A section of the A24 was limited to 130 kmph for 20 years to reduce accidents. Because the reduction the speed limit was lifted early this year. Now there are 8% more accidents with injury and 42% more injured. Politicians call now to make it possible to limit the section again.

https://archive.ph/hPIpp

[–] nueonetwo@lemmy.ca 35 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

For highway lowering the speed may be effective but lowering the speed limit from 50 to 30 won't stop drivers from going 50 unless the road is designed for lower speeds. So long as lanes are wide and there are little obstructions for drivers to worry about hitting, such as bumpouts, boulevards, etc., they will go as fast as they feel comfortable unless there is a cop behind them.

Edit: 50kmh to 30kmh I don't know what that is in freedom miles

[–] Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com 33 points 9 months ago (1 children)

BTW: the mortality is around 50% if a car hits a pedestrian at 50km/h.

At 30km/h it's around 3%.

So yeah, speed in centre ville counts!

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Damn pedestrians killing drivers for driving quickly, won't somebody do something?!

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

In Germany the speed limit in Cities is 50km/h and in residential zones 30km/h, strong controlled with a lot of radar traps. If you exceed this they screw up your life, in case of hitting a pedestrian even possible with jail time. It cannot be confused by the lack of speed limit on some highway sections, that traffic regulations are very strict and controlled in Germany and any violation can be very expensive.

[–] Flumsy@feddit.de 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I think that comment was meant as a joke because if a car hits a pedestrian, its obviously not the driver who gets injured...

Anyway, we do have speed radars in Germany but I have not seen one in a 30-zone and inside the city they are rather rare I'd say...

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 months ago

Well, respect radar control, it depends also in which city or village you are of the local administration, in some are existing only few and in others on every corner. Often also mobile radarstations in "civil" parking police cars.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Or just do like we do in the US and place an "undercover" cop every quarter mile behind street signs.

[–] blazera@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

it looks like it's designed for pretty extreme speeds

[–] shrugal@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago

Unlike the average driver.

[–] buzziebee@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's not actually. It's quite an old network so it was built before cars could go as fast as they can go now. There are surprisingly sharp corners and very short off ramps. If it were built from scratch today it would be even safer. Speed limits are bs outside of particularly tricky areas.

[–] blazera@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Is the image from the article not of the highway in question?

[–] buzziebee@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Ah yep my bad, I was speaking generally. The image in the article is only a short section of highway but it does look like one of the 2 lane sections that are usually quite old. If they were more modern and built for higher speeds they'd have an even shallower curve and would probably be 3 lanes with a hard shoulder. If you drive on the Autobahn you'll have a few moments where you notice the difference in road layout from those which more modern highways implement - the on and off ramps in particular can be a bit scary.