South Africa is facing increased calls for lower speed limits in urban areas in an effort to reduce road fatalities.<\/p>\n
In May, the United Nations called on policymakers to act for low-speed streets worldwide, limiting speeds to 30 km\/h (20 mph) where people walk, live and play.<\/p>\n
In response to queries from BusinessTech, South Africa’s department of transport acknowledged the push, but said that it would need to look at local data before making a decision to lower speed limits in the country.<\/p>\n
“In celebration of the 6th\u00a0UN Global Road Safety Week (17-23 May 2021), the United Nations made a call for 30km\/h speed limits in urban areas,” a departmental spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The week sought to muster policy commitments at national and local level to deliver 30km\/h speed limits in urban areas, generate local support for such low-speed measures in order to create safe, healthy, green and liveable cities.<\/p>\n
“That being said, reduction of speed limits will be guided by amongst others research and data extrapolated from it, to inform whether such reduction feasible.”<\/p>\n
The department and the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has previously looked at a proposal to review <\/a><\/strong>speed limits – especially on the country’s highways.<\/p>\n This would see the baseline top speeds across the country\u2019s roads reduced by 20km\/h.<\/p>\n It would also effectively drop the speed limit on the country\u2019s highways from 120km\/h to 100km\/h, while the top speeds on main roads would drop from 100km\/h to 80km\/h.<\/p>\n Speeds in residential areas would decrease from\u00a060km\/h to 40km\/h.<\/p>\n Open Streets urban designer Kirsten Wilkins said that while South Africa\u2019s road network in urban areas was generally of good quality, the typical speed limit of 60km\/h presented a problem.<\/p>\n \u201cTraffic data and studies around the world tells us that if you are hit by a car at 60km\/h as a pedestrian, your chance of surviving is practically zero,” she told CapeTalk<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the important United Nations road safety solutions is to call for a reduction in speed limits in urban areas,\u201d Wilkins said.<\/p>\n \u201c(This) is the easiest and most effective way to start getting ahead of the problem from the point of view of what government can do,\u201d<\/p>\n
\n