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> i.e. saving third-party lives, on a non-busy road doing 35 mph in a 30 mph really going to kill anybody? Yes, the stats show quite clearly that 30mph is the

> i.e. saving third-party lives, on a non-busy road doing 35 mph in a 30 mph really going to kill anybody? Yes, the stats show quite clearly that 30mph is the point where pedestrian fatality rates really start climbing. [1] At 30mph, if you have a collision with a pedestrian there’s a 20% chance the pedestrian dies. At 35mph it’s 50% At 40mph it’s 90% The article mentioned the car was doing over 35mph. Additionally in the U.K. 30mph zones are normally residential areas and city centres, places where pedestrians are very common. [1] https://www.roadwise.co.uk/using-the-road/speeding/the-chance-of-a-pedestrian-surviving/ https://www.roadwise.co.uk/using-the-road/speeding/the-chanc...

Traster 6y ago
The point is that whilst the danger of a collision goes up as speed increases, you're not considering the context - the conditions. It is unquestionably more dangerous to drive past a school at 8:30am on a weekday at 30mph than it is to drive in that same area at 2am on a Monday morning at 35mph. If we're talking about safety, then the speed limits should be to reflect conditions, but instead what happens is we cap the limit at the lowest value considering worst conditions. Realistically the way we deal with this is through selective enforcement, the police probably aren't going to give you a ticket for 35 in a 30 at 2am on a monday morning, but it's silly to pretend that conditions don't matter.