DRIVE down a busy shopping street at the same speed as other cars, and the
odds are that no one will get hurt. But drive down that street a little faster
and your chance of being in an accident increases dramatically.
According to a study done by Britain鈥檚 Transport Research Laboratory, if you
drive at 36 miles per hour (58 kilometres per hour) when the average speed of
traffic is 30 mph (48 kph), you are 10 times as likely to have an accident as
the average motorist
(see p 11).
This research has two lessons. The first is that a large proportion of
accidents are caused by a relatively small number of fast drivers. Second, this
problem is most acute on busy urban streets, such as those lined by shops.
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Politically, these should be relatively easy problems to tackle. Hard-hitting
publicity should help to make speeding as socially unacceptable as drunk
driving.
If speeding does become unacceptable, politicians might even pluck up courage
to insist that cars carry devices to stop them breaking speed limits. Today,
this would probably be viewed as unacceptable. But cars kill 45 000 people a
year in the European Union alone. Is the freedom to put your foot down worth
such a high price?