This is one of the more common traffic diagrams depicting how vehicle speed leads to increase accident severity. I have seen versions of this in different languages and the two common measurement systems. I would expect this information to be imparted to transport professionals on day one or two of school. Upon arriving to New Zealand I was shocked to learn that streets have the default speed limit of 50 kph which includes most residential areas in Auckland. There is some progress to address the issue around school zones but raises the question of why aren’t other places designed and controlled to consider people’s safety and accessibility.
Below is an embarrassing effort to slow traffic to 40 around a school zone in Auckland. Do kids not come and go to school at different times? It also fails to consider that other, non-students, would be using the school as a community facility who might also benefit from lower speeds. Check out the time range as well. I’m sure someone cleverly determined that it takes the students 10 minutes less time to leave school than to arrive.
This one is a beaut as well. After heroic efforts by Walk Auckland to successfully lower speed limits on Ponsonby Road to 40kph, this narrow residential side street remains posted at 50kph. Even the most psychotic hoon wouldn’t take this stretch at 50, so why in this rare case of a properly scaled, people-friendly street would a sign be posted to suggest higher speeds? This is street design on v. 1970 auto-pilot mode.
Children, of course, are particularly vulnerable road users. A 2011 study at Royal Holloway, University of London revealed that school-aged children do not have the ‘perceptual acuity’ to properly distinguish vehicle distances when vehicles are traveling fast than 20mph (32kph). Professor John Wann, from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, who led the research, says:
“This is not a matter of children not paying attention, but a problem related to low-level visual detection mechanisms, so even when children are paying very close attention they may fail to detect a fast approaching vehicle.”
I was reminded of this research when walking my kids to school last week. I saw these poor kids waiting on the street corner waiting for a gap in the stream of cars winding through our street. I had to cross the street myself to help them get across (Boy Scout points!). For a variety reasons the streets in our residential neighbourhood are unnecessarily dangerous. There are some tacked on bits and bobs that are an attempt to improve safety and comfort, but they are mostly half-assed.
The inability of people to simply get around without a car also contributes to further health problems. Recently the associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation called on the local Governments to adopt 20mph (32kph) limits on streets in order to provide safer conditions and to encourage more walking and physical activity.
‘Parents want to see safer streets – the Government must change the standard speed limit to 20mph on the streets where we live, work and play”
There are currently more than 87 “Twenty’s Plenty” campaigns in the UK, and about 25 British jurisdictions, with a combined population of over six million, have committed to a 20 mph speed limit in residential areas. In June, 2011, the European Union Transport Committee recommended such a rule for the entire continent. It is easy to imagine 20 mph becoming a standard throughout Europe in the near future.
I know Hamilton City is working on changing their speed limit regime. Auckland needs to play catch up. As a starting point all residential streets should have blanket speed limit of 40kph. Justification for higher speeds based on network function could then be made on a case to case basis.