Introduction
By the start of 2024, the Win-Win Workout (the other WWW!) was ready to tackle live issues. We secured a grant from the Andrew Wainwright Reform Trust, with a top up from THINK, The Transport and Health Integrated research NetworK at the University of Aberystwyth. We used this to run a number of events: this blog covers two of them. Both were on reducing speed limits, run with councils in York and in Worthing in late 2024, both in association with 20’s Plenty For Us, which campaigns on 20mph limits.

Given the difficulties that the Welsh government had had with its default 20mph policy, our intent to close the gap between those for and against felt really important.

The Win-Win approach
The WWW is distinctive in separating the ‘why’ from the ‘what’. That is, not concentrating on solutions and policies (the ‘what’) where there is often massive disagreement. Rather, looking instead at people’s underlying aims – their needs and values, the ‘why’ – where much more common ground is to be found. Once done, agreement on solutions is much easier to come by.

Both councils saw the value of this distinction. Kate Ravilious, cabinet member for transport, City of York Council, wrote afterwards to say, “Huge thanks for all your hard work and a super event last night. It was a really interesting approach and I can certainly see the value in bringing the conversation back to aims rather than focusing on solutions.”

Which aims had most support?
Both events started with 10 pre-prepared aims, based on the range of benefits delivered by 20mph schemes around the world. Each aim was reviewed and sometimes revised by a small group. In York, for example, the aim to “Encourage active travel (walking and cycling)” became “Create an environment which encourages active travel for healthier lifestyles and places”. The group had added the ‘why’.

There was then sticky dot voting. The following four aims did best in both places: they had lots of support with few or no objections:

1st Encouraging active travel
2nd = Eliminating/minimising deaths and serious injuries from collisions
2nd = Ensuring that changes to speed limits benefit the community as a whole
4th Improving air qualityg

Moving from aims to solutions
In a two-hour workshop, we couldn’t do justice to this. People indicated their preferences, but we didn’t have time to link them to their aims. Those in Worthing mostly wanted trial 20mph limits in the top half of the ward we were looking at – but with no such limits on busy roads. There was strong support for encouraging more bus use. The majority preference in York, which looked at a much larger area, was to extend 20 mph limits in villages and other built-up areas which did not currently have them.

What did the events achieve?
Our event has already influenced the transport strategy in York. Julian Ridge, lead officer for the York event, wrote: -We’ve actually amended the wording in our Local Transport Strategy from ‘20mph programme’ to ‘speed reduction programme’ – reflecting the views expressed at the event that 20mph was fine in built up areas, but a different and more moderate approach might be required on rural roads (e.g. connecting villages to the city) and, whilst a reduction to 20 would not be supported, one to 40 might be.

It has also influenced how Kate Ravilious interacts with places in her patch: We’ve not done any more consultation on 20mph since the event, but I have been to a number of ward meetings in villages where residents are petitioning for 20mph, and I’ve very much taken your approach to heart in terms of steering conversations away from the detailed design and instead trying to find out what people want to change about their local environment.

The last word goes to Angela Crane, from the council in Adur and Worthing: Taking politics out of the debate means people are free to focus on the issue without bias. When individuals are presented with facts and an evidence base, it can help them understand in their own mind how a situation aligns with their own morals and values and reach a decision which feels the best fit, given all options.