The measure is aimed at reducing accidents in urban areas with heavy pedestrian traffic and narrow streets, marking a major shift in the country’s traffic rules as these roads account for around 70% of all ordinary roads nationwide.
[…] above [30 kph] the risk of pedestrians suffering fatal injuries in accidents is said to spike.
[…]
The aim of the speed limit change “is to prevent accidents by stopping dangerous driving, such as failing to slow down even on busy streets”
60 kph seems really high for residential, yikes
Japan actually does very little in the way of pedestrian or bicycle friendly road design compared to most European countries (there are a few things worth learning from IMO, just not as many as, say, the Netherlands).
It works as well as it does because of the narrow streets and how little car traffic they have (even less than the Netherlands, which does way more to try and reign in cars but has way more of them). They have so little car traffic because you have to prove you have a permanent parking space in order to buy a car, there’s no on-street parking, and the public transit network is very extensive. That and the aforementioned narrow streets just make driving inconvenient compared to the other options.
They’ve done this in a few areas of Melbourne. The fatal injury data is certainly a compelling case:
“the risk of fatality for a pedestrian hit by a vehicle travelling at 30km/h is around 10%, compared to approximately 40% at 40km/h and more than 80% at 50km/h.”
https://acrs.org.au/evidence-supports-30km-h-speed-limits-in-school-zones/I will admit that driving at 30km/h is pretty painful sometimes.
I will admit that driving at 30km/h is pretty painful sometimes.
That’s probably street design issue.
It’s also an issue of sitting in a box being shielded from the outsides. 30 km/h on a bicycle feels very different from 30 km/h in a metal box.
broader city design too, you shouldn’t really have to spend much time on residential streets. It should be like a circulatory system, most of the traffic is on a small number of high-speed high-capacity through-roads and then it quickly splits apart into a bunch of smaller local streets.
It would be painful to drive at that speed. Slowest you’ll ever see in the US on public roads is generally 25mph/40kph even in residential or downtown areas. Even then most people are driving 30mph+, 48kph+
40km/h has been the minimum speed limit on public roads in Aus for quite a while, and it’s still the norm. 30 is pretty new and will probs take some time to adjust to.
the US has some 15mph roads, and plentiful 20 mph residential roads
I have seen them, but it’s extremely rare in my area. Maybe campgrounds and parking lots, but that’s it.
in my city all unlabeled roads are 20mph
it is extremely hard to drive at 30 kmh. The car at its lowest power still wants to exceed 30, so it’s accelerator, regen, accelerator, regen… very jerky ride
The car at its lowest power still wants to exceed 30
Is… there a /s missing here? Because if not, that sounds like an issue with your car to be honest. I’ve never driven a car that had an issue keeping 30 steadily
There’s always a few people in speed limit conversations outing themselves. Do they lack the concept of riding on your breaks? How do they navigate a parking lot where you’re very likely limited to 15kph?
i can’t ride my breaks, as soon as I touch the brake pedal, a minimum amount of regen immediately activates. I could drive very easily at 30 with my old manual petrol car. I’m not a (complete) idiot.
edit: it’s a chinese car. Their minimum is 40. s40? easy. 30? hell
So according to your other comments this is a problem with your Chinese car simply being shit at driving slow? And you know that based on experience with your previous car? What exactly is the comment supposed to tell us? While I still find it unrealistic that you can not simply drive slower with that car, even if I accept that we know it is specifically an issue with that car. Who else drives such a shit car? Will they update their car to allow smooth slow driving? Who knows, but the legislature sure should not care about such nonsense when lowering the speed limit to make spaces saver.
Sidewalks are quite rare outside major corridors in space-constrained Japan (you’re often lucky to get so much as a gutter or a hint of a shoulder to walk/cycle on), so this is an overdue move indeed.
Pictured below is a pretty normal street width/layout in both rural and urban Japan, and the street I lived on was about 30-50% narrower than even this, and had high walls on either side (zero setbacks).
You know I couldn’t imagine going 40 miles an hour down that road but I’m sure people do
yikes. it’s 60kph now on a street like that? half that seems far more reasonable, even without giant trucks and suv on the streets.
Yeah but it’s Japan. So, in my experience at least, if driers can see pedestrians they’re not driving that fast at all. It would be dishonourable 😄 but seriously, they’re driving carefully.
Just passed my driving test. You’re legally obligated to drive bellow 10 km/h or stop completely if there are pedestrians on roads like this.
There we have it, everyone!
My carbrain seeing the title: Wtf, 30 for normal residential areas is a bit TOO low, we have 50 in most of Europe and that’s just fine
My carbrain after seeing the photo: Nah this would be 20 in my country and in the vicinity of pedestrians, at pedestrian speed. AKA you’d definitely see one of these signs.
It’s wild they allowed 60 on streets like this in the first place. That must feel like street racing going down this narrow alley. I was sort of expecting a regular street with a sidewalk upon seeing the title and the fact that it used to be 60.
I’m assuming that it had stayed so high for so long precisely because almost everyode was driving well under the speed limit.
I hope so.
It’s going to 30km/h (20mph) in many more countries now as a result of the Stockholm Declaration on Road Safety in 2020 (later endorsed by the UN) which puts a lot of emphasis on specifically 20lm/h speed limits. In the UK there is a big push for 20mph; in Wales most roads have been made 20mph.
There are still 3,558 pedestrian deaths per year in the EU, while there are 7,080 per year in the US.
The Stockholm Declaration aims for 50% fewer road deaths in 2030 compared to 2020.
A pedestrian hit at 30 km/h has about a 90% chance of surviving, but at 50 km/h, survival drops to about 20%. So while I get the appeal of driving fast, I think it’s a very reasonable measure. 1000s of deaths per year to shave minutes off arrival times is not acceptable.
Source: am cycling campaigner in the UK
are you sure you’re not thinking of the default urban speed limit? That’s 50kmph here in sweden too, but actual residential streets almost universally have a signed 40 or 30kmph limit.
Most residential areas in Estonia are the default urban speed limit, sometimes they’re limited to 30. 40 is rare but exists too. Usually someone has to complain for speed limits to get put up.
The living street sign is in places where kids play on the street often, etc. Tbh I think more residential areas should have that, but it does come with the caveat that you need to stop the car and either exit or have a passenger enter or exit within the residential area. Passing through is not allowed, which means you can’t put it on bottleneck streets unless the entire area on one side of the street is covered too
In the Netherlands cities are going to 30kmh anywhere cars come in contact with other traffic participants.
In the Netherlands those rural looking roads are up to 80kmh, up to 100 in Germany, 90 in Belgium.
30 km/hr means people can legally drive EV autocycles on roads.
No, the aspect ratio is correct.
?
they can already, there is no “minimal max speed” limit
idk why people writing “kilos per hour” pisses me off so much. 1000 what per hour? Surely any other letter makes more sense to remove than the actual unit??
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.That’s the USA for you, they have MPH so no way they use something as serious as km/h, gotta USify that.
everyone knows you just omit the entire thing, it’s just “japan lowers speed limit from 60 to 30”
Sounds like the isekai levels have gotten too high.
