A new road safety initiative has been announced in the UK. The proposal by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) is to introduce a speed limit of 32km/h (20mph) in all urban areas in an attempt to reduce the 3,100 or so fatalities/year on the UK''s roads to around 1,000.

However the proposal flies in the face of a recent in-depth study by a transport specialist at Brunel University in the UK that highlights driver inattention rathern than speed or careless driving as being the major cause of accidents. The proposal has also been criticised for being so heavy-handed that it will prove unpopular with motorists and for the likelihood that it will hinder traffic flow and make the UK''s chronic urban road congestion problem considerably worse.