North Yorkshire set to review speed limits in bid to improve road safety
Proactive speed management strategy aims to reduce injuries and encourage walking and cycling
North Yorkshire Council is set to consider the introduction of a countywide speed management strategy aimed at improving road safety and supporting active travel.
The proposals will review speed limits across the county’s 5,800 miles of roads, 74% of which are in rural areas. The planned strategy represents a shift from the current reactive approach to setting speed limits, which relies on service requests, to a proactive method targeting the entire road network over several years.
Cllr Malcolm Taylor, the council’s executive member for highways and transport, said: “In consultation with our road safety partners, we have produced a speed management strategy with the aim of reducing injuries and risk on our urban and rural roads.
“The new approach would help to encourage active travel which will improve the health and wellbeing of the public as well as contributing to carbon reduction.
“We want to ensure that we have a consistent, proactive and countywide approach to speed limits, and make sure communities are consulted every step of the way.”
The council’s £57 million highways capital programme will support road safety measures among other improvements, and an additional £100,000 has been secured for speed limit reviews and schemes in 2025/26 through the Local Transport Grant administered by the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Recent steps to reduce speed limits in North Yorkshire include a revised 20mph speed limit and zone policy introduced in January 2022, with a review in July 2023. The council has also commenced a review of speed limits outside all 400 educational sites in the area, prioritising locations where speeds are highest.
The proposed speed management strategy will be reviewed on Friday, 28th November, by Cllr Malcolm Taylor and Karl Battersby, North Yorkshire Council’s corporate director of environment.