I'd like to use this short debate today to discuss the benefits of introducing default 20-mph speed limits in inner urban areas and why I believe this should be a Welsh Government policy for the whole of Wales. Twenty miles per hour would apply across the country in built-up, residential areas where people live. Local authorities would be able to exempt roads if local circumstances warranted. This would reverse the current position where 30 mph generally applies subject to lower limits for particular roads.

The benefits are many: it makes roads safer to protect life and limb and allows local communities to reclaim their streets. That would facilitate play, cycling and walking, and greater community cohesion and interaction. This, Llywydd, I believe, is an idea and policy whose time has come. It is already established and growing across the world. In the Netherlands, 70 per cent of urban roads have a 30 km or lower limit. In Scandinavian countries, it is becoming the norm in villages and towns. In fact, throughout Europe, these restrictions are increasingly being set across complete authorities, with exceptions for major roads with segregated facilities such as cycle paths. In comparison, the UK has been a late starter, but in the last 10 years, over 25 per cent of the population have gained a 20-mph limit on the streets where they live, learn, shop or work.

Many of our major cities, including Bristol, Manchester and Edinburgh have made the change; 43 per cent of Londoners are living on such roads, and 75 per cent of people in inner London boroughs. Bristol has had great success in adopting this approach, and even complete counties, such as Lancashire, Sefton, Calderdale, Clackmannanshire and Fife, have done so. Our fellow devolved nations are also looking to introduce this policy. In November last year, in Scotland, Green MSP, Mark Ruskell, proposed such a Bill. It is currently out for consultation and would be hugely significant for road safety if passed. I am calling on Welsh Government to do the same.

In the past year, Wales had seen over 3,000 car traffic accidents that resulted in injury or death. In my home city of Newport, there have been more than 140 accidents with three tragically ending in fatalities. Further action is required to reduce this toll on our families and communities. Driving through social housing estates with cars parked along both sides of the road and children playing, drivers have very little time to react if a child runs out into the road from between parked vehicles. Public Health Wales's most recent report by Dr Sarah Jones suggests that if all current 30-mph roads in Wales became 20 mph, six to 10 lives would be saved and 1,200 to 2,000 casualties avoided each year, at a value of prevention of £58 million to £84 million.

The case for change is well evidenced and made. The International Transport Forum of the OECD, in a recent report on 'Speed and Crash Risk', states categorically that where motorised vehicles and vulnerable road users share the same space, such as in residential areas, 20 mph is the recommended maximum. It highlights what we already know: speed has a direct influence on crash occurrence and severity. With higher driving speeds, the number of crashes and the crash severity increases disproportionately. With lower speeds, the number of crashes and the crash severity decrease. Eighty five per cent of pedestrians will survive a 30 km/h—that is 18.5 mph—impact, whereas 80 per cent of pedestrians will die in a 50 km/h, 32-mph impact.