Comment 117369

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted March 31, 2016 at 14:46:13

We clearly should be pushing for 30km/h as the default speed, just like Toronto.

40 km/h is a compromise that many drivers won't see as a real difference and others will still object to. And it is not consistent with the vision zero commitment. 30 km/h is the standard for cities that are serious about safety. In addition to the cities mentioned in the article, Grenoble and its suburbs just adopted a default 30 km/h limit except on major arteries.

https://www.grenoble.fr/actualite/75/103...

This article (in French) also gives multiple reasons why 30 km/h is a good choice:

shorter stopping distance (13.3m compared with 27.7 m at 50 km/h)

risk of death nine times less

the average speed in an urban area is much less than 50 km/h due to congestion, intersections, signals, braking, acceleration etc so the net effect on the duration of a trip is minimal.

In fact, they estimate that the average speed drops only 1.6 km/h from 18.9 km/h to 17.3 km/h given all these effects.

Again, if Toronto can adopt 30 km/h, why can't we? We wouldn't even be a pioneer, just following a neighbouring city (with much more severe traffic and also subject to the "war on the car" rhetoric).

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2016-03-31 14:52:48

Permalink | Context

Events Calendar

There are no upcoming events right now.
Why not post one?

Recent Articles

Article Archives

Blog Archives

Site Tools

Feeds