Bath 20mph City

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Welcome to Bath

England’s First 20mph City

Bath is 9 miles of tarmac away from being England’s first 20mph city. We are campaigning for that by the end of 2027.

This is an opportunity for Bath to lead the way and demonstrate what a truly liveable city looks like. 30mph roads divide communities and confuse drivers. Let’s make safety the best option for everyone.

Bath’s first 20mph was in 2000. 26 years on we say:

“time to finish the job!”

Sign the petition

You may already be on board with safe speeds- in that case, you can skip straight to signing our petition!

5 Key reasons to support 20mph

  1. It reduces the number of people killed and injured (by 25% after broad adoption in Wales)
  2. It brings communities together
  3. It’s really good value: £20,000 to complete 20mph in bath
  4. It is popular- everyone want safe speeds where they live
  5. It’s tradition! From 1903-1930 the urban speed limit WAS 20mph. And we know how Bath likes heritage features…

Where are the 30mph streets?

We have identified 3 key routes that make up the remaining 30mph network. If you click on the route it will take you to a dedicated page. Or use the menu bar above.

Why 20mph exactly?

The overriding reasons is that lower speeds save lives and improve lives.

They save lives because:

  • There are fewer collisions at lower speeds
  • Those that do occur tend to result in fewer and less serious injuries

They improve lives because:

  • Fewer communities are exposed to tragedy resulting from road crashes
  • People feel safer walking, wheeling and cycling
  • Communities are better connected
  • Noise levels drop
  • Less confusing for drivers
  • Less stressful for drivers of buses and other large vehicle
  • Air quality improves as brake and tyre dust emissions reduce
  • Fewer crashes saves money for the council and emergency services
The ‘vision cone’. The human brain has limited ‘bandwidth’. Slower speeds allow drivers to literally see more of what is going on around them

Prioritising children

“It is down to children to protect themselves from dangerous adult behaviour”

It is strange how readily people say things similar to the above in regards to the roads, in a way they would probably never say about any other aspect of life.

Children and young people are particularly harmed by higher speeds, if only because they make disproportionate use of pavements going to and from education. And an alarming number of people are hit on the pavement itself- not crossing the road as often assumed.

When you were young, you too had:

  • a poor appreciation for distance,
  • a poor appreciation of how fast objects were moving and
  • a poor appreciation of how to assess risk, partly through lack of experience

You were also particularly vulnerable to injury in a collision, something larger, heavier vehicles has only exacerbated.

Fast, hazardous roads can be such a barriers to transport choice that people end up driving their children as they feel there are not safe alternatives. So more traffic, more danger… a vicious circle.

And keep in mind, activities such as walking and cycling are some of the few the only independent movement options open to children- they can’t drive!

We all have a duty of care to deliver safe speeds where children walk, scoot, cycle and play in Bath. Indeed, the BANES Active Travel Masterplan puts ‘Child Safe Streets’ as its headline priority.

Embracing the virtuous circle of lower speed streets

The number one reason people give for not trying alternatives to driving is safety. Fast vehicles absolutely provide an unsafe environment. This graphic shows what happens are 30mph:

By reducing speeds, danger is reduced. That has a virtuous effect, as show here:

Safer speeds are about giving people giving affordable transport options. And given the current cost of fuel and the continuing cost of living challenges, that is something worth doing.

Especially for the 28% of households in Bath who have no access to a vehicle.

The ‘A-Road myth’- time for equal treatment of Bathonians

If you visit nearly any hamlet, village or town in Bath & North East Somerset (BANES), it will have a universal 20mph. That is a great achievement.

Unfortunately, Bathonians have been somewhat neglected, with notions lingering that the speed of people driving through Bath on some A-Roads should be prioritised over the safety of those living in Bath.

This has led to some stark inconsistencies:

  • Towns and villages on busy A-Roads in BANES have 20mph: Keynsham, High Littleton, Chelwood, Bishops Sutton, Pensford (2027). Equally hazardous locations in Bath continue to await safe speeds eg. Bear Flat
  • The A36 Lower Bristol Road (LBR) is extensively 30mph. Corston Village, 2.5 miles away on essentially the same road, is 20mph
  • The A367 through Bear Flat is 30mph. The A367 through Radstock is 20mph.

A367 Radstock- 20mph. A367 Bath- 30mph.

And even within Bath City limits there are inconsistencies:

  • The A4 London Road is all 20mph. The A36 Lower Bristol Road (LBR) is not.
  • Every school in BA1 will have a 20mph within 500 meters of the gate by 2027. That is far from the case in BA2, especially around the southern fringe.
  • The steep, wide and busy Bathwick Hill is 20mph. The steep, wide and busy Wellsway is 30mph

London Road left, Lower Bristol Road Right… why differing limits?

We have a comprehensive map which highlights the inconsistencies here.

It is time to give everyone in Bath the same safe speeds that have been rolled out all over the county (and indeed, complete the county wide safe speed work).

An epidemic of inattention

Sorry, what was that? I was too busy scrolling on my phone.

If you walk, wheel or cycle in Bath, you will be only too aware of how distracted some drivers are. Someone interacting with a phone on their lap is a common sight. You may also have noticed the smell of cannabis wafting from an alarming number of vehicles.

Too many drivers are simply too distracted to properly control their vehicle, vehicles that have become increasingly large and heavy as noted above. Reducing the speed at which they can carry out their dangerous behaviour is one tool in reducing the severity of collisions.

Humans make mistakes. Not paying attention when driving is a mistake. 20mph helps reduce the likelihood of that being a tragic mistake.

Pictures taken within Bath of distracted driving – various contributors

Policy position

In 2023 the council unanimously adopted Vision Zero, which states:

“The vast majority of road deaths are avoidable, and the only acceptable long-term casualty target for road deaths and serious injuries in Bath and North East Somerset is Zero”

20mph is an essential basic plank of delivering Vision Zero. The safe systems approach has 5 key elements, and is set out here:

We feel the end of 2027 is a very achievable target for delivering on ‘safe speeds’

The Active Travel Masterplan commits to deliver:

  • Child Safe streets
  • Healthy streets
  • 20mph zones
  • Safe routes to school

The council have ambitions air quality targets. Safe speeds can help meet these through lower emissions from brake and tyre wear (including from relatively heavy electric vehicles)

Getting best value for tax payer money

Research has shown that constant speed limits across large areas deliver the best outcomes and thus value for money. The current situation of fragmented 20mph roads is undermining delivering safe driver behaviour across the network as a whole.

The few 30mph areas left can present a confusing message to people driving

It is also confusing for drivers who are often heard to complain they cannot keep track of ‘yo-yo-ing’ limits. And government guidance is speed limits should be: “evidence-led and self-explaining“. Well, Wales has given us all the evidence and the current pattern of speed limits is the opposite of self explaining.

Visual cues to drivers are often inconsistent

It is hard to give an exact figure, but £20,000 should comfortably do the remaining roads in Bath (20s Plenty estimate £1750/mile). For context, a single zebra crossing costs upwards of £70,000.

Below is the damaged pillar at the top of Ralph Allen Drive. It was hit by a driver in this 30mph area. The repair bill: ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS. Enough to pay for all of Bath to be universally 20mph 5 times over.

£100,000 repair bill

Indeed, drivers are routinely damaging the fabric of the city, and speed plays a big role. Crashing at 30mph has TWICE the energy of a crash at 20mph. Bath 20mph City could pay for itself in a few weeks of we avoid some of the scenes below which we routinely see on our streets (and yes, the council does fund bus stops):

But it is too congested to go 30mph anyway!

The main issue here is drivers in Bath being told (by the speed limit) that it is safe to race from junction to junction- because those are what actually dictate how fast people get through Bath. It is true average speeds in the congested peaks are not high. That average still masks dangerous speeds by some drivers.

And what about the times when it is not congested? RUH workers are still walking to start a shift. Students are still out for the night. Chefs are scooting home from a busy evening. Safe speed limits are needed around the clock.

If you want some real world data, you can view live information from the A36 Lower Bristol Road here, courtesy of Bath’s Bicycle Mayor! A sample is below…

Some data from the Lower Bristol Road. Speeds are not generally that high anyway, but it is the outliers enabled by a high 30mph limit that should worry us. In a crash this extra speed means significantly more energy.

What next?