The four major cities want to reduce the speed on almost all roads in the city to a maximum of 30 km/h as quickly as possible. This should significantly reduce the number of fatal road casualties, reports the AD.
Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht are asking the cabinet and the House of Representatives to quickly regulate the reduction of the maximum speed to 30 km/h. Currently, almost half of all roads in the four largest cities already have this speed limit. Now that cities are getting busier, that is far from enough, they say.
Amsterdam alderman Egbert de Vries (PvdA, Traffic and Transport) points out that ’80 percent of the number of traffic victims’ occurs on roads with a maximum speed of 50 km/h. “In the past we gave the car too much space in cities, now quality of life is paramount.”
The plea doesn’t exactly come out of thin air. At the beginning of this year it became apparent that there is considerable support among Dutch municipalities for a general reduction of the maximum speed to 30 km/h in built-up areas. It is important to note that adapting 50 km/h roads will cost a lot of money. Engineering firm Sweco estimated the costs for this at more than €1 billion: €950 million for the large-scale reconstruction of roads where the speed limit is now 50 km/h and €175 million for roads where it can be done without major changes.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl