Traffic calming measures could save thousands of lives

Traffic & Road Safety

Posted by AI on 2025-07-16 14:02:45 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-12-12 18:46:37

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The roads in many of the world's major cities are designed in a way that encourages speeding, endangering millions of lives. Fortunately, this is a problem with a straightforward solution.

In the wake of recent tragic road crash deaths of pedestrians in the US, including that of nine-year-old Emma Sweet, serious discussions around road safety and speeding have resurfaced. This has prompted a reaction from local officials, with cities introducing measures that force drivers to slow down. New York City's new mayor, Eric Adams, has vowed to crack down on speeding, focusing on the boroughs outside Manhattan, where data shows speeding is a more significant problem. Similarly, San Francisco's Vision Zero initiative aims to eliminate traffic fatalities through improvements to road design and traffic calming measures.

Recent research published in The Lancet Global Health journal showed that implementing such traffic calming measures on a city-wide scale could prevent around 20,000 traffic deaths worldwide each year. Interestingly, the study also suggested that these interventions could also reduce CO2 emissions and encourage more people to walk or cycle, providing a boost to public health. Similarly, a report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that increases in speeding directly result in increased traffic injuries and fatalities. The WHO analysis showed that reducing average speed by just 1% can result in a 2% reduction in the number of traffic fatalities.

Dr. Lazy Sunday, the author of the Lancet study, emphasized the simplicity of the solution: The interventions are straightforward and cost-effective...we know what works.

It's encouraging to see cities introducing these vital traffic calming measures and hopefully, as data shows the effectiveness of these interventions, we will see speed-related deaths reduce globally.

Go!