Speed kills

Maybe he was walking out of a pub after a few too many. Or maybe he ran to catch a cab. Or maybe, like a chook he crossed the road to get to the other side. We will have to wait for the coroner’s report to find out. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, the NSW police issued a media release stating, “Shortly after midnight a man was crossing Bondi Road, Bondi, when he was struck by an eastbound Holden sedan. As a result the pedestrian, a 47-year-old…was taken by ambulance to St Vincents Hospital where he later died…The male driver of the Holden was also taken to St Vincents Hospital for mandatory blood and urine tests.”

Once again the bureaucrats at the Roads and Traffic Authority have blood on their hands. This summer the RTA made the west side of Bondi Road a clearway on summer weekends, despite bipartisan opposition from the local Labor Member Paul Pearce and the current Liberal Mayor Sally Betts. The RTA defended its decision stating, “Traffic flows improved and delays were reduced, as motorists could travel on two road lanes.” Talk about sending a green signal to oncoming cars.

This weekend’s fatality will be added to the growing statistics – the latest casualty in the RTA’s war against slow moving traffic. Between 2005 and 2009 345 pedestrians have been killed on the state’s roads and 2000 pedestrians are injured throughout NSW each year. The RTA’s policy of ensuring that motorists are able to reach their destination as fast as possible comes with a human toll. Studies show that pedestrians face a 5 percent chance of dying when hit by a vehicle travelling 20 mph (32 kph), but that figure jumps to 45 percent for a vehicle going 30 mph (48 kph) and 85 percent at 40 mph (64 kph).

For years the RTA has resisted calls to reduce traffic speeds on city streets. That could change soon. On Monday morning Lord Mayor Clover Moore and State Premier Kristina Keneally revealed plans to slow down traffic in the Central Business District to 40 km/h. Under the agreement between the local and state governments, the City will also introduce shared streets with top speeds of 10 km/h, countdown timers will be trialled for pedestrians at cross walks and plans for the return of light rail to the city and overhaul bus lanes and clearways will be spelled out in a Memorandum of Understanding.

The slow down can’t come fast enough. According to the City of Sydney, between 2004 and 2008, 143 pedestrians were injured walking within 250 metres of Town Hall Station, 127 pedestrians near Central Railway Station, 101 near Wynyard and 21 near Redfern Railway Station over the same time period. In 2008 alone twenty-nine accidents involving pedestrians happened on George St followed by Elizabeth Street (21), Pitt St (11), Oxford St (11) Park St (9), and Kent St (8).

Clover Moore’s effort to reduce traffic speeds and pedestrian fatalities has been met with a chorus of disapproval from motoring interest groups such as the NRMA. And yet by international standards, slowing down the speed limit to 40 kilometre is not a big enough reduction. In Central London traffic speeds have been reduced to 32 kph (20 miles per hour). Over the last decade London has rolled out more than four hundred 20 mph zones, covering more than 11 percent of the total road length of the city. As a result, the Brisish Medical Journal reported that serious traffic injuries and fatalities have fallen by 46 percent within the zones. Deaths and serious injuries sustained by children have dropped 50 percent. In Portland Oregon, reducing the speed limit not only saves lives, it has helped save the planet, In downtown Portland, where most street lights are timed to ensure that traffic moves at between 12 and 15 mph — over 1,750,000 gallons of petrol and 15,460 tons of CO2 are reduced each year. And in San Francisco, the Municipal Transportation Agency found that by timing the lights to keep traffic flowing at 12 to 15 mph, bicycles were able to keep pace with vehicles, allowing both to run more efficiently.

Predictably, when Clover Moore and Kristina Kenneally announced their joint plans to follow world’s best practice and roll out a 40 kilometre per hour speed limit in the city centre, the Leader of the Opposition, Barry O’Farrell stated he would not support the traffic slow down if he were elected Premier. Before O’Farrell puts motor interests ahead of pedestrian safety, he should consider the Liberal National Party’s Lord Mayor of Brisbane’s recent popular decision to reduce speed limits to 40 kilometres per hour. Last year Campbell Newman’s cabinet voted unanimously for a speed reduction, from 50km/h, after a survey of key transport stakeholders and the public found two-thirds supported it. The biggest single reason given by the public in support of the reduction was safety. Here in NSW the RTA should take time to contemplate the slogan it cynically dangles on overpasses around the state: “Speed Kills.”