Raise the Hammer

The risk, of course, includes both death and injury over the entire lifetime of a resident: you need to compare the correct statistics since you are citing risk of death from diseases.

If you include both deaths and injuries and assume a lifespan of 80 years, you find that the average Hamiltonian has a roughly 4% risk of being killed or injured as a pedestrian.

The overall lifetime risk for a Hamiltonian to be killed or injured by a motor vehicle is about 37%: extremely significant! And note that unlike many diseases, death or injury by motor vehicle is far more preventable.

The point of the "Vision Zero" reference is that, even without self-driving cars there are a lot of things that can be done to reduce deaths and injuries.

And the 30km/h limit is not some arbitrary number: it is the upper bound for survivability of a pedestrian. It also decreases the likelihood of collisions in the first place by allowing more reaction time (and shorter stopping distances).

The 30 km/h limit (combined with the fact that people just aren't careful all the time) does in fact logically follow from the goal of reducing (if not eliminating) pedestrian deaths and injuries. It would also reduce motorist deaths and injuries.

Since urban driving involves a lot of stopping and starting averages speeds are in any case far lower than 50 km/h. So lowering the maximum speed to 30 km/h doesn't make a huge difference in most journeys, especially if major arterials remain at 50 km/h.

There is no logical reason for the 50km/h limit in urban areas ... it is just traditional. And that tradition is being challenged in many places in Europe and North America, most recently in Toronto which has reduced the speed limit to 30 on all local residential streets in the downtown area.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2015-10-13 11:37:22