[sustran] road safety and speed

[Paul Barter]

The following item from Bruce Robinson of the Bicycle Federation of
Australia was passed along to me. It is relevent to the road safety issue.

>>
>>I thought you might be interested in using or reprinting some of this.
>>
>>
>>40 km/h example.
>>
>>The following example was given by Hon. Barbara Scott, MLC, at an
>>Australian College of  Road Safety
>>forum on "Urban Speed Management" in Perth recently (20th August 1997).
>>Mrs Scott chaired the WA Ministerial Task Force on Traffic Calming which
>>recommended amongst other things in 1995 that 40km/h speed limits be
>>introduced on local roads and local distributors.
>>
>>I feel the example is very powerful and moving.
>>Others think it is a bit overdone.  The road-transport lobby rep at the
>>seminar criticised it as "emotive", but didn't win many points for being so
>>callous.
>>It seems one very effective way to communicate the choice the community has.
>>
>>The idea can be adapted to suit other conditions and preferences.  It has
>>references to current WA
>>recommendations etc, which I have not altered.  Mrs Scott has given her
>>permission for the article to be
>>reprinted and distributed to the media and elsewhere.  By removing the WA
>>focus, it will become more
>>generally applicable.
>>
>>Bruce
>>
>>The example Mrs Scott gave follows.
>>
>>***********************************************************
>>                        The Choice is Yours.
>>
>>It is 3:30 on a fine Friday afternoon, Jodie has just finished Grade 3, the
>>school holidays are here.  Seeing
>>her mother at the bottom of the hill, pushing her baby brother in his pram,
>>she runs across the road to meet
>>them.  She does not see the car coming down the hill.
>>
>>Scenario 1:  It is 1995, the car is travelling at 65 km/h, a very
>>conservative interpretation of the 60 km/h
>>speed limit.  Jodie is one of the 8 out of 10 children who are killed in
>>such a confrontation; she dies in her
>>mother's arms.
>>
>>Scenario 2.  It is 1997,  the 40 km/h school speed zones as recommended by
>>the Scott Task Force in 1995
>>have been introduced.  The car is travelling at 50 km/h, the defacto speed
>>limit due to Police Enforcement at
>>12 km/h above the limits set by Government.  Jodie is lucky, she is not one
>>of the 4 out of 10 children killed
>>in this situation, but two vertebrae in the lumbar region are smashed.  She
>>does not walk again.
>>
>>Scenario 3.  It is 2005, the 40 km/h residential area speed limits, as
>>recommended by the Scott Task Force
>>in 1995 have applied for nearly seven years; public understanding of speed
>>limits has improved
>>considerably, often drivers travel below the limits in sensitive areas.
>>The car is travelling at 35 km/h, the
>>driver, now having a very broad cone of vision, sees Jodie and brakes hard,
>>her mother screams, Jodie
>>continues her journey across the road; eleven years later she is called
>>upon by the Basketball Federation of
>>Australia to represent her country at the Olympic Games.
>>
>>The choice is yours.
>>
>>****************************************************
>>
>>
>>        ---   __ o    __~o    __ o
>>     ----    _`\<,   _`\<,   _`\<,
>>       ---  ( )/( ) ( )/( ) ( )/( )
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>| Bruce Robinson                  |e-mail: B.Robinson at per.dem.csiro.au |
>>| Vice-President                  |                          ,-_|\     |
>>| Bicycle Federation of Australia |                         / BFA \    |


A. Rahman Paul Barter
<tkpb at barter.pc.my>

The Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia & the Pacific (SUSTRAN)
is dedicated to promoting transport policies and investments which foster
accessibility for all; social equity; ecological sustainability; health and
safety; public participation; and high quality of life.