Proposal Germany studies eliminating highways without speed limit 'to protect the environment'
Regulations The speed limit of 30 km / h reaches cities
«The Global Plan does not recommend a limit of 100 km / h for motorways and expressways. This is only mentioned as an example, "
said Nhan Tran, director of Safety and Mobility at the World Health Organization (WHO), in an email sent to this newspaper. The refusal settles the interpretation that some media had made about one of the suggestions that the WHO raises in the strategy with which the UN intends to reduce the accident rate on the roads.
It is the so-called Global Plan Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030. Its goal is to cut deaths and serious
injuries from traffic accidents by
50%
this decade.
Every year
1.3 million people
die
from it and another 50 million are seriously injured.
"These figures have been maintained in recent years, despite the efforts made to reduce them," says the WHO.
This is just an example
The controversy arose as a result of one of the points included in the plan
. Specifically, the heading Recommended measures to improve road infrastructure safety includes the following proposal: «Establish regulations for the use of the infrastructure that guarantee logical and intuitive compliance with the desired speed environment
(for example, limit of 30 km / h in urban centers, 80 km / h on rural roads with a broken line, 100 km / h on highways) ».
Far from considering the latter as a measure to be applied, Tran recalls that the WHO does not close in on specific limits, but is in favor of adapting them to the conditions of each road network: «We suggest that they should be considered in relation to the infrastructure and,
on roads where opposite-way traffic is physically separated, there are examples that higher speeds are also safe, ”he
explains.
limits that are credible
In essence, what experts on the subject have always advocated: that to be effective,
road limits have to be adequate and credible
.
Thus, for example, the existence of free speed sections in Germany for decades has not caused the accident rate to skyrocket in them.
Image of a German highway
On the contrary,
when between March and July 2011 in our country the highways and highways were lowered to 110 km / h to save on fuel, the measure became uncomfortable and stressful
for many drivers: more attention had to be paid not to exceed that limit , very easy to reach with a modern car on a good road, than other more relevant factors.
Backup at 30 km / h in the city
Beyond interpretations, the document does not mention the 100 km / h again.
On the other hand, it does so with a rule in which Spain has been a pioneer since last spring: the generalization of
30 km / h in those streets with a single lane per direction
of movement for private traffic.
Bilbao was the first Spanish city to generalize 30 km / h on its streets
The UN endorses it officially and in writing, with the same argument that the DGT has used to defend it: “In densely populated urban areas, there is strong evidence that even the best design features of roads and vehicles
cannot adequately guarantee the safety of all road users when speeds exceed the known safe level of 30 km / h. '
That is why she is in favor of the fact that “in urban areas with a typical predictable mix of road users (cars, cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians) a speed limit of 30 km / h should be established,
unless there is a strong evidence to support higher values. '
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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