London's GPS-based speed-limit trial puts Big Brother's foot on the gas pedal

A fleet of 12 Toyota Priuses in London have been fitted with GPS-linked speed limiters to measure how drivers respond to having their speed controlled by a computer rather than their own feet. For now, the trial is local to London, run by Transport for London, the agency that manages the city's roads, buses, subways and trains. The agency is using its own fleet of Priuses for the test and will add a bus and a taxi later this year.

Parents 'risking kids' lives' on defective tyres

MORE THAN 30% of parents are ferrying their most precious cargo around on illegal tyres, a new study has found. Road safety charity TyreSafe has reported that one of its members carried out a study at a Shropshire primary school, where almost a third of the cars dropping children off at school were wearing tyres that were either past their wear markers, were incorrectly inflated, had bulges or cuts, or had foreign objects sticking out of them. “The start of the new academic year means that we will be experiencing many more cars on the roads, particularly at peak times of the day,” comments Stuart Jackson, chairman, TyreSafe.

Public 'right behind' 20mph urban speed limits

NEARLY 80% of people think 20mph speed limits should be the norm around schools, in residential streets and in village, town and city centres, according to a survey. More than four in five people think traffic travels too fast on local roads, the poll by road safety charity Brake and Allianz Insurance found. Of the 1,000 people surveyed, 78% backed the 20mph campaign run by Brake, with 72% saying roads in their town or village need to be made safer for walking.