Slowing down for road safety

Slowing down can help boost road safety.
By MJ Woof November 30, 2020 Read time: 1 min
Reducing speeds will help reduce the incidence of road crashes – image © courtesy of Tom Schwimmbeck
A new study carried out by the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) shows that increasing vehicle speeds by 1% increases the incidence of crashes. The study shows that a 1% jump in speeds boosts the incidence of crashes involving serious injuries by 3% and fatal crashes by 4%.

Despite this risk, some 54% of UK drivers questioned for the survey have admitted speeding in 50km/h (30mph) zones.

To reduce the incidence of crashes, TRL is calling for a change in speed limits in urban areas with a switch to 30km/h (20mph) limits being introduced, particularly in high density areas. TRL says that this low level speeding can be risky as with high level speeding.

Reducing urban speed limits would assist in promoting active travel in urban areas according to TRL, with a boost for public health and a reduction in urban pollution from traffic emissions.
Highway & Network Management

For more information on companies in this article

TRL

Related Content

  • Concern at high number of motorcycle deaths in US
    May 20, 2016
    Concern has been expressed at the high number of fatalities involving motorcycle users in the US during 2015. Preliminary figures from state authorities show that over 5,000 people were killed in motorcycle crashes in the US over the course of 2015. The full data has yet to be compiled and analysed but these early figures suggest an increase in motorcyclist deaths of 10% for 2014 compared with 2015, or around 450 more people killed than in the year previously. The report was released as part of the Gove
    Read More
  • Active travel can drive urban economic growth and save health funds
    November 7, 2012
    Experts in health, city planning, environment and transport from Europe and the United States, including several local authorities, stressed how active travel can drive urban economic growth and save public health funds during a recent prestigious workshop event in Brussels, Belgium. Integrating health aspects in transportation planning was the focus of The Polis Environment & Health working group meeting at the European Economic and Social committee on 30th October. The event gathered experts from organisa
    Read More
  • Enforcement lack affects safety on Europe’s roads
    June 17, 2016
    Insufficient police enforcement across Europe is damaging road safety, according to the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). Two reports available through the ETSC say that a fall in the level of police enforcement of traffic offences is contributing to Europe’s failure to cut the numbers dying in road collisions. More than 26,000 people died on EU roads last year, the first increase since 2001 according to the ETSC annual road safety performance index (PIN) report. Exceeding speed limits, drink or
    Read More
  • Road safety education in the spotlight
    January 25, 2019
    Road safety education is severely lacking in much of Europe. That is the finding of research by the European Transport Safety Commission (ETSC). According to this new report, there are vast differences in the amount of road safety education given to children across Europe, particularly at secondary school level. The research shows that road safety education is provided to children in primary education all over Europe. However, it is not given to youngsters in secondary education in 20% of the 36 European s
    Read More

Highlighted Content