Eight Manchester roads are set to have their speed limits cut to 30mph under new council plans.

The authority’s latest road safety strategy plans to cut speed limits across the city after a surge in accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists.

“We are looking at bringing main roads down to 30mph,” explained Kevin Gillham, Manchester council’s head of citywide highways, on Tuesday (January 14). “So main roads would be 30mph and residential roads would be 20mph.”

To make the plan happen, several 40mph roads will see their limits cut down to 30mph. It’s understood work began last summer to slow motorists down on the routes, with new signage implemented in some locations, with four roads still left to change.

“Greater Manchester Police will enforce the new speed limit,” a council notice said. “There will also be temporary signs to remind people of the change for several months.

“These temporary signs will be placed at the start of the new 30mph road sections, in locations where previous speed limit signs have all been removed.”

The eight roads affected by the plans are:

  • World Way, near Manchester Airport — change already made.
  • Middleton Road, near Heaton Park — change already made.
  • Moseley Road, from Wilmslow Road to Kingsway — change already made.
  • Wilbraham Road, from Princess Road to Wilmslow Road.
  • Greengate, from Victoria Avenue East to its boundary with Oldham, north of M60 bridge — change already made.
  • Styal Road, Simonsway southwards to the Stockport boundary, approximately 100m south of the A555 Manchester Airport Relief Road.
  • Kingsway, from Mosley Road to a point 83m north of the Manchester/Stockport boundary.
  • Mancunian Way, from Downing Street to Fairfield Street.

The council has confirmed the move after figures for people being killed and seriously injured while walking or cycling in Manchester have shot up since the pandemic. In 2019, 58 pedestrians were involved in a road collision, as were 18 cyclists.

In 2023, 77 pedestrians were involved in an accident — but the number of cyclists more than doubled to 41. Manchester’s figures reflect a national trend ‘that as cycling and walking increases, accidents also increase’, Mr Gillham explained.

Additionally, the overall number of people being killed or seriously injured, regardless of method of travel, rose from 122 six years ago to 183 in 2023.

Other proposals in the council’s road safety strategy include ‘upgrading current speed camera infrastructure from the existing ‘wet film’ type to digital cameras’ to increase ‘capacity for enforcement’ and ‘provide average speed monitoring’.