With provisional 2024 statistics showing an increase in fatalities on London's roads, the Action Vision Zero campaign calls on the Metropolitan Police to reprioritise their speed enforcement efforts to focus more on roads with 20mph and 30mph limits, where 92% of deaths and serious injuries occurred.
This article was originally published on the Action Vision Zero website.
London has recently reported its provisional casualty statistics for 2024[1]. In the last year, road deaths had increased from 95 to 110 whilst those seriously injured fell from 3,615 to 3,586, a decrease of less than 1%.
London’s hopes for higher levels of casualty reduction as set out in the Vision Zero Action Plan are not currently being met. This is despite the significant increase in speed enforcement on London’s roads, especially on 20 mph roads—many of which were previously 30 mph roads.
But even a large increase does not mean it is enough.
A new briefing published by Action Vision Zero (AVZ) presents this case. It compares the new casualty stats from 2024 with the speed offences reported by the London Vision Zero Enforcement Dashboard by speed limit.
Whilst 92% of all those killed and seriously injured (KSIs) in London occur on 20 and 30mph roads, these roads account for only 58% of speed limit offences. If speed enforcement was proportional to KSI occurrence, there would be 60% more enforcement on 20 and 30mph roads—meaning more than 280,000 additional offences being detected on 20 and 30 mph roads.
This does not have to require additional resources. If the Metropolitan Police (the Met) cannot afford more enforcement, then they should be prioritising processing the speeding offences detected on 20 and 30 mph roads. Overall, of course it would be even better if it was additional enforcement.
This is not the first time AVZ has highlighted this disparity. AVZ flagged the gap with the 2023 stats with both TfL, Met and London Councils.
The lack of speed enforcement on low-speed roads makes the case for consideration of decriminalisation. If the police are not able to enforce lower-level speeding, let the councils and transport authorities. They are the ones tasked with increasing levels of active travel, not the police.
Speeding deters people from walking and cycling and thus living healthier lives. Ask people what stops them walking or cycling—it will not be drink or drug drivers but drivers coming too fast and too close to them. This is in addition to the harm speeding causes through collisions and worsening injury severity.
So, for both KSI consideration and active travel promotion, more speed enforcement is needed on 20 and 30mph roads. This will not be unique to London but London should lead the way. The next London Vision Zero Action Plan should prioritise enforcement focused on 20 and 30 mph roads, especially (but not just) speed enforcement.
[1] TfL has noted that these stats are provisional until later this summer.
