Hello Justin and others,
Found this last night in:
Featherstone, Mike. 2004. “Automobilities: an introduction”, Theory,
culture & society, vol. 21 (4/5), August-
October.
p.4 “As road traffic deaths and casualties become defined as a public
health issue, there are more forceful attempts
by experts and various commissions to shift away the responsibility from
the individual [road user] to the ‘system’.
From a systems point of view a key obvious factor about serious and fatal
crashes is the vulnerability of the human
body. This is clear in the case of pedestrians, whose tolerance to injury
increases dramatically over 30 kilometres per
hour (km/h) and whose risk of being killed in a collision with a vehicle
travelling over 50 km/h is about 80 percent.
[It seems to me that the sentence about pedestrians should either say
intolerance to injury, or that tolerance
decreases, or that this is noticeable below (not over) 30 km/h. The
sentence does not make sense otherwise.]
Anyway, the source of this is: World Health Organization. 2004. “World
Report on Road Traffic Injury Protection”
Geneva: WHO Publications. There must be some “science” behind that study.
Contact info for the journal editor:
Professor Mike Featherstone
Professor of Sociology and Communications
Telephone:+44 (0)115 848 6330
Email: [log in to unmask]
Postal address
School of Arts and Humanities
Nottingham Trent University
Clifton Campus
Nottingham
NG11 8NS
All best,
David Patton
Clare Hall
University of Cambridge
On 1/16/08 5:20 PM, "Ian Walker" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Nicholas,
You're right about the lack of science behind the 30mph limit - indeed all
the science points to a 20mph limit, as
collisions with pedestrians at this speed are greatly less likely to result
in death (22 seems to be the tipping point
from relatively safe to relatively dangerous, a fact which evolutionary
folk get very excited by...).
Ian
Dr Ian Walker | Lecturer and Director of Studies (MRes)
Department of Psychology <http://www.bath.ac.uk/psychology> , University of
Bath <http://www.bath.ac.uk/> ,
Bath BA2 7AY, England
[log in to unmask] (academic) | [log in to unmask] (other matters)
Website: drianwalker.com <http://drianwalker.com/> | Blog:
bamboobadger.blogspot.com
<http://bamboobadger.blogspot.com/>
Publish your work at Philica.com <http://philica.com/>
On 16 Jan 2008, at 17:18, Oddy, Nicholas wrote:
I would be interested in your findings. Historically, there was a
national speed limit of 20mph, with built up areas allowed to impose a
limit as low as 8mph until 1927 (I think that it was those RTAs - they
demanded that cycles carried reflectors too), its repeal led to the
proportionately highest death rates on the roads that this country has
experienced to date and was only alleviated by the mass pressure for a
30mph limit for built up areas coming to fruition in 1934, (that set of
RTAs imposing the white flash/reflector or rear lamp, both the 1927 and
34 demands caused a lot of angst amongst the cycling lobby of the time,
similar to the current debate over helmets). I have never researched why
the seemingly arbitary 30 mph was chosen but I doubt that it has any
serious scientific reasoning behind it. Personally, I would argue that
the repeal of the 20 mph national limit was one of the most regressive
acts of inter-war transport history in terms of the favouring of petrol
driven road vehicles over all other forms of land transport.
Nicholas Oddy.
-----Original Message-----
From: Cycling and Society Research Group discussion list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Justin Spinney
Sent: 16 January 2008 14:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 20mph speed limit research[Scanned-Clean]
Hi all
I am helping to put together a policy briefing for the London Cycling
Campaign on the relative costs and benefits of 20mph speed limits. I do
of course have access to the usual BMJ articles regarding casualty
reduction but have very little in relation to other aspects of 20mph
limits, i.e
potential increases in journey times to other vehicle users. Any
pointers/ links to research relating to any aspect of 20mph limits would
therefore be appreciated.
Many thanks in anticipation of your help,
Justin Spinney
[log in to unmask]
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