The decision to limit the speed on all streets in Wales to 20mph has led to much discussion, typically orientated around ‘the individual’ – often the driver, and their specific needs, and the pedestrian, with their improved safety from cars travelling at slower speeds. But what about the communities in which these movements take place?

Urban designers and transport planners make the guidance work, but does the guidance reflect the current desire to make the community matter and put them first?

Whilst still important from a safety perspective, speed limits, forward visibility, access, kerbs etc. can detract from creating the ideal space for a community to grow.

To set the scene over the years:

• Roads in Urban Areas (1967) “Pedestrian Ways should be designed as a secondary network”.
• DB32 (1996) “The aim of the hierarchical approach is to influence traffic distribution in order to, …. create safe conditions for all users, and especially young pedestrians”.
• Manual for Streets (2010) “Pedestrians should generally be accommodated on multifunctional streets rather than on routes segregated from motor traffic”.

This shows guidance is improving, but still too often control is binary: driver and pedestrian, calibrating risk, the straitjacket of standards.

Perhaps we should consider the living places, the movement corridor passed through; and how the people living there feel about reduced speed limits.

In this context, a revisit to the work of Donald Appleyard, Liveable Streets might help. Something that the design team at Homes England and the NHS ‘Putting Health into Place’ have considered.

Appleyard compared streets in different neighbourhoods to evaluate the effect of traffic on the sense of community in that place. He suggested streets have their own ecology. They are homes for people with their own characteristics, values and needs. They have lifestyle expectations which the street influences, and critically the speed of cars affects their sense of vulnerability.

It was perhaps predictable that he noticed social interaction of the street was increased with calmer streets. He remarked that the severance of the two sides of a given street was a cause of alienation and a reduction in civility.

Lessons will no doubt be learnt from the recent changes in Wales but perhaps the move to increase the number of 20mph streets needs to be accompanied by a better narrative. Yes, it helps boost active travel, yes, it is more annoying for the driver, but at the end of the day, the community benefits are perhaps not being noticed as much as they should.