20mph needs you!

We put a call out a few weeks ago for members to add support to a 20mph bill being put forward in Holyrood. If it goes through, it will see a reduction in the default speed limit from 30mph to 20mph for built up areas in Scotland (while allowing local authorities to keep appropriate arterial routes at current speeds). As well as reducing accidents, lowering air pollution and making our streets more people friendly, this will also negate the need for the costly and pollutive traffic calming measures that our members have been discussing over on Slack (drop us an email if you’d like to sign up!). It would also save our councils on the currently lengthy and costly process they need to undergo to designate a particular 20mph zone, in fact this was a cause we as GoBike fought on locally for Glasgow just a few years ago. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13213540.Victory_for_cycle_campaigners_as_petition_to_turn_Glasgow_into_20mph_city_referred_to_council_policymakers/

The great news is that Mark Ruskell MSP who has been working on the bill has now reached the threshold of support to take 20mph to vote, but he has let us know that if he can get a wider range of cross party support on it, it will make the bill proposal stronger when moving forward. So we still need your help! If you can ask your MSPs to sign up to the bill (particularly those from the Lib Dem and Scottish Conservatives Party of whom none have signed up so far) it could be a really significant help.

You can do this simply by sending an email voicing your support, perhaps outlining some reasons why, some of which you might find here https://greens.scot/saferstreets or here https://www.cyclinguk.org/campaign/20-mph-lower-speeds-better-streets

Find how to contact your local MSP here: https://www.writetothem.com/

The deadline is 19th December.

Thank you GoBike members!