Controversial 20mph zones across West Lothian may soon become a permanent fixture on local roads.
Transport Scotland, the national transport agency, has commissioned a £1m-plus country wide survey of the roads network and asked local councils to look to a future where 20mph is the norm - especially on urban roads.
West Lothian Council’s Executive heard details of the local survey, paid for by Transport Scotland, which will cost £47,000 and will look at creating a safer future on the 653 miles (1,050km) of West Lothian’s roads.
In a report to the Executive, Roads Network Manager Gordon Brown said : “One of the stated aims of Transport Scotland’s National Transport Strategy is to ensure all appropriate roads in built up areas will have a safer speed limit of 20mph by 2025.”
West Lothian Council intends to engage a firm of consultants to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the urban road network for the proposed national strategy for 20mph speed limits.
The consultancy brief agreed by the Executive said: “The presumption is that most of the existing 30mph limits in towns and villages will be reduced to 20mph. However it is recognised that: not all 30mph roads are appropriate for a 20mph speed limit; there are 30mph roads which are suitable for 20mph and there are some 30mph roads that will remain at 30mph.
“For the purposes of the national strategy for 20mph, roads with a speed limit of 40mph or above are out of scope, however this does not prevent the road authority from reviewing the speed limit independently.”
Roads most likely to see permanent speed reduction are those in and around the major population centres. Livingston, with 54,000 population has 31% of the total population of the county.
The other main populated towns are Bathgate (23,559), Linlithgow (13,862), Armadale (12,021), Whitburn (11,805), and Broxburn/Uphall (10,970 and 4,687 respectively). There are sixteen other main settlements with populations ranging from 5,775 to 1,066 and other small satellite villages and towns which have populations of less than 1,000.
There are 95 miles of “A” road in the county, both urban and rural, 72 miles of “B” road, urban and rural and 72 miles of “C” class road. More than 413 miles of road in the still largely rural county is unclassified
The M8, M9 and A71 trunk roads cut through the area, east to west, and are the main strategic routes.
The consultants hired by the council will report back in March next year having studied existing 20mp roads, proposals for new adoptions. The national plan is to have the new 20mph zones in place by the end of 2025.
The consultants will also report on anomalies thrown up by the temporary Spaces for People Programme which caused such furore, with seemingly random choices for 20mph areas, as well as study wider road policies.
Some of the anomalies thrown up by that scheme had roads being posted as 30mph in one direction and 20mph in the opposite.
In Bathgate driving instructors complained it was difficult to teach students how to drive properly because of the restrictive limit.
Councillors across west Lothian saw the surgeries and inboxes stuffed with complaints about the SfP programme introduced during the Covid pandemic. Much of the problems arose around other elements, including the creation of larger bus bays,often stretching out in the carriageway.
A petition opposing the roll out of more 20mph zones and other traffic calming measures in the afternoon are during the pandemic attracted almost 5000 signatures in 2020.
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