While roadway safety has long been the primary consideration in establishing speed limits, speed related deaths continue to represent a large portion of total traffic fatalities on a national and international basis.
Current procedures for setting speed limits throughout the United States rely on the 85th percentile methodology, an approach developed decades ago for vehicles primarily on rural roads. This methodology assumes that most drivers maintain a safe and reasonable speed based on the road conditions. It is also based on the idea that uniform vehicle speeds increase safety and reduce the risk of crashes.
Other countries, including the Netherlands, Sweden, and Australia, approach setting speed limits from a different conceptual framework. Instead of establishing limits based on driver behavior, many countries begin with a premise that the human body is vulnerable and unlikely to survive impact speeds of more than 40 MPH. Countries, including the United States, are trying to minimize the severity of road crashes through programs such as Vision Zero.
Sweden adopted the Vision Zero philosophy in 1997 and designed their road system based on what the human body can endure in both a vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian crash scenario. Sweden introduced median barriers to prevent head on crashes, safer roadsides, traffic calming, roundabouts, separation, and reduced speed limits.
In Australia, the new South Whales Roads and Traffic Authority implemented its road safety programs with lower speeds as an essential component.
What is happening in the U.S.
In the United States, the safe systems approach to traffic safety is gaining momentum. In 2017, the NTSB Safety Study found that the safe system approach to setting speed limits in urban areas represented an improvement over conventional approaches because it considers the vulnerability of all road users.
As of early 2019, more than 40 U.S. cities, including Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, are designated as Vision Zero cities. Reflecting these trends, Oregon, Washington, and New York are adopting speed limit setting laws that grant local agencies more flexibility to establish lower speed limits. Localities, in turn, are leveraging this ability to reduce limits and make safety improvements.
Speed Limits and Easing Emergency Room Visits During COVID-19 Pandemic
Given the surge in emergency room visits around the world as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are some cities and jurisdictions suggesting the World Health Organization (WHO) should be pushing to lower speed limits around the world. The idea is, the lower the lower the speed limit, the fewer the accidents. The fewer the accidents, the fewer patients need to go to emergency rooms and, therefore, more opportunity to be dealing with patients from the virus.
Many essential workers on the front lines of the pandemic are still walking or biking to work. And with so many stuck at home, more families and individuals are getting out of the house daily for walks.
Now that there are fewer cars on the road, those vehicles that are driving are typically going faster than what the speed limit allows, either knowingly or unknowingly.
A recent blog in the British Medical Journal detailed the need for lower speeds. The authors explained that just in England alone, there are 35,000 non-fatal admissions to the hospitals each year related solely to car accidents. Many of these patients require intensive care and surgery. And in the U.S. as many as 5,170,000 traffic victims – including pedestrians and cyclists – visited U.S. hospitals in 2017 – 40,100 of whom ultimately died, according to the CDC.
Many transportation planners are also in favor of lowering speeds during the global health crisis. Why? Because they are fully aware that at 25 MPH a pedestrian has an 89% to 90% chance of survival while at 40 MPH, that chance of survival can drop to as low as 35%.
While governments around the world had been slowly moving in the right direction, now is the time to lower speed limits, implement simple traffic-calming measures, and install additional walking infrastructure. These will not only keep more people healthy; it will ultimately keep more people alive.