Recent advantages of lower speed limits in Australia

Abstract

Along with alcohol and fatigue, speed has been identified in Australia as one of the biggest contributors to road traffic accidents. Over time, changing enforcement techniques and technology has been applied with some degree of success in rural and urban areas. From 1997, the speed limits on residential roads were slowly changed from the default 60km/h to 50km/h. By 2003, all but one of the jurisdictions had adopted the new lower speed limit. Although only applying to residential roads and not major roads, considerable crash benefits have been reported. Reductions in the order of 20% in casualty crashes have been observed and in particular, significant benefits appear to exist for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians. This paper discusses some of the research observations surrounding the adoption of the lower speed limit in Australia and discusses the link between overall vehicle speeds and crash frequency based on international literature.