LIFE AT 30 BELOW
Evidence from around the world shows that such a low speed as 30 kph does reduce the risk of serious injuries and fatalities
The observance of the 6th UN Global Road Safety Week will take place from May 13 to 17. World leaders will meet and discuss specifically the standard maximum 30 kph speed of motorized vehicles on city streets. This is all part of the advocacy for the prevention of traffic injuries and fatalities, while promoting physical activity; when streets are safe, people walk and cycle more.
I myself couldn’t care more about this advocacy. As a motorist, motoring writer, pedestrian, cyclist, and road user for nearly three decades, I have witnessed and experienced my own share of horror stories in the maddening streets of the megalopolis.
I also have had to live through the heartache of losing a relative to a hit-and-run incident, and seeing a friend being run over. Five years ago in Toronto, Canada, my 77-year-old aunt crossed a street on a pedestrian lane, but was hit by a speeding car. She suffered from her internal injuries for four days before her frail body finally gave in. When I was in college in Manila, I witnessed a grade school classmate get dragged under a speeding jeepney. She survived, but not after suffering from lacerations and a broken pelvis.
It’s horrifying to learn that every 24 seconds, one human being is killed in a road traffic crash. The vast majority of these mishaps are preventable by reducing the vehicles’ speed. The UN Global Road Safety Week could literally save lives, as this period is about getting governments to commit to policies enforcing 30 kph speed limits in urban areas. Furthermore, efforts are aimed to garner local support for such low speed measures in order to create safe, healthy, green and livable cities.
The Global Road Safety Week this year keeps the momentum going that the Decade of Action for Road Safety
2021-2030 has essentially begun. The UN General Assembly mandated the World Health Organization and the UN regional commissions to plan and host periodic UN Global Road Safety Weeks. The #Love30 campaign of this year’s Global Road Safety Week advocates for “Streets for Life” by making 30 kph (or 20 mph) speed limits the norm for cities worldwide in places where people mix with traffic.
Why 30 kph? Evidence from around the world shows that such a low speed does reduce the risk of serious injuries and fatalities.
In Tanzania, non-profit organization Amend and its Sarsai (School Area Road Safety Assessments and Improvements) program—which has consistently enforced the 30kph rule—has been able to cut road injuries by as much as 26 percent, and has now expanded to 50 high-risk school areas in 9 countries.
In Toronto, Canada, road crashes fell by 28 percent since speed limits were reduced from 40 to 30 kph in 2015, which has led to a reduction in serious and fatal injuries by two thirds. In Colombia, Bogota has included 30 kph zones in a package of measures in its Speed Management Plan that has reduced traffic fatalities by 32 percent.
A London study found that lower speed limits (20mph zones) were associated with a 42-percent reduction in road casualties, while in Bristol the introduction of 20mph limits was associated with a 63-percent reduction in fatal injuries between 2008 and 2016.
Other studies suggest that there could be a casualty reduction of up to 6 percent for each 1 mph (1.6 kph) speed reduction for urban roads. Overall, WHO has concluded that an increase in average speed of 1 kph results in a 3-percent higher risk of a crash and a 4- to 5-percent increase in fatalities.
Above 30 kph impact speeds, pedestrians are at considerably greater risk of death. This is even greater for the young and elderly. In the span it takes for a car moving at 30 kph to completely stop, a car speeding at 50 kph would still be in motion. Higher speeds also narrow motorists’ peripheral vision and impact their reaction times.