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Reducing speed limits in cities can save lives. Why is Australia still reluctant?
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2026
12 points (73.1% liked)
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If the speed limit was 0km/h, no lives would be lost.
You dumb fucking muppet.
At the same time, if the speed limit were 100km/h in an urban zone, the death rate would skyrocket. Ultimately I think it's reasonable to say it's about finding the best compromise between speed and safety, and in an urban environment, it's actually less of a compromise than you might think.
In areas with traffic, the determining factor for how fast a driver gets to their destination is not speed, but throughput: how many cars go past a certain point (eg. a traffic light) in a certain time interval. However, as speeds go up, so do safe breaking distances at a rate proportional to the speed. So you don't actually get where you want to go significantly faster by increasing speeds, because the rate at which cars pass remains practically constant.