads has fallen in recent years, far too many families continue to be impacted by collisions. In 2025, 50 people lost their lives on West Midlands roads – with 21 of those being pedestrians.
Mr MacDonald said:
“We are taking a deep dive with them into the impact of 20mph speed limits across the region.
“There’s obviously abundant evidence from Wales, London and internationally that 20mph is the right speed limit where people and vehicles are in close proximity. We want to have a close look at what that does in our region, the benefits it brings, to see what the data is showing us in terms of how we can roll that out more effectively.
“The more consistently we have 20mph as an expected limit where people and vehicles are in close proximity, the more that will effect how people behave.
(Picture: WMCA)
