The State Traffic Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia supports the international initiative to reduce the speed on city streets from 60 km / h to 30 km / h.

This was announced by Dmitry Mitroshin, the head of the Scientific Center for Traffic Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

At the same time, he noted that decisions must be individual and well-grounded.

“The restrictions should be reasonable and logical, because if you make 30 km / h on the high-speed highway from 130 km / h, then it is clear - this is nonsense and no one will do it.

We must look at each situation individually.

We need a large-scale revision of road networks, that is, not just introduce restrictions, ”said Mitroshin, quoted by TASS.

He also drew attention to the fact that the traffic police is only engaged in monitoring the observance of laws on highways, while the powers to reduce speed are with the executive authorities.

“From the point of view of general approaches, the lower the speed, the lower the mortality rate.

It is possible to ban traffic altogether and there will be no fatalities if this logic is followed, but, of course, it is not necessary to bring it to the point of absurdity.

Therefore, if you objectively substantiate the reduction of speed to 30 km / h, then why not, but again, everything is equal across the non-penalty threshold, we say 30, and in my head - 50 km / h, ”Mitroshin explained.

In mid-May, the sixth UN Global Road Safety Week was held, which discussed the issue of reducing the speed to 30 km / h on the streets of cities where pedestrians walk, ride cyclists and children go to school.

The Moscow State Traffic Safety Inspectorate noted that such a speed limit is already in force in the center of London and Berlin, and in 2022 this practice will spread to Paris and the cities of Spain.

“This speed is important primarily for children, who are the most vulnerable category.

Every day in the world the roads claim the lives of 3,000 children and adolescents.

At a speed of 30 km / h there is still a chance to survive, at 80 - no, ”the State Traffic Inspectorate explained.

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Publication from the Moscow State Traffic Inspectorate (@ gibdd77)

The Moscow government's Traffic Management Center also published a post in support of lowering the speed limit on city streets.

“I maintain a speed of 30 km / h on the streets where people live, work and walk,” the data center said in a statement.

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Publication from Data Center (@codd_moscow)

In addition, back in early May, the Moscow Traffic Management Center announced a collection of proposals to change the speed limits on the roads of the capital.

It was noted that speeding is the cause of more than a quarter of all fatal accidents (in 2020, 140 people died due to speed violations, three children were injured).

"At the same time, in many developed world megalopolises, where the population is more than 10 million, there is no such non-fine limit of +20 km / h as we have, there is + 3-5 km / h," the Moscow Traffic Center pointed out.

According to a survey conducted by the Drom.ru car sales portal in December 2020, the overwhelming majority of Russian citizens supported the preservation of the 20 km / h free threshold for drivers.

The study involved 24.5 thousand motorists from 45 regions of the country - they had to answer the question "Do you support the preservation of the free threshold of 20 km / h?"

“According to its results, 86% of respondents answered positively.

The option “definitely yes” was chosen by 75% of Russians, and “rather, yes” - 11%.

A total of 14% of the respondents spoke in favor of lowering the threshold ("definitely not" - 8%, "probably not" - 6%), "Elizaveta Olofinskaya, press secretary of the Drom.ru portal, told RIA Novosti.

"It's easy enough to take the initiative"

Igor Morzharetto, partner of the Autostat analytical agency, auto expert, believes that the initiative to reduce the speed limit on the streets within cities is “quite easy” to implement.

“According to our laws, the regional authorities have the right to do this in agreement with the traffic police, especially since we are not talking about all streets, but about specific ones, where there is a real danger of knocking down pedestrians.

In the case of Moscow, these are streets within the Boulevard Ring, maybe some streets within the Garden Ring.

It should be understood that, for example, within the Garden Ring the average speed is 26 km / h, so a decrease to 30 km / h will not fundamentally change anything, it will just set some legal framework.

All studies (both ours and foreign ones) show that if a pedestrian is knocked down at a speed of up to 50 km / h, then he has every chance of surviving, "said the interlocutor of RT.

In turn, the vice-president of the National Automobile Union Jan Heitseer added that in order to establish new speed limits, it is necessary to carry out an inspection again and limit the speed where necessary.

“In 99.9%, drivers adequately assess the speed on difficult sections of the road within cities, where the streets are curved, narrow, where it is impossible to develop high speed, where pedestrian crossings - I honestly don’t see people driving there.

Today I see there signs limiting the speed: and 20 km / h, as we know, when there are schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and speed bumps nearby, ”he explained in an interview with RT.