Reduced speed limit comes into effect on A38 Plymouth Parkway

The permanent speed limit on a busy stretch of the A38 in Plymouth has changed from 70 to 60mph.

National Highways announced plans to reduce the speed limit on the A38 Plymouth Parkway between the Marsh Mills interchange and Tamar Bridge earlier this year.

Jack Mason, from National Highways, said the number of collisions on the parkway was double the national average.

Ch Supt James Gale, from Devon and Cornwall Police, said speed limit reductions could reduce the number and severity of incidents on the road.

National Highways data identified 157 crashes on the stretch of road, resulting in 226 injuries, between 2020 and 2024, Mr Mason said.

He said: “There are 60,000 vehicles using it every single day, and that’s quite similar to some of the motorway sections, and because of that we need to look at what we can do to help reduce the injury collisions that are occurring on the parkway.”

Mr Mason said police would be using speed cameras to enforce the reduced speed limit.

“Ultimately, enforcement is a matter for the police and so it will be up to them to work out what the appropriate grace period might be, and they will be using speed cameras to enforce on the parkway.”

Mr Gale said he welcomed the reduced speed limit.

“We want to help people to adjust their behaviour on that bit of road and get used to the new limit,” he said.

“There might be some increased visibility, there might be some engagement by the roads policing team and others, to help people understand that the limit has reduced.”

Mr Gale said keeping people safe on the roads was at the heart of the speed limit reduction.

“We are in the business here of keeping people safe on the roads, that is the most important element of all of this.

“My staff and…the sister organisations, the ambulance service and others are turning up to incidents involving very serious or fatal road collisions where the harm caused to communities is enormous.”

Reducing speeds limits can have a “dramatic effect on reducing the severity” of those incidents, Mr Gale added.