60. Mr. G. Wilsonasked the Minister of Transport what conclusions he has drawn from the experimental introduction of 50 miles-per-hour speed limits on selected stretches of road over the Whitsun holiday period; what further experiments of this kind he proposes to initiate; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MarplesIt would be unsafe to draw firm conclusions from the working of the Whitsun 50 m.p.h. speed limit experiment on 156 miles of roads over four days and I therefore propose to conduct further experiments which will be sufficiently large and continuous to give significant results. These will start with the August Bank Holiday and extend over a series of holiday weekends in August and September.
I am consulting the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee over the part of these further experiments which are proposed for the London Traffic Area.