Opinion: From Brussels to Bologna…some good news for road safety

By Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director

Who would like to hear some good news? I have some for you. 30 km/h speed limits work.  

From where I’m sitting in Brussels, to the beautiful city of Bologna, we are seeing something else.  They work best at their simplest, when the limit applies across a whole city, not just in streets here and there.  Of course there is room for exceptions, major roads where other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists are properly protected.  But the big change we are now seeing is that the 30 km/h default limit is most effective.

In Bologna, road deaths have dropped by half.  In Wales, where they have set the default limit to 20 mph on urban roads across the whole nation, deaths and serious injuries have fallen by more than a third.

As Mr Hoekstra, the European Commissioner for Climate recently pointed out in a reply to a parliamentary question: “recent research on the impact of city-wide 30 km/h speed limits in 40 European cities points to significant benefits. On average, these speed limits led to a 23%, 37%, and 38% reduction in road crashes, fatalities, and injuries respectively.”

These are not just numbers, we are talking about lives that were not destroyed, families not shattered, children who didn’t lose a parent, parents that didn’t lose a child.  

These deaths and serious injuries prevented are a good enough reason to implement 30 km/h speed limits in all our towns and cities.  But the benefits don’t end there.  

Here in Brussels, noise pollution was cut by half on some roads that went from 50 km/h to 30 km/h.  We don’t talk enough about noise pollution.  It affects sleep, concentration and the ability of our children to learn.  And it’s very often the poorest children who live on the busiest, noisiest roads.  

We talk a lot about the cost of living crisis these days.  In Wales, drivers are saving money on their insurance.  A British insurance company recently said that those living in an area with 20 mph limits would save around £50 on their annual car insurance.  

When you set the speed to 30 km/h, it’s like waving a magic wand over your city.  People walk and cycle more.  The usage of shared mobility schemes increases.  Air pollution can go down.  

Is there a downside?  Some will try to tell you that 30 km/h speed limits lead to increased traffic congestion and higher congestion costs.  That is a myth, unsupported by evidence, according to a research paper by George Yannis and Eva Michelaraki of the National Technical University of Athens.

Their study found that 30 km/h limits allowed the road system to accommodate cars more efficiently, resulting in faster overall travel times. 

So the question for everyone reading this is: how can we bring these benefits to more people in Europe?  

Let’s channel EU funding to 30 km/h projects in the next EU  budget.  Let’s see more cities putting 30 km/h speed limits at the heart of their sustainable mobility plans.  And let’s encourage EU Member States to make it as easy as possible for local decision-makers to set the right speed limit in their cities.  

30 km/h speed limits work.  Let’s spread the good news.