New City Centre 20mph zone goes live
Tuesday 19 June 2012
From Tuesday 19 June the whole of Coventry City Centre will become a 20 mph zone.
The new speed limit will cover the area within the ring road and will be marked by large 20 mph gateway signs at all 13 entry points into the city centre. The new zone will work alongside features such as widened pavements, narrowed carriageways and 15 new zebra crossings and it will help to complete the plans to make the city centre a low speed, pedestrian-friendly and more pleasant environment.
The zone will be the first of its kind in the UK and it is the first to involve changing the environment to bring speeds down rather than relying on traditional road humps.
Councillor Lindsley Harvard, Cabinet Member for City Services said, "We are working hard to create a city centre that is more attractive and more pedestrian-friendly. Speeds are already low in the city centre and formalising the reduced speed zone for the whole area within the ring road is an important part of our plan to improve the city centre experience for everyone. The zone will work as an integral part of the work that has been done already - in fact our monitoring shows that speeds at Gosford Street have dropped by 6mph from 24mph to 18mph.
"This is the next important stage in the transformation of the city centre and by marking the zone as people enter the city centre we will be able to remove all the unnecessary signs and road markings - making the whole city centre look better. This will also complement our pIans for additional on-street parking spaces."
The new zone is part of the wider improvements which are nearing completion to transform Broadgate, improve the link between the station and Bull Yard and improve the setting of some of the city's finest buildings including the area outside Holy Trinity Church which is now fronted by a new lawn with trees and planting coming soon.
