30km  Speed Limits Enforcement

Sometime in September 2022, I was privileged to visit Kano. The visit was not casual. It was official. For one full week, I was in Kano leading a three man team from the Federal Road Safety Corps to attend the 28th Council of Works meeting held between 25th to 29th September .It was a great honour to be part of the 28th Meeting of the Council of Works.It was indeed exciting that the chosen theme was ‘’Infrastructure, The Season of Completion.

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola was there as host. Also in attendance were Commissioners of Works from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, as well as Permanent Secretaries and Directors from the various States. It was my first since destiny brought me into the Corps and like I said earlier, it was indeed a great honour.

The assignment was simple. It was for my team and I to present for Council approval, the United Nations resolution on the enforcement of the 30km speed limit in built up areas. With little hiccups, approval was given courtesy of the Minister’s leadership style that swayed every participant to endorse this life saving submission.

It has been over a year since the United Nations decision. What then is the genesis of this novel position meant to cut down speed in urban areas as well as deaths and where exactly we are today? To address these posers, I will take you down memory lane to May 2021 when I did a piece I titled, Kill The Speed In Built Up Areas: #30km/ph. In that piece I captured the joint awareness strategies adopted by the Corps in collaboration with the office of the Country Director, the United Nations Decade of Action on Road Safety to mark the 6th Global United Nations Road Safety Week.

The Week was flagged off globally on 17th May 2021 and ran till 23rd May, 2021. Dr Sydney Ibeanusi, Country Director, the United Nations Decade of Action on Road Safety and my humble self on behalf of the Corps were at the forefront of media activities to raise awareness while the FRSC formations across the country held various activities to sustain the momentum up. The theme and focus was on cutting down speed which is identified as the number one killer globally. Excessive speed in built up areas was the sub focus with the theme, The Streets for life: #love30.

Before I continue, I need to remind you of the road traffic crash statistics for 2020 and 2021 which should worry all despite the slight improvements in checkmating crashes and deaths. The records as provided by the Corps for 2020, shows that a total of 10,522 crashes occurred claiming 4,794 lives while 28,449 people sustained various degrees of injuries. The figure for 2021 is not better either as we recorded 10,306 road traffic crashes which claimed 4,800 lives while 30,506 people sustained several degrees of injuries.

The causative factors ranged from speed violation, dangerous driving just to mention a few which as usual underscores the rationale behind the United Nations vigorous campaigns to cut speed whether on the highway of in- built up areas. The data for 2020 and 2021 equally reveals that a total of 63,581 and 66,083 people were involved in these crashes respectively for the period in question.

The picture painted with respect to speed related crashes are not peculiar to Nigeria but cuts across the globe. This was why I reminded road users of the provisions of the National Road Traffic Regulations, 2012 which specifies the speed limits on various roads as well as speed limit of various categories of vehicles. For reminders, the Regulations provides that the maximum speed in Nigeria is 100km/h. The same Regulations stipulates that 100km/h is the maximum speed for cars on the express while the limit for taxis and buses is 90km/h. The speed limit for articulated vehicles is 60km/h.

The same Regulations provide for the appropriate speed limit for built- up areas which is my focus and was also the focus for the Global road safety week in 2021. It provides a maximum speed limit of 50km/h for cars, taxis and buses as well. Tankers and trailers are to do 45km/h while tow vehicles are 45km/h while towing and 50km/h when not towing. While the provisions explicitly spell out these rules, there are concerns that compliance is a challenge as these signs, according to some observers, are rarely seen on some of our roads.

The absence of appropriate road furniture was my concern when I wrote on a piece I titled, Naked Roads. In fact, a good friend who heard me on air could not stop laughing when I drew a correlation between roads without appropriate road furniture and a lady without her makeup. This is why the global clamour is to rejig the speed factor and tilt the trend of road traffic crashes and deaths in keeping with the United Nations Decade of Action which seeks to cut down road fatalities by 50 per cent.

The argument by the UN is that low speed makes for healthy, green and liveable streets and therefore saves lives. Low speed should be at the heart of any community, they argue as evidence shows that at 30km/ph, lives will be saved while this will also promote walking, cycling and promote a zero-carbon mobility environment. The global plan is to engage policymakers such as we did during the Council of Works meeting to act for low speed streets, limiting speeds to 30 km/h for cities, towns and villages.

So where exactly are we right now. First, like I mentioned earlier, this position has been adopted for implementation. Secondly, I believe the low hanging fruit should be in raising massive awareness by all the necessary actors with FRSC playing the lead to get the buy-in of the populace. Meanwhile, I know that in societies such as the United Kingdom, there is already a shift in thinking geared towards mobilising motorists to stick to the new 30mph speed limits, especially by turning from engineering solutions to technology which should also become priorities if we must achieve the essence behind this global move.

In the United Kingdom, a series of average and spot speed cameras have been installed on a network of 20 mph roads in places such as Plymouth to enable crack down on speed freaks. This strategy of choosing a camera solution addresses the concern of residents against speed humps on the narrow streets. According to experts, unlike speed humps ,the cameras are better for the environment because they reduce the number of vehicles slowing down and then speeding up, keeping drivers at a uniform speed.  

During the trial period,more than a hundred offences per hour were recorded. Although the cameras are not new despite the lack of awareness and high cost in application, the latest generation of cameras being deployed are not only cost effective, but deliver a host of benefits that residents are crying out for. One of such benefits is the enforcement of speed limit without inconveniencing law-abiding motorists.

Based on this best practice, I believe that we need to enhance speed limit enforcement through the installation of speed cameras not just to check excessive speed in built-up areas but to also check general speed infraction. Meanwhile, in keeping with the World Health Organisation recommendations, we must sustain traffic-calming features as well as establish speed limits appropriate to each road in addition to installing in-vehicle technologies. We must equally take cognisance of the International Road Federation recommendations that we design roads that addresse the needs of all road users and enforce traffic speeds to enhance general road safety. These measures, it concludes, could save the 3,000 children and young people killed daily across the world because a child hit by a car at 30 km/h can still survive. 

However, it warned that an increase in average speed of 1 km/h results in a 3 per cent higher risk of a crash and a 4–5 per cent increase in fatalities.