Politician Bill Shimmins will use the last Tynwald sitting of this parliamentary year to attempt to introduce lower speed limits in the island’s towns and villages.

Mr Shimmins will seek support from members to agree that the maximum speed limit to apply on urban roads should be 20mph and on narrow rural lanes a 30mph speed limit should be introduced.

The main reasons behind the move, Mr Shimmins told the Manx Independent, is safety. He wants to both reduce the number of collisions on Manx roads and lessen the severity of the results of those that do occur.

He said: ’It’s about reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured.

’If a car hits a pedestrian at 30mph, there is a 50/50 chance they will die, whereas if they hit someone at 20mph there is an 90% chance they will survive.’

The third reason behind his measure is to make the roads safer and encourage more people to walk or cycle rather than taking the car.

Mr Shimmins said that there was still a large number of school children dropped off and picked up from school by their parents instead of walking.

He said that when he has asked why this is, parents say that they would like to do this, but that they don’t feel safe walking on some of the roads around schools.

The Middle MHK added that for some of his older constituents who live in Santon, they get the bus to do their shopping but get a taxi home as they don’t like crossing the roads with their shopping because of the speed of some drivers.

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Moving to the issue of country lanes, Mr Shimmins said his motion is concerned with the single-track lanes around the island which have passing places and no speed limits.

He said the fact that some of these lanes have high hedges and windy roads while having no speed limit is ’madness’.

Mr Shimmins added that in this case, his constituents are concerned at the speed some motorists drive at as it prevents them allowing their children out into the roads and means they have to be more wary of their animals being spooked or injured.

The results of some of this type of driving has been damage to property and motorists injuring themselves.

Mr Shimmins said the Department of Infrastructure has also conducted surveys which shows the average speed of drivers in these roads, but when he asked for speed limits to be introduced he was told it ’isn’t Tynwald policy’.

While opponents of the measure for urban roads may say it will lead to longer delays for commuters, Mr Shimmins disputes this and says the impact would minimal.

He is also pointing to the advice of the World Health Organisation which suggests 20mph speed limits for urban areas.

He added: ’We followed the WHO recommendations on Covid-19 so why wouldn’t we follow the advice on this?’