Bangor has the lowest speed in Wales according to an independent analysis of vehicle speeds, three months after the implementation of 20mph speed limits.
The research by transport consultants Agilysis, also showed which towns and cities were showing the most compliance. The data from TomTom provided a detailed speed profile for each of the 7,942 individual road sections selected for analysis.
In Bangor, the average speed was 18.8mph – which was 3.2mph slower than before the new limit came into force.
Rhyl and Prestatyn was next best at 2.8mph slower.
Merthyr Tydfil showed the least change – an average speed of 20.9mph, only 1.3mph slower than the average recorded pre-September.
Cardiff was bang on the Welsh average of 20.3mph – slightly higher than in the week after the new law came into force but 2.2mph slower than it was before September.
The report concluded that compliance is broadly good with speeds close to the limit, although there are still many journeys by drivers that involving high speeds along the route.
The introduction of enforcement by police in January 2024 is an important next-step in achieving greater compliance across the road network and further analysis and research, especially at target locations, would help to understand the benefit this brings to achieving lower speeds.
