In November last year, she was crossing Tithe Barn Road near her home in Stockport when a car, coming around a bend at 30mph, plowed into her. He suffered a broken ankle, bleeding spleen and bruised ribs. He was in the hospital for four days and on crutches for four weeks. But, in a way, she also got lucky. “There is this statistic that one in five people are killed [when they’re hit] at 30 miles per hour,” says the 64-year-old. “That’s how I almost wasn’t here. Cars at that speed kill engines, but we’ve allowed them to have priority on our roads.” The retired manager is now one of a growing number of people calling for the UK’s default speed limit to be reduced from 30mph in residential areas to just 20. After the Welsh Government voted to do just that last month, campaigners in the rest of Britain are increasingly confident that the same change will happen everywhere. They say it will reduce accidents, reduce road deaths, save tens of millions of pounds in costs for health and emergency services and be good for the environment at a time of climate crisis. But opponents are not convinced. They argue that reducing speed limits risks congestion and – rather than saving money – would require huge expenditure on signage and retraining. Already in Wales, there are campaigns calling for the change to be suspended before it even comes into effect next September. It leads to an obvious question: will 20 ever be the norm on our roads? A young 20mph supporter in St Dogmaels, Pembrokeshire (20’s Plenty For Us) When Rod King talks about lowering the default speed limit, he compares it to wearing seat belts. The 72-year-old, founder of the 1920s campaign group Plenty For Us, still remembers 1983 when seat belts became mandatory for front seats. “You had these very vocal people saying it was an invasion of personal liberties and that they would rather be thrown away from the vehicle in a crash,” he recalls at his home in the Cheshire village of Lymm. “However now seat belts are, quite rightly, just recognized as what we do. The idea of not wearing is foreign because society is moving forward and its attitude is changing. It’s like how drink driving was once considered perfectly acceptable.” So does 20 mph as a national standard, he estimates. “Once it’s done, I think people will wonder why it was ever different,” says the grandfather of six. Many towns and cities far beyond Wales are already making progress with the change. More than 20 local authorities now have a policy that 20mph should be the standard for residential roads. In Liverpool, Bristol, Nottingham, Newcastle and much of London, local councils favor a lower limit on any residential street. Across the Scottish Borders, around 90 towns and villages have embraced the change. “It’s already the new normal,” says Phil Jones, a transport planning consultant who led the 20mph Wales task force. “To some extent, the Westminster government is actually behind on this, but it’s important that they catch up so that we have consistency across the UK.” The case for a reduction is undoubtedly compelling – not least the fact that it would save lives on our roads. While pedestrians struck by a car at 30 mph have a 20 percent chance of being killed, that rate drops to just 2.5 percent when the vehicle is traveling at 20 mph. But even that statistic doesn’t tell the full story: at 20 mph, drivers have such improved stopping distances that far fewer pedestrians would be hit in the first place. “Speed contributes to so many fatal crashes,” says Lincolnshire Police’s Det Ch Supt Andy Cox, who is the national lead for fatal collision investigations. “And, as someone who has experienced this devastation – with lives being torn apart by speed – it’s very simple: the more 20mph zones we have in places where there are a lot of people, the better.” In addition to the human tragedy, there is also a significant financial cost. The Labour-led Welsh Government has estimated that the country could save £58m over 30 years by having to deal with fewer conflicts. Rod King says society would soon adapt to a speed limit change if it were introduced (Rod King) Lower speeds would make the roads more pleasant, advocates say. As the new limits became more widely accepted, it could lead to more children playing in the streets again and more parents walking youngsters to school. It will almost certainly lead to an increase in cyclists. Crucially, too, there would be an environmental benefit. In an urban environment – where there is a lot of stop-start driving – the vast majority of fuel is consumed revving up to 30 mph. If this were reduced to 20, there would be a 26 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, according to research by engineering consultants Future Transport. “This initiative in Wales should definitely be rolled out elsewhere,” says Jenny Bates, who leads transport and air pollution for Friends of the Earth. But not everyone is convinced. In Wales, the Conservative opposition called the plan “frankly ridiculous”. Speed limits, shadow transport secretary Natasha Asghar said, should be “decided by their local area councils, not top-down Labor ministers”. The cost – £32m in signage and training – was not a good use of money during a cost of living crisis, he added. A petition calling for the legislation to be repealed before it was even implemented, meanwhile, had nearly 45,000 signatures. Creator Adie Drury says a pilot in her hometown of Buckley, Flintshire, caused “chaos” and was unnecessary anyway because “there were no high rates of road accidents, deaths or injuries”. The RAC, too, has spoken out against making lower limits the standard. “Instead of setting a default limit of 20mph on all restricted roads, it would be better to target areas where it is most needed,” the agency’s road safety spokesman Simon Williams previously said. However, back with Patsy Kane in Stockport, such arguments no longer apply. She and her neighbors in the Heaton Moor area of the city are now fighting for the council to make their neighborhood a 20mph zone, while also supporting the national campaign for change across the country. “Reducing speed means fewer deaths and nicer roads,” he says, “Who would argue with that?”