§ Mr. Clive Bossomasked the Minister of Transport what criteria are applied when deciding whether a 50 miles per hour speed limit should be imposed on a particular length of road.
§ Mr. Tom FraserThe object of this measure is to reduce accidents; and all the lengths selected have an accident record above the national average for rural roads. Additionally all are single-carriageway main roads and in general, except where they are between stretches of road to which a 30 or 40 m.p.h. speed limit applies, each length is more than 3 miles.
§ 89. Mr. Danceasked the Minister of Transport what steps he proposes to take to improve conditions on the 500 miles of roads which are at present so unsatisfactory as to make a special 50 miles per hour speed limit necessary.
§ Mr. Tom FraserThe programme already includes improvements to certain of these roads. Others will be considered for inclusion in further extension 115W of the programme on the basis of their accident records and all other relevant factors.
§ 90. Mr. Danceasked the Minister of Transport what are the statistics of the accident rate during the last convenient period on the 500 miles of roads in this country on which the special 50 miles per hour speed limit has recently been imposed.
§ Mr. Tom FraserThe 50 miles per hour speed limit has been applied to some 300 miles of trunk roads. On these roads the fatal and serious casualty rate has averaged 3.2 per mile per year in the past three years. This is two or three times higher than the rate on all trunk and class 1 roads in rural areas.