Speed – et cetera

Anybody who enters into a debate with Dr Jean Karl Soler faces an insuperable obstacle: Dr Soler simply keeps moving the goal posts. In his latest letter (“It’s not about speed”, 29 April) he has done out-done himself: he removed the goalposts altogether, thus allowing himself to score a goal with each free kick. This is just not on.

In his letter of 15 April, Dr Soler specifically included these words “Malta has one of the lowest national speed limits in the world (excluding Vietnam).” and “Speed is often demonised, when it is a fact that roads which safely allow cars to travel at higher speeds are among the safest per kilometre travelled.”

When Dr Soler was taken to task on the question of road speed (“Speed is dangerous”, 22 April), he had the nerve to claim that his letter (aforementioned, of 15 April), “was not about speed”.

No matter how much Dr Soler weaves and dodges the adage that “Speed Kills” remains as valid as ever. Unlimited (higher) motorway speeds have been shown to be associated with higher traffic accident fatality rates – hence the 120 km/h limit on many motorways. We don’t have motorways and our 80 km/h speed limit on our main arterial roads is acceptable. There is also good reason to lower our urban street limit from 50km/h to 30 km/h limit, as recommended in most European countries. Evidence cited in an OECD document, quoted earlier, shows that urban speed limits higher than 30 km/k are correlated with higher pedestrian fatalities. Urban speed limits should be tolerant of occasional human error. 30 km/h streets will be safer and should be part of the environment where people live.

We do not need higher speed on our little island. Our roads were not designed for “higher” speeds than, say, Vietnam, a country which is about one hundred times larger than Malta.