The Danes agree. Raise limits, less speeders & accidents.

News from Denmark…

The Danes have just released results
of a 2 year study on two way rural
roads, where they increased the
speed limit from 80 km/h to 90 km/h.

In the study, accidents on the roads
tested reduced.

On sections of motorway where the
speed limit was raised from 110 to
130 km/h nine years ago, fatalities
have also decreased.

What the Danish road directorate
discovered was that the traffic that
had been traveling below the speed
limit sped up a bit, and those who
previously broke the speed limit
were less tempted to break the
90km/h one.

To begin with, the Danish police
were not keen on the idea...

Erik Mather, a senior Danish Police
Traffic officer, said: "The police were
perhaps a little biased on this issue,
but we have had to completely
change our view now the experiment
has been trialled for two years."

There is other evidence that not
treating drivers like automatons who
should blindly obey signs works in
terms of safety.

In European cities where all "road
furniture" and signage has been
removed in urban areas, drivers have
been found to automatically slow
down when they can see pedestrians,
cyclists and children may be sharing
the same space as them.

I think what’s obvious from the Danish
experiment is that if you remove
frustration from a driver’s immediate
experience, they will drive more
considerately.