Extant Speed Limits and Current Levels of Protection

EXTANT SPEED LIMITS AND CURRENT LEVELS OF PROTECTION 

The management of kinetic energy exchange to levels that the human body can tolerate is a fundamental of injury prevention. As we saw in Section 6.2, there are five pillars of the Safe System. Setting aside the pillar better management, the other four are safe vehicles, safe roads and roadsides, safe road users, and safe speeds. Each is intimately connected to the others. Let us look at the extent to which the levels of protection provided by current vehicles, roads and roadsides, and road users match typical speed limits and conunonly measured travel speeds. 

Perhaps, after all, speed is not the culprit. It seems that the real culprit is that we have failed to match all the elements within the Safe System model. Safe speeds are speeds that are aligned with the available levels of protection, something we clearly do not do well enough. 

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