The Impact of 30km/PH in Built-up 

Road Safety Article

In 2007, I was in Cape Town, South Africa. My mission was to attend a one week training on rescue and first aid. Professor Mohammad Dineesh of the Indian Institute of Technology was one of the resource persons. His presentations were quite impactful and applauded by all participants. One of Dinesh’s take home was that to change attitude, you need to change the structure.

Professor Dinesh sound bite has remained my strong point whenever we discuss driving impunity and what my good friend Patrick Adenusi would call traffic disorderliness which has become the bane of our society. One good disorder where change in structure was all that was needed was in Lagos some years ago under the watch of the President-Elect,Bola Tinubu who was calling the shots as Governor of Lagos State.

I am talking about the madness that was then known along the Opebi-Allen road in Lagos. The notoriety of the disorderliness was such that as attractive as highbrow the area was, it was also a no- go- area for those afraid of being trapped by traffic build up caused by sheer irresponsible driving among those who branded themselves as the Lagos big boys or highflyers.

To address the madness, there were options to ponder on and the ready one was massive deployment of operatives from all the traffic agencies. This no doubt was tried without any meaningful impact. The Governor adopted the Dinesh strategy. All he did was to erect concrete barriers from the Aromire roundabout up to Toyin roundabout.

This strategy made it impossible for any road user, high, low, or even mentally imbalanced to do a U-turn which was responsible for the traffic build up, anywhere except at either Aromire roundabout or Toyin roundabout. This simple but timeless strategy was all that curbed the madness along this busy area of Lagos till date.

Dinesh’s strategy of changing the structure can be equated to the current United Nations drive to tame speed especially within cities or built-up areas. I remember doing a piece on this shortly after I returned from a conference. It was my first and the lessons learnt were quite exciting. I had my reservations not on the conference but on one or two views expressing reservations on speed reduction, which for me did not really matter much. My hero was the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola whose knowledge of the subject as well as his approach settled whatever misgivings or ambiguity the subject matter brought. In the end, the proposition to adopt 30km/ph at the conference was endorsed.

That was over six months ago .I am constrained today to bring up my old piece because of the sensitivity I attach to the matter of checkmating speed through this global mover under the aegis of the UN. I am sure you would be wondering why I am troubled. As a Nigerian, I am merely showing my concern and hoping that we drive this project with the speed needed. This is because the same project is already yielding positives and huge impact in other climes.

One of such clime is the United Kingdom that has lately become my reference point whenever I am treating a particular subject. I am talking about the United Nation’s call for speed reduction in cities and built up areas. Already, there are significant signs that this novelty in safety management will impact positively in road traffic crash reduction as well as fatalities and injuries. From the United Kingdom, new data reveals that there has been a significant reduction in the total number of collisions since the implementation of 20km/ph. limits on key roads in London since its introduction in March 2022 on all roads in central London.  

A breakdown of the impact of this reduction in speed reveals that the number of collisions has reduced by 25percent (from 406 -304) while collisions resulting in death or serious injury have reduced by 25 percent from 94 to 71.

A further breakdown of the data shows that collisions involving vulnerable road users are down by 36percent from 453 to 290.The same is the case with collisions involving people walking by 63  percent from 124 to 46. This findings reveals the huge impact lowering speed has had in London and can have in our clime should we demonstrate the will to immediately implement.

This research underlines once again the importance of reducing vehicle speed to a maximum of 20mph in built-up areas. This is because injuries are reduced and more people can feel safe to walk and cycle. Our current road safety strategy which seeks zero goal vision should therefore focus on changing our structure through lowering speed identified as a killer which is also crucial in saving lives but also promoting and encouraging motorists to travel in active and sustainable ways not just in cities and built-up areas but also residential roads

So why the clamour. Excessive speed is defined as speeding above the approved or posted speed limit on a particular road. Inappropriate speed on the other hand, is when the driver drives within the speed limit, but not for the conditions of the road. The work jointly done by WHO and the World Bank on road safety notes that an increase in average speed, which is my focus, is directly related both to the likelihood of a crash occurring and to the severity of the consequences of the crash. For example, every 1 percent increase in mean speed, it notes, produces a 4 percent increase in the fatal crash risk and a 3 percent increase in the serious crash risk.

It further states that the death risk for pedestrians hit by car front rises rapidly; 4.5 times from 50 km/h to 65 km/h. In car-to-car side impacts, the fatality risk for car occupants is 85 percent at 65 km/h.