New 30mph speed limits on Manchester’s main roads will be policed by average speed cameras, it has been confirmed.
Manchester council is currently planning to cut all of its main road speed limits to 30mph, meaning eight 40mph roads will see their maximums changed. The authority’s latest road safety strategy plans to also decrease speed limits on city centre and residential roads to 20mph.
Half of the city’s residential roads are already 20mph, but the council has yet to confirm when the remaining streets will be slowed down.
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“We will review a range of factors including traffic flows and role in the network in deciding which roads will remain at 30mph,” a council spokesperson added. “The majority of residential roads in south and central Manchester are already 20mph, and we are looking to expand this approach to the rest of the city.”
Now, it’s also been confirmed average speed cameras will be deployed on Manchester’s roads as part of a programme of ‘upgrading current speed camera infrastructure from the existing/previous ‘wet film’ type to digital cameras’, a council report said.
The new kit will ‘increase the capacity for enforcement’ to ‘drive up [speed] compliance, further encouraging safe behaviours’, it added. “The upgrade will also provide for average speed to be monitored and enforced on certain routes where multiple cameras exist.”
The Safety Camera Project has been run by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), which began in May 2023. So far, 91 ‘spot speed cameras’ have been replaced, or will be, and a total of 53 ‘safety cameras’ are in the process of being replaced with average speed cameras along the same road on 25 routes, the Local Democracy Reporting Service understands.
It means speed cameras will be policing roads no faster than 30mph in Manchester. Peter Boulton, TfGM’s network director for highways, said: “We welcome Manchester City Council’s support of Vision Zero [road safety strategy] and their intention to adopt its safe systems principles as part of its draft road safety strategy, which includes reference to upgrading the safety camera network in the city.
“A key part of Vision Zero is being able to tackle road crime effectively, and speeding is one of the leading causes of death and serious injuries. Having an upgraded safety camera network that can measure spot speed and average speed ensures that speeding drivers are detected and dealt with.
“The Safety Camera Project underlines our commitment to Vision Zero, eliminating all road fatalities and life-changing injuries by 2040 and making our roads safer for everyone who uses them.”