pic: abc.net.au
Attention speed freaks. DN reported today that speed limits on 111 Swedish miles of roads around the country will have reduced speed limits starting November 1 – or as soon as they get around to re-signing the roads. According to the Swedish Transport Administration (trafikverket), the measure will save 16 lives per year.
The changes are part of national overhaul of all the speed limits around the country. Between 2014 and 2025, the Transport Administration has plans to reduce the speed limit on 425 Swedish miles of road, and raise it on about 120 Swedish miles of road.
1 Swedish mile (mil) is equal to 10 kilometers. Roads will be signed with speed limits between 30 and 120, jumping at 10 kph intervals.
The Swedish Transport Administration has a zero-vision for traffic fatalities, and research says reducing the speed limit reduces deaths. The maximum speed where two cars can collide without “serious consequences,” DN reports, is 80 km/hour – at this speed, the risk of a fatality is 40%. Most roads that do not have a divider will have a speed limit of 80 kph.
How much longer will it take to get somewhere? Technically, and with all other things being equal, travel time increases 50 seconds for every ten kilometers when traveling at 80 kph instead of 90. What does that mean? Countcalculate.com shows that a 300 km trip, at 80 kph instead of 90, will take 25 minutes longer.
25 minutes can be either a blink of an eye or an eternity, and nothing is ever ”all other things being equal.” Whatever the circumstances, says Sandra Nordahl at the Transport Administration, ”a driver must check the signs and follow traffic regulations.”