Do We Set Speed Limits

The management of kinetic energy has been, for the greater part of motorised history, a minor consideration in the setting of speed limits. At a macrolevel, urban streets where traffic is dense and pedestrian and two-wheeled road users are common have had lower limits than rural roads, but the limits have not been set to match levels of available protection as we have just seen. The primary consideration has been the facilitation of mobility, deemed to be, as we saw in Chapter 4, the minimisation of journey time. 

In the 1920s, as motoring became more widespread in the United Kingdom, speed limits were abolished, except in densely populated areas, and were not reintroduced until 1934. The rationale was that the police resented enforcing unpopular laws and were not snpported by the courts when they did. One might also speculate that only the richer folk had motor vehicles in the 1920s  

Eliminating Serious Injury and Death from Road Transport 

The shire has an active road safety approach and songht to improve the safety of its rnral and nrban road network in the mid-2000s. 

An independent consultant assessed the crash risk of its rural network and a series of practicable minor safety works were devised and implemented to reduce that risk (roadside barrier, shoulder sealing, etc.). 

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