For Cape Town, 60 is Too Much

Posted: 01 Aug 2003

Related to: Promoting Cycling in Africa, Planning & Advocacy for Cycling & Walking, South Africa
Contributed by: Paul Steely White and Bertie Phillips

In June, the Bicycling Empowerment Network (BEN) and ITDP launched a campaign to reduce traffic speeds on Cape Town roads. Based on successful campaign in the Netherlands, Australia, and Switzerland, the campaign has received good press coverage over the past week and attracted the attention of senior transportation officials.

The general speed limit in Cape Town is currently 60km/h, and the majority of streets are designed to accommodate speeds at or above this limit. In 2001, 563 pedestrians died on Cape Town’s roads, thousands were injured, and hundreds of thousands more lived in fear of traffic. A reduction in the general urban speed limit to 50km/h is the first step to reduce speeds enough to save thousands of lives and significantly improve hundreds of thousands more.

One of the greatest benefits of the lower speed limit is the long-term affect it will have on street design. Engineers base their street designs to a large extent on the general speed limit. A lower speed limit would thus yield streets that self-enforce lower speeds with physical features such as narrower lanes, medians and turns.

Other cities have had success with lowering general limits from 60km/h to 50km/h. In Switzerland, pedestrian crashes fell by 20% and pedestrian deaths by 25% when the speed limit was lowered. Crashes that caused death or serious injuries to pedestrians were lowered by 46%. Denmark had remarkable success with its speed limit reduction ­ serious injuries were reduced by 78%. Now most children in Denmark walk or cycle to school, with cycling rates among students as high as 60%.

Photo: Safety measures are used in Cape Town’s exclusive neighborhoods

Australia recently passed legislation that would make the default speed limit 50 km/h. This led to a 13% reduction in crashes, and crashes involving pedestrians went down 22%.

Recent isolated efforts to curb speeds only in upper class neighborhoods are an insult to the majority of Cape Town residents who are forced to navigate deadly streets several times a day in order to access jobs, schools, and services. The fact is that all of Cape Town’s roads, even high-speed urban highways, are regularly walked along and traversed. It is time to reduce speeds to conform to this reality.