If the Minister for Transport really wants to cut carnage on Irish roads, he should redefine the 30 m.p.h. speed limit as 30 k.p.h., argues Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
Ten years ago, when the Austrian city of Graz adopted a 30 k.p.h. (18.75 m.p.h.) limit through most of the city, less than half of its residents supported the move. But public approval has soared since because it is credited with cutting serious casualties by over a quarter as well as reducing noise and air pollution.
Research shows that every 1 m.p.h. reduction in average traffic speeds brings a 5 per cent reduction in the number of crashes, and hence in the number of people killed or injured on the roads. "This means that even marginal reductions in speed can result in major road safety gains," according to Britain's Slower Speeds Initiative.
The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has indicated his intention to change speed signs throughout the State from miles to kilometres within 18 months. This move to metric speed limits offers an unparalleled opportunity to introduce lower limits in built-up areas simply by redefining the existing 30 m.p.h. limit as 30 k.p.h.
The rationale is inescapable. A pedestrian hit by a car travelling at 40 m.p.h. has a 15 per cent chance of surviving, whereas a pedestrian hit by car doing 20 m.p.h. has a 95 per cent chance. Lower speed limits can even help cut congestion; by making the roads safer, more people - including children - are encouraged to walk or cycle.
In the largest British project of its kind, Havant Borough Council has imposed a 20 m.p.h. limit on 20 miles of road and has seen traffic casualties drop by 40 per cent and speeds by one-third. The British government's own trials have suggested that 20 m.p.h. zones could cut child pedestrian casualties by up to 70 per cent.
In a major road safety review in March 2000, it set national targets for road casualty reduction. These require all local authorities to achieve, by the year 2010, a 40 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured and a 50 per cent reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured on their roads.
Given that speed is the biggest single factor in road crashes, responsible for over 1,000 deaths and 10,000 serious injuries in Britain every year, the Slower Speeds Initiative says that controlling speeds at "appropriate levels" is the most significant action local authorities can take to reduce casualties on Britain's roads.
York City Council was the first to introduce a speed management plan in 1997, after detailed public consultation. The plan divided the city's roads into a hierarchy of traffic routes, mixed priority routes and residential areas, each with its own traffic-calming measures and target speed limits.
The plan also pledged that every one of York's 60 primary and 12 secondary schools would be surrounded by a 20 m.p.h. zone by 2003. As a result of the plan and the council's anti-speeding campaign with North Yorkshire police, York met its national casualty reduction targets well in advance of target dates.
Gloucester's Safer City demonstration project, introduced in 1996, also established a road hierarchy to facilitate traffic calming on 70 per cent of its roads. By 1999 there was a 47 per cent reduction in road casualties, as well as a 10 m.p.h. reduction in average speeds and a 15 per cent reduction in traffic volumes on the "calmed" roads.
There has been a growing demand for 20 m.p.h. zones in urban areas since they were first introduced in Britain in 1991. So far some 500 20 m.p.h. zones have been implemented, and research has confirmed that average speeds have fallen in these areas by around 9 m.p.h. while the total number of crashes fell by 60 per cent.
Mr Eddie Shaw, chairman of the National Safety Authority, said the proposed conversion to metric speed limits here was "a major opportunity to do something different" by following international best practice. "We also have in place a Minister who has shown himself to be quite prepared to take radical initiatives," he added.
The existing 30 m.p.h. limit, if converted directly to metric, would most likely be rounded up to 50 k.p.h., running the risk that motorists would drive even faster in such zones.
Redefining the limit as 30 k.p.h. would not only save lives, but money, too, given that there are tens of thousands of 30 m.p.h. signs throughout the State.