MPs have been told to ramp up efforts to make 20mph the 'default' speed limit on all roads in urban areas in England and consider tougher restrictions on drivers by making speed limiters mandatory in cars.A panel of road safety experts warned the Transport Select Committee on Wednesday that the government's Road Safety Strategy announced in January does not go far enough to achieve its target of reducing road deaths in Britain by 65 per cent in the next decade.They said the measures currently proposed 'could and should have gone further' by 'reducing speeds in civilising towns and cities to make them places where people want to live, walk, cycle and play'.Despite various reports to the contrary, the strategy does not provide a legislative framework for the government to introduce a blanket 20mph limit in England.Instead, local authorities are responsible for setting speed limits on their residential streets and the government provides guidance to these authorities on doing so.Campaigners are now pushing for revisions to guidelines that would heavily encourage authorities to make 20mph the new standard instead of 30mph on their roads.The panel also said the government should accelerate its plans to mandate the application of automatic speed limiters in cars, and suggested going one step further than the EU by making it impossible for drivers to turn off the technology. A panel of road safety experts warned that the government's Road Safety Strategy announced in January does not go far enough to achieve targets of reducing road deaths by 65% by 2035Lilli Matson, chief safety, health and environment officer at TfL, said the Road Safety Strategy was a 'missed opportunity' to introduce a blanket 20mph limit across England when addressing the Transport Select Committee on Wednesday.She urged MPs to follow the capital's lead by pressuring local authorities across England to make 20mph the new default limit on every urban road.Matson described slashing speed limits as the 'first and most important systemic change that the government and local governments can make' and being 'at the very heart of safer roads'.She said: 'In Central London, we made 20mph the default on the main road network in 2020 and that has very quickly delivered very tangible reductions of around 24 per cent of people being killed and seriously injured and, more importantly, changed the feel of those roads for people who want to use them.'In England, some 68 out of 154 local authorities have committed to reducing limits on roads in built-up areas from 30mph to 20mph. But this is well short of sweeping limits elsewhere. As of September 2024, the default speed limit in residential areas across Wales is 20mph. In Scotland, 20mph is the new standard limit in built-up areas on 'roads where it is appropriate'.The Republic of Ireland is also rolling out a national speed limit overhaul that reduces defaults in urban cores, town centres and housing estates from 50kmh (31mph) to 30kmh (19mph).Campaigners warn that the country risks slipping behind the rest of the British Isles in terms of imposing lower speed limits on its residential roads. DfT's chief safety officer Lilli Matson said slashing speed limits is the 'first and most important systemic change that the government can make' and is 'at the very heart of safer roads'Adrian Berendt, director of the '20s Plenty for Us' group, told members that around 20 per cent of killed or seriously injured casualties (KSIs) currently occur on 30mph roads, and without lowering the speed limit they 'simply cannot achieve the target' of a 65 per cent reduction in casualties.'We've modelled it and the contribution of 20mph to the government's target is by far and away the biggest single measure that could help, reducing KSIs by 10 to 20 per cent,' he said.Berendt told MPs that 20mph limits can 'change the relationship' between motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.'They look out for each other more. Your field of vision widens when you're doing a lower speed, so rather than being surprised that someone has suddenly jumped out in front of you, you've anticipated it. It has a cumulative effect.'Rob Török, a doctor in pre-hospital emergency medicine who works for Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, said 20mph limits in urban areas are a 'moral duty' to safeguard 'vulnerable, innocent, unprotected pedestrians, our children, the frail, cyclists, and those using non-motorised vehicles'.He said: '20mph limits nationally, set or prioritised urgently, would save countless numbers of people from injury, harm and cost.' Phil Jones, the former chairman of the Welsh Government's 20mph Task Force Group, told MPs that 'pace cars' that are limited to driving at the speed limit should be introduced