20-05-2025
Should 10mph speed limits be introduced around schools and hospitals? Have your say
Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After the poll closes, we'll publish and analyse the results each Friday, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.
A road safety charity has proposed reducing speed limits to 10mph around schools and hospitals.
The proposal was put forward in a report last week by the Road Safety Foundation, which said a 10mph limit at those locations and near major sports and cultural events would help avoid most deaths and life-changing injuries.
It said schools and hospitals were areas where "there is a particular prevalence of pedestrians" and a "heightened vulnerability of pedestrians to impact and injury".
Road Safety Foundation executive director, Dr Suzy Chapman, told The Times newspaper: 'We are not saying that all speeds or speed limits should be set to these speeds, rather that infrastructure needs to be improved or speeds reduced to ensure travelled speeds are better aligned with human tolerances to crash forces.'
The report was criticised by the Alliance of British Drivers, who called the 10mph speed limit idea "so ridiculous it is simply laughable".
In a YouGov poll published this week after the Road Safety Foundation report, 40% of the 4,000 adults surveyed said they would support a 10mph speed limit on some roads in cities with a high number of pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
A slim majority - 52% - were opposed to the idea.
In September 2023, 20mph default speed limits on mostly urban roads were introduced in Wales, sparking a backlash that has led to a review of the government's policy. A number of roads, including those in the capital Cardiff, will revert back to 30mph speed limits.
In a report published in January, the Welsh government said there had been about 100 fewer people killed or seriously injured as a result of the 20mph policy.
But what do you think? Would you like to see 10mph speed limits near schools and hospitals? Let us know in the poll below:Come back on Friday to read the results and analysis via the link below.
Read more of Yahoo UK's Poll of the Week articles
