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Histon & Impington 20mph Applications 23/24 Consultations

Is Twenty Plenty?

Histon and Impington Parish Council have identified two potential funding sources for 20mph speed limits within the parish. We are launching a questionnaire to gauge resident’s support for making this change.  To access our questionnaire, please click here

Why 20mph?

Introducing a 20 mph speed limit on our roads has a range of anticipated benefits.

  • Research by the UK Transport Research Laboratory has shown that every 1mph reduction in average urban speeds can result in a six percent fall in the number of casualties. It’s also been shown that you are seven times more likely to survive if you are hit by a car driving at 20mph, than if you are hit at 30mph. If a child suddenly steps in front of a car, you are much less likely to seriously injure or kill them if you keep to a 20mph limit.
  • Research indicates that people are much more likely to walk or cycle when vehicle speeds are lower as they feel safer. The installation of 20mph zones or limits, especially in urbanised areas is expected to have positive impacts on the amount of people walking, cycling or horse riding. This has additional benefits to the environment as well as lowering the speed limit could encourage more people to use non-motorised means for shorter journeys such as walking to school or visiting the shop.
  • Research shows that slower speeds encourage a smoother driving style with less stopping and starting which helps traffic to flow. Evidence from other areas shows that slower speeds encourage more people to walk and cycle.
  • Driving at 20mph causes some vehicular emissions to rise slightly (mainly Heavy Goods Vehicles) and some (car) to fall. Reduced acceleration and braking will help to reduce fuel consumption and the associated particulate emissions from items such as tires and brakes.

How would a 20mph be implemented?

Signs and lines will be installed in line with current traffic and road safety manuals. If a new area is changing to 20mph local residents will be informed in advance. Signs will mark the entrance and exits of a 20mph area where the speed limit changes. Smaller repeat signs or on road markings will supplement these signs.

Funding opportunities

The Cambridge & Peterborough Combined Authority have a significant pot of money to convert towns to 20mph. Histon & Impington parish council have indication that Histon and Impington taken as a whole would meet their criteria.  This 20mph zone would cover all adopted roads within Histon and Impington, except the B1049.  A short section of B1049 north of Park school where homes are adjacent to the B1049 will be included.

Cambridgeshire County Council have created an annual 20mph funding programme to install either 20mph zones or limits countywide. This is open to town and parish councils. Once an application has been submitted, it will be prioritised and scored by officers. This will produce a long list which will then be worked through until all the schemes applied for have been delivered.

For this scheme specific areas will be considered for a 20mph limit. In general, these will be areas with features that justify the lower speed limit for driving, for example, an area that has:

  • evidence of traffic incidents or potential dangers within an existing 30/40mph
  • vulnerable road users e.g. pedestrians (of all ability), cyclists, equestrian users and motorcyclists
  • visible homes, shops, and business frontages
  • a school or a school route
  • a cycling route
  • a quiet lane designation
  • an area that would benefit from more active travel such as cycling and walking

Process

Our questionnaire is available from Thursday 9 March to Sunday 26 March. Members of the Parish’s Land, Assets and Infrastructure committee will analyse the data and prepare a proposal in the week beginning 27 March. This will allow us to make both the CPCA and county application deadlines. If successful with either opportunity, we anticipate working on detailed design and a formal consultation between September 2023 and March 2024.  If agreed upon construction would then go ahead March to July 2024.


18 thoughts on “Histon & Impington 20mph Applications 23/24 Consultations

  1. how will the new speed limits be enforced? I frequently drive through the village and am tail gated by drivers who do not respect the existing speed limits. Especially at night when one diver has reved his or her engine behind me on water lane.

  2. I have been advocating 20 mph for some time whilst I was a Histon & Impington Parish Councillor.
    Personally I would like to see 20 mph on all roads within the village except for the B1049 which should remain as currently.
    My view would be to have 20 mph on other access roads into the village at Park Lane, Milton Road ,Old Cottenham Road and Cambridge Road.
    A road that is currently being exceeded in MPH is Clay Street(where I live and observe) and see Courier vans and some cars not just exceeding the current 30mph but 40 to 50 mph plus.

  3. It will be very interesting to see if the traffic complies with a 20 mph speed as suggested on the B1049 . They certainly don’t adhere to the 40 mph limit set at the moment.

  4. No,No, No!!!!!
    Pollution will increase, Noise will increase.
    Better to enforce existing speed limits.
    Money much better spent on repairing existing roads

  5. Have thought for years that we should have 20mph through this area. Hopefully it will be made possible.

  6. Yes please for a 20mph on the Histon Road Cottenham – my daughter wants to cycle to school (Histon and Impington Park School).

  7. I have long supported the introduction of 20 mph limits in our villages on grounds of safety. I prefer to cycle within the villages, but many of our roads are narrow and congested and I increasingly feel unsafe as cars, vans and lorries brush past at 30 miles per hour (sometimes more) rather than slow or give more room/time. I believe that the section of road near the Park Primary School should be reduced to 20 mph.

  8. Completely agree with 20mph in any high-street or routes to schools and nurseries. I walk my daughter down Histon high street to the butchers and it’s crazy, buses, lorries and cars zooming past two feet from us, a death waiting to happen.

  9. 20 is plenty. Lots of places both here and abroad have this and it makes these towns that much nicer and safer. I have only been hit by a car a couple of times but it does really hurt. In comparison, having to leave in my car a few seconds earlier seems like a fair price to pay.

  10. How does one access this questionnaire

  11. If this document is the basis for a questionnaire it fails to designate any roads. It fails to state how it will be enforced. Why is there no public meeting?

  12. I support the 20mph limit especially on old Cottenham Road, where I live near church. This road is regularly used as a race track for cars and motorcycles. The bends make it particularly dangerous. Also church street with its narrow street. Yes also to main residential streets and park lane to pease way. However main 1049 should stay as it is but with additional speed awareness signs and a speed camera.

  13. I support the 20mph limit especially on old Cottenham Road, where I live near church. This road is regularly used as a race track for cars and motorcycles. The bends make it particularly dangerous. Also church street with its narrow street. Yes also to main residential streets and park lane to pease way. However main 1049 should stay as it is but with additional speed awareness signs and a speed camera.

  14. I think it would be incredibly helpful to have a 20 mph speed limit in the village. The school run often feels dangerous. We live off station road and despite speed humps people still speed down there and pull up on the curb.

  15. To my knowledge there has been no serious accidents with the speed limits as they are now, do not see the need to lower them. A more serious problem is travellers parking where they want outside Tesco.

  16. I agree with the 20mph scheme but as usual the B1049 from New Road junction to the A14 has been ignored. Residents of the Coppice have been campaigning for two years now to get speeding vehicles to slow down to the signposted speed limit of 40mph with very little progress made. The B1049 is a rout taken by students attending IVC, which I believe, is one of the criteria for the 20mph and also has visible housing along the road albeit sideways on rather than frontage. Your comments would be much appreciated.

  17. I fully support 20MPH limits throughout the village. More double yellow lines would also be beneficial and ideally some enforcement to stop drivers parking on pavements.

  18. Don’t think it’s necessary to change the village to have a 20mph speed limit. I’m other areas where there is a 20mph speed limit in place, cars often ignore it anyway, and in fact I think are more likely to go significantly higher above 20 than they are to go above 30.
    The only areas I feel there aught to be a lower speed limit in place is outside the schools- but only during the start and end of the school day.

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