Speed Awareness 20 is Plenty

Sgt Tim Marshall

The Road Safety team here at RAF Benson are always actively trying to reduce risk and injury to all personnel living on and visiting the Camp. All roads on the Domestic and Technical Sites are governed by a 20mph limit, this is a safety control measure keeping vehicles at a predictable safety margin.

In the distance a car travelling at 20mph can stop, a similar car travelling at 30mph, will still be doing 24mph within the same time. From data gathered from National and International Road Safety sources, on average, a person is around 5 times more likely to be killed when involved in an RTC with a vehicle travelling at 30mph than one travelling at the reduced speed of 20mph – ROSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents)

The introduction of two Speed Indication Devices (SID) Signs at Benson gives drivers a displayed speed while travelling through its radar. This device can also store data from each passing vehicle for future trend analysis.

Across Great Britain, 30mph zones will be replaced with a default 20mph limit. In built up areas and cities this will reduce collisions by 40% saving 6 to 10 lives every year and avoiding 2000 injuries involving vehicles travelling at over the 20mph limit.

You may have already noticed Local speed limits in Benson village, Ewelme and parts of Wallingford adopt the Twenty’s Plenty approach to speeding.

In March 2023, Chancellor Andrew Grant, Cabinet Member for Highways Management approved 9 changes across Oxfordshire with implementation being seen by drives from April, this included the full length of Benson High Street. A benefit in kind of a reduction in speed is a reduction in vehicle emissions. New research from engineering consultants, ‘Future Transport’, models the impact of capping speeds at 20mph vs. 30mph. This “real life” modelling takes account of the stop/start nature of urban traffic yields, these differ dramatically from traditional steady-state models. It shows significant reductions in emissions: CO2 lower by 26% and NOx 28% lower. With UK hosting COP26, campaigners are calling on governments to set 20mph or 30km/h limits as national urban/village defaults.