How countries are setting 20mph or 30km/h limits as a national urban default: our expert speakers

Free webinar: 14.30 - 16.00, 20 May 2021

How countries are setting 20mph or 30km/h limits as a national urban default: Register here

Deborah Sims, Senior Vice President, Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation

Chartered Engineer with over 25 years’ experience in Road Safety Engineering, Highway Design, Asset Management and Maintenance. Deborah is now a Senior Lecturer in the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Greenwich at Medway. Her teaching includes Project Management & Appraisal, Engineering Professional Skills, Construction Management & Technology, and Highway Engineering. She is also the Admissions Tutor, Placements Officer, and a member of the Department’s Industrial Advisory Board. 

Álvaro Gómez Méndez, Head of the National Road Safety Observatory, DGT, Spain

Alvaro has twenty years of experience in road safety. He is a Researcher at the Universidad Politécnica of Madrid, and is has worked at the Directorate-General for Traffic  since 2010. He is a Research engineer at the National Observatory.

• Head of Division at the Subdirectorate-General for Statistical Analysis and Monitoring.

• Deputy Director-General for Research and Analysis

• Director of the National Road Safety Observatory

• Technical Secretary of the Ibero-American Road Safety Programme /OISEVI – co-operation programme of the Ibero-American General Secretariat, in which the Ibero-American Road Safety Observatory is integrated.

Lee Waters, Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Welsh Parliament

Lee Waters is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician serving in the Welsh Government as the Deputy Minister for Climate Change since 2021. Waters has served as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Llanelli since 2016 and was Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport from 2018 to 2021.

Nhan Tran, Head of Safety and Mobility, World Health Organisation

Dr Tran joined WHO in 2011. For the last 6 years, he was the Manager of the WHO Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research where he lead the development of guidance and initiatives to facilitate the implementation and scale up of proven effective interventions. Since October 2017 Dr Tran is the Coordinator of the Unintentional Injury Prevention Team (UIP) within the Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention (NVI). He co-ordinates work in the areas of unintentional injury prevention focused mainly on road safety, injury surveillance/surveys and alcohol and drug-related injuries.

Scarlett McNally, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Eastbourne District General Hospital

Mrs Scarlett McNally is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, working at Eastbourne DGH, UK and has other roles including representing the Royal College of Surgeons of England on the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change http://www.ukhealthalliance.org/. I was lead author for ‘Exercise the miracle cure’ showing that 21 minutes of exercise per day can reduce dementia, depression and bowel cancer by 30%. It also helps treat and reduce complications of existing conditions. Getting old and getting unfit are two different processes. Getting unfit is reversible and would save on social care costs. See: https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/01/30/scarlett-mcnally-exercise-is-the-miracle-cure/ 

Electric-cycles show massive health benefits, especially for disabled or older people, and for women. Changing behaviour needs new habits. Each person needs: small goals, a plan for failure, the people around them to help and a safe environment. The 1,752 people killed in road traffic collisions annually should be seen as a public health emergency. The environment needs to be better for the 20% of the population who are children, 18% over-65s and 32% of adults under-65s who live with a child.

Richard Thorold, Trustee, Louis Thorold Foundation

Richard is a retired CEO and Principal of a large further education college. He developed a college charitable foundation, and served as governor for a hospital trust and chaired its remuneration committee. He also served as a Justice of the Peace for 11 years.? Richard brings significant experience of interacting at the highest level with key business leaders, local and central government and stakeholders in order to achieve the foundations objectives.

Rod King MBE, Founder and Campaign Director, 20’s Plenty for Us

Rod King started to campaign for lower speed limits in Warrington, UK in 2004. He went on to set up 20’s Plenty for Us in 2007 in order to assist others in communities which wanted lower speeds and speed limits. With a focus on the single issue of campaigning for 20mph limits for most roads across a complete local authority, 20’s Plenty for Us now has 500 local campaigns in UK, Ireland, USA, Canada and Australia. In countries that use km it uses the “Love 30” name. It works by empowering local campaigns and acting as a catalyst for communities to change their speed limits. It has been influential in government and transport thinking and guidance on the use and benefits of 20mph/30kmh limits. 20’s Plenty for Us is a not-for-profit organisation with a small core team, but thousands of volunteers campaigning for a default 20mph/30kmh urban/village limit in order to make their places better places to be.