A TWO-YEAR EXPERIMENT by the Danish Road Directorate shows accidents fell on single-carriageway rural roads and motorways where the speed limit was raised.
When the speed limit on some stretches of two-way rural roads was increased from 80 to 90 km/h, accidents decreased due to a reduction in the speed differential between the slowest and fastest cars, resulting in less overtaking. The slowest drivers increased their speeds, but the fastest 15 percent were driving one km/h slower on average, despite the higher limit. While the average speed remained similar to before, the speeds were more homogeneous on the roads in question.
The police were initially sceptical of the move, fearing that people would drive even faster, but they have now changed their minds. As Erik Mather, a senior Danish traffic police officer admitted, “The police are perhaps a little biased on this issue, but we’ve had to completely change our view now that the experiment has gone on for two years.”
The police were initially sceptical of the move, fearing that people would drive even faster, but they have now changed their minds. As Erik Mather, a senior Danish traffic police officer admitted, “The police are perhaps a little biased on this issue, but we’ve had to completely change our view now that the experiment has gone on for two years.”
On sections of motorway where the speed limit was raised from 110 to 130 km/h nine years ago, fatalities also decreased. Precisely the same results were recorded on stretches of road in Australia’s Northern Territory when speed limits were increased or removed altogether.
Following a trial, the Northern Territory government removed speed restrictions from an additional 60km section of the Stuart Highway between Alice Springs and Ali Curung. This extended the length of road in the Northern Territory with open speed limits to 300km (still a small percentage in such a huge area). It followed “extensive research” which showed a reduction in road deaths when an open speed limit was in place. Open speed limits were removed by the NT government in 2006 and replaced by a limit of 130km/h.
Mirroring the results from the Danish experiment, 85 percent of Territorians were noted to travel at between 133 and 139km/h in open speed limit zones, with most driving to the conditions. Of the 11 crashes that occurred during the year-long trial in 2014 on stretches of the Stuart Highway, there were no fatal incidents and in the one situation resulting in a serious injury, alcohol and not wearing a seat belt were deemed factors.
Despite these figures, the incoming Labor government honoured an election promise and reintroduced the 130km/h speed limit in 2016. A poll conducted in January 2019 showed that the vast majority of Territorians were in favour of dropping the 130km/h speed limit, but that doesn’t look likely.
Speaking about the results of the Danish experiment, Alliance of British Drivers (ABD) joint chairman Brian Gregory commented, “These findings vindicate what the ABD has been saying for years, that raising unreasonably low speed limits improves road safety by reducing speed differentials and driver frustration. They also confirm decades of research from the USA and UK on the setting of speed limits. It is now time for the Government to push ahead with raising the motorway speed limit to 80 mph (130km/h). It must also change its guidance to local authorities on setting speed limits, so that they are once again set at a level that commands the respect of drivers. This means reinstating the 85th percentile principle – setting limits that 85 percent of drivers would not wish to exceed. Those who have argued that lower speed limits improve safety have been proved wrong.”
There are lessons here for Australian authorities, but it is almost inevitable that they will be ignored and we will all be faced with ever-lower speed limits and even more draconian enforcement.
The problem is that we are constantly and continuously bombarded with the overly simplistic message that speed kills. This gives authorities almost carte blanche to lower speed limits, or ignore calls to raise them, without taking into consideration specific conditions or circumstances.
Consequently, we are saddled with a blanket speed limit covering all roads under all conditions at all times. Instead of allowing drivers to travel at higher speeds on roads where such speeds would be safe, motorists are forced to drive for mind-numbing hours on end, constantly monitoring their speedometers for fear of exceeding an apparently arbitrary speed limit by even a few km/h and being heavily penalised if they do. Overtaking manoeuvres are made immeasurably more dangerous because the speed differential between the overtaker and overtakee is so small that the overtaking driver is forced to spend extended time on the wrong side of the road, facing oncoming traffic. Time spent travelling is increased, with the subsequent likelihood of boredom, fatigue and inattention, the acknowledged real killers on our roads.
But as I have said before, don’t hold your breath waiting for anything to change.