Tempo 30 prevents many serious accidents

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At the very least, it could be expected that stricter speed limits would provide greater safety on our roads. But what are the implications of redesigning streets, such as creating bike lanes or turning intersections into roundabouts? What impact do such measures have on road safety? The Accident Prevention Advisory Center BfU has now evaluated this. In 2014, he created the digital database to evaluate road infrastructure measures, or MEVASI for short (see box). On this web platform, 2500 infrastructure measures implemented in the road network are now listed in 28 categories across Switzerland. This includes, among other things, structural adjustments to road surfaces, changes in markings and signaling, and expansion of lighting.

For the first time, the researchers were able to perform a precise data analysis for seven of the 28 categories of measures evaluated to assess their effectiveness for road safety on a well-founded basis. The seven measures examined are in detail:

1. Adding a centerline (demarcation)
2. Turning intersections into roundabouts
3. Marking of bike lanes
4. Creation of meeting zones
5. Introduction of 30 km/h zones
6. Attach black and white guide arrows to curves
7. Lowering the speed limit

Speed ​​limits are in effect

Three measures showed a particularly positive effect on accident occurrence. The database for the 30 km/h zones is by far the largest: the BfU was able to evaluate around 600 such zones for their impact on road safety. The net result: The number of serious accidents decreased by an average of 38 percent during the working period! When the speed limit was lowered, the number of serious accidents fell even further (40 percent).

The conversion of roundabouts and intersections to roundabouts and the placement of black and white guide arrows on bends also resulted in a significant reduction in serious crashes (63 percent). Deleting center lines and marking bike lanes provides an even greater crash-reducing effect of 73 to 78 percent, depending on model calculation.

Source: Blick