Low-Speed Zone Guide | World Resources Institute
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Guidebook
Low-Speed Zone Guide
This Low-Speed Zone Guide presents strategies for planning, designing, building, and evaluating low-speed zones in cities. The guide intends to equip communities and decision-makers with the tools to implement low-speed zones that will suit their specific context.
DOI
Topic
Cities
May 14, 2021
112
Pages
This Guidebook is part of
Urban Mobility
Vision Zero Challenge
Health & Road Safety
Safe & Sustainable Mobility: Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety
and
Bloomberg Cities Idea Exchange
within
Cities
. Reach out to
Nikita Luke
for more information.
This Guidebook is part of
Urban Mobility
Vision Zero Challenge
Health & Road Safety
Safe & Sustainable Mobility: Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety
and
Bloomberg Cities Idea Exchange
within
Cities
. Reach out to
Nikita Luke
for more information.
Authors
Anna Bray Sharpin
Claudia Adriazola-Steil
Soames Job
Marta Obelheiro
Ben Welle
Celal Tolga Imamoglu
Amit Bhatt
, Daizong Liu,
Natalia Lleras
and
Nikita Luke
Primary Contacts
Nikita Luke
License
Creative Commons
Every year approximately 1.35 million people lose their lives due to road traffic crashes. In many road crashes, speed plays a key role. As a result, managing speed has taken on great importance in cities around the world.
An effective method for reducing speed and improving road safety, especially in high-risk areas, has been to establish low-speed zones. This Low-Speed Zone Guide presents strategies for planning, designing, building, and evaluating low-speed zones. The guide intends to equip communities and decision-makers with the tools to implement low-speed zones that will suit their specific context.
Highlights
Traffic crashes are a leading cause of death and serious injury worldwide; most notably, they are the leading cause of death and serious injury among young people aged 5–29. Higher motor vehicle speeds increase the likelihood and severity of crashes.
Low-speed zones have emerged as one of the most promising strategies for speed management. They can be appropriate in many different contexts and at various scales, as exemplified by case studies of successful projects around the world.
Low-speed zones in cities need to be well-planned, well-designed, and well-built, to maximize safety and other benefits.
Physical traffic-calming measures and target speeds of 30 kilometers/hour (km/h) or lower have the greatest proven safety benefits.
Key considerations for implementation include stakeholder engagement, site selection (including risk: pedestrian/vulnerable road user presence), enforcement, evaluation, and the adaptation of basic principles for low-speed zone design to the local context.
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Insights
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Projects
Urban Mobility
Improving quality of life, health and opportunity in cities through sustainable and safe transport and urban design.
Visit Project
Part of
Cities
Vision Zero Challenge
Challenging city leaders to save lives by taking bold actions on road safety.
Launch Platform
Launch Platform
Visit Project
Part of
Cities
Health & Road Safety
Creating safer mobility systems to connect people to opportunities and foster sustainable, equitable cities.
Visit Project
Part of
Cities
Safe & Sustainable Mobility: Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety
Reducing road traffic fatalities and injuries through a comprehensive, data-driven approach.
Visit Project
Part of
Cities
Bloomberg Cities Idea Exchange
Accelerating the spread of successful road safety solutions among cities around the world.
Visit Project
Part of
Cities
Primary Contacts
Nikita Luke
Project Manager,
Health & Road Safety,
WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities