Roads - speed limits

Provision of changes to speed limits. Also provision of information on existing speed limits.

Speed limits are introduced to ensure greater road safety. Measures for influencing the speed of vehicles generally fall into two categories, legislative and physical. Speed limits fall into the first category whereas traffic calming devices would fall into the second. Comprehensive information on the speed limits you would expect to come across on the different category of road is given in chart form in The Highway Code.

All requests for speed limits to be lowered, raised or extended will be assessed. The police view on a change to a speed limit is important and will be sought. Account should also be taken of the characteristics of the road, such as its alignment, the level of activity alongside the road, the accident record and the degree of severance caused to a community by the speed of vehicles. In urban areas, speed limits should fit into a rational and easily understood hierarchy if they are to be observed by drivers. If it is considered that a change in the speed limit is warranted then a new Speed limit Order has to be made. This involves a statutory legal process that takes approximately 9 months to complete.

If the prevailing speed of traffic on a road is significantly higher than a proposed lower speed limit, then simply changing the speed limit signs is unlikely to lead to a reduction in vehicle speeds. Consequently the Council will not usually lower speed limits if it cannot also introduce measures to encourage traffic to slow down. For instance a 20 mph speed limit will not usually be introduced unless traffic calming measures can also be added to make vehicles slow down to the new speed limit. The introduction of such measures is expensive, and not always desirable, and would be subject to the availability of Council funding.

Any requests for changes to a speed limit that cannot be met with current funding are retained on a database. If other sources of funding become available to the Council for speed limit changes then former requests can be re-considered.

Customers can request changes to a speed limits by post, phone, email or in person.

Eligibility
None.

Required Customer Information
None.

Service Level Agreement and Turnaround
None.

More information about this service

Contact Us

Address:
Traffic and Transportation Service
Civic Centre
Silver Street
Enfield
EN1 3XD.
Map

Telephone:
020 8379 3550

Fax:
020 8379 3475

Opening Hours:
9:00pm to 5:00pm

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