• azimir@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    People drives the speed they feel is appropriate for the design of the road, not the posted speed limit. If you make your neighborhood streets wide, straight, and open people will drive 40+ kph regardless of the posted sign.

    One of the strategies the Netherlands did was to formally classify car routes into one of three slots sort like: streets, roads, freeways. Then any streets get narrowed, traffic calming, closer trees by the road, jogs, and speed bumps. People instinctively then mostly drive 25 kph or slower.

    The US system for picking speed limits is actually retroactive: build the road, measure how fast people choose to drive, and pick a speed limit about 80% of the mean. I’m many cases it’s not nearly as intentionally designed as you might think.