Posted By simon carrier Good morning one and all We have carried out a risk assessment on our site traffic and identified that we should reduce our speeed limit from 10mph to 5mph. I have been asked to justfy this over and above what we have done within the risk assessment. So as a straw poll I would like to know what speed limits you have in your workplaces and also your opinions on whether the reduction we propose would have a significant impact should a pedestrian make contact with a vehicle. Thank you for assistance

Posted By Bill Elliott We have a 5mph speed limit - but frankly it is unenforceable! We are a large combined office and services site, frequent access is made 24 hours a day all vehicle types but predominantly private cars and minibus types.(Vehicle movements in excess of 700 per day) The problem - most modern vehicles CANNOT travel at 5 mph!! it does not even apear on most vehicles speedometers, they start at 10mph. I accept that risk assessing should set the parameters but you do need to take into account what is possible and enforceable.

Posted By Paul Danks We like others have a 10 mph limit, we have however had sleeping policeman situated at certain points around the site. While this has been affective, consideration must be given to their positioning for maximum effect and FLT activity.

Posted By ian mcnally Hi Simon, Couldn’t help throw in an observation that a blanket 5mph may well have a wallpaper effect is as much that if the posted limits are not realistic or practical, drivers will simply switch off brain and do what they want. We have many sites which vary from size and pedestrian density and try to post 5mph where turning or loading areas, crossing or generally high pedestrian intensity exists (most vehicles can travel at this speed even though it may rely on the frequent use of clutch)of course you will no doubt have specific controls for reversing and pedestrian separtion. Where access routes permit safe faster travel then we up the speed limits accordingly, most drivers do respond to properly planned traffic management but just like anywhere else you will find the odd idiot so it will need enforcing. Good luck with your research. Ian

Posted By Derek Rooney MIOSH MIIRSM Hi we have a traffic management at all our locations with a speed limit of 10mph. It would be near impossible to enforce a limit of less than this.

Posted By Ken Taylor Some clown will try to claim that '11.5' looked like '115' - particularly when someone will inevitable blank out the '.'. You could try an old-fashioned '11 1/2' though. We, generally, have a 5mph speed limit on the roads in our schools, sports grounds and care establishments. Human nature is such that, if you set the limit at 5mph, most drivers will go at about 10mph whereas, if the limit is set at 10mph, they will do something like 15-20mph. It's not usually a matter of precise enforcement (ie by speed measurement) but rather one of telling people to drive as slowly as reasonably possible and readily identifying those who do not - because its a lot faster than understood brisk walking pace. Your actual observed speed reduction is likely to be more than 5mph if you implement this measure - which, in road safety terms, should be significant for any associated personal injury vehicle incident (according to DoT research and RoSPA guidance).