Debate on speeding for safety reasons reaches Germany

The debate about reducing speed for safety reasons It has been a constant pattern throughout the world. This debate reached one of the countries that always defended high speeds on their highways: Germany.

A 75 mph (120 km/h) highway limit would make sense because statistics suggest that speeding for safety would reduce serious accidents. Between the drivers and the expenses that the state has with health, maintenance and serious problems that speed causes.

The sections of the highway, better known by Top Gear, currently have no speed limit. Although the warning limit is 81 mph. The motorway system, with a total length of 12,845 km, has often been the subject of debate in the past. And it's a guaranteed catalyst for road safety groups, environmentalists and politicians.

Do safety speed limits really prevent deaths?

A 2008 report from the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), found that of the 645 road fatalities in Germany in 2006, 67% occurred on stretches of highway without limits. And the 33% in sections with a permanent limit.

The fact that the 33% of the German motorways has a permanent limit bring controversy. This because, at first glance, show that having a speed limit does not decrease the number of deaths on the freeways.

But as ETSC points out: "This similarity of percentages does not take into account traffic volumes in different sections."

Differences between countries

However, Of course, countries differ. Not only in its standard of driving, but also in the total length of the highway, the average flow of vehicles and its general transport infrastructure.

youGeographical location should also be taken into account. Even more because many use the German motorways to cross into other countries. That is why it is important that the points in favor of reducing speed are clearly analyzed.

For many countries, rural road fatalities account for the largest proportion of road fatalities. Although they are not those where the speed for safety reasons.

Rural roads killed five times as many people as motorways in Germany between 2007-9. This represents the 60% of road deaths, compared to the 12% of highways.

Professor Benjamin Heydecker, head of the Center for Transport Studies at University College London, also presents other data. According to Heydecker, Over the 45 years since the current freeway speed limit of 70 mph was first implemented, the risk of death from a traffic accident per vehicle-km traveled has decreased to less than 1/13 of what it was." .

But as Heydecker explains in his article for the London School of Economics, the roads have become safer during that period. Due to a variety of factors, including the development of roads and vehicles, and not just the introduction of the limit of speed for safety reasons.