There’s a trend towards lower speed limits in cities all over the world, but why is this happening? What is the research behind it? And what is the “correct” speed limit for cities, anyway?

  • @[email protected]
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    408 months ago

    Spoiler it is 30km/h. After that noise and injury risk/severity shoot up. It is the compromise speed.

    • BruceTwarzen
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      188 months ago

      In the next city where i live and the smaller almost cities around it, all side roads are 30km/h for a few years now. Some people seem to really hate it, and i kinda get why, when you drive there or live there and out of habit go 50 and get fined, it’s hella expensive. But i’m super happy with it. 30 is plenty

      • @ClockworkOtter
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        38 months ago

        Doing >30mph on side roads sounds reckless to me! Glad we’ve got 20 here.

        • @turmacar
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          58 months ago

          km/h =/= mph

          30 km/h is effectively 20mph.

          • @ClockworkOtter
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            8 months ago

            I am aware of that. I was referring to the people habitually doing 50kmph in side streets.

    • @Gigan
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      158 months ago

      30km/h is about 18 mph. That’s gonna be a hard sell in America.

      • @FireRetardant
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        8 months ago

        Shouldn’t matter when people and children are dying from the current vehicle speed but I guess slowing down is an infringement on “freedom.”

      • @[email protected]OP
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        8 months ago

        This would be restricted to city streets. If you want more speed, use the highways or bypass roads that (ideally) aren’t anywhere near residential or city areas.

        And the additional speed actually slows things down on congested roads, because you need more traffic lights (among other reasons).

      • Jerkface (any/all)
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        18 months ago

        Yeah well the rest of us really don’t care if “all y’all” kill each other on the road so knock yourselves out

    • @Valmond
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      148 months ago

      Also in many european cities you won’t get somewhere faster even if you try, so 30 is definitely a kind of sweet spot.

      • @turmacar
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        58 months ago

        Most American cities you won’t get there faster either, for all the reasons laid out in the video.

  • @Gigan
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    8 months ago

    Most of his critiques are of US infrastructure, so it would have been nice to have the conversions in the video:

    30 km/h = 18.6 mph

    50 km/h = 31.1 mph

    60 km/h = 37.3 mph

    88.5 km/h = 55 mph

    • @[email protected]OP
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      38 months ago

      You can roughly remember it as:

      • 20 mph = 30 km/h
      • 30 mph = 50 km/h
      • 60 mph = 100 km/h

      but thanks for the precise numbers.