Page 292 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 February 2010
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Effective speed management plays a critical part in road safety. Reducing speed limits in areas where motor vehicles need to share the road with significant numbers of pedestrians and cyclists is in line with best practice road safety principles. At lower speeds, there are fewer crashes because road users, including pedestrians and cyclists, have more time for decision making and vehicles have shorter stopping distances. Crashes that do occur result in less severe injuries because of the lower impact energies involved.
The risk of death to a pedestrian or cyclist struck at 60 kilometres per hour is greater than 90 per cent. At 50 kilometres per hour, the risk decreases slightly to 80 per cent. However, at a collision speed of 40 kilometres per hour, the risk of death reduces significantly to approximately 30 per cent. The ACT already applies 40-kilometre-per-hour speed limits in school zones and work sites. There are also 40-kilometre-per-hour precincts in areas such as hospitals and universities which come under the jurisdiction of those facilities.
Over the past few months, Roads ACT has engaged ARRB Group to investigate the feasibility of and to prepare guidelines for the introduction of reduced speed limits to areas in the ACT, such as around shopping centres and community facilities. The ARRB Group has undertaken research with the use of 40-kilometre-per-hour speed zones in other jurisdictions, particularly in relation to strip shopping centres on major roads. The ACT has an established and well-defined road hierarchy and does not generally have strip shopping centres. However, the advice is that targeted application of reduced speed limits does have merit in the ACT context and can provide improved safety for vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists. This would be in line with the safe system approach in the ACT road safety strategy as well as moves towards a stronger vision-zero philosophy.
The ARRB Group advises that reduced speed limit zones would be most appropriate in areas with the highest pedestrian movements—namely, town centres. They could also be applied to group and local centres with high pedestrian movements on a case-by-case basis. In line with standards for other speed zones, a minimum road length for these zones would be required to avoid confusion to motorists. In larger centres, a 40-kilometre-per-hour precinct could be put in place covering a number of adjacent roads.
The road environment will be an important factor in considering where to apply a reduced speed zone. A 40-kilometre-per-hour speed limit is more appropriately applied to minor collector roads and access streets than to major collector and arterial roads. The higher order roads primarily serve as transport routes and subsequently carry larger traffic volumes with higher traffic speeds. Pedestrian and cyclist traffic needing to cross these roads are generally provided with formal crossing facilities.
It is proposed that the lower speed limit would apply based on when peak pedestrian activity occurs—that is, part time, reflecting shopping hours. However, where restaurants and entertainment premises generate significant pedestrian movements outside normal shopping hours, the reduced speed limit could apply around the clock.
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