Based on the report released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, in 2022, 72.4% of accidents and 75.2% of fatalities (119,904 out of 168,491) occurred in India due to over speeding. According to the World Bank, despite accounting for just 1% of the world’s vehicle population, India accounts for 10% of all accident related deaths across the globe, with poorer households bearing a higher proportion of the loss. In addition to the loss of lives, road crashes are estimated to cost anywhere between 5 to 7% of the country’s GDP.
Management of speed remains one of the biggest challenges to road safety across the world and calls for a concerted, long-term, multidisciplinary response. Properly regulated speeds reduce the impact force in collisions, lower stopping distances, and enhance a driver’s ability to react to unexpected hazards, which collectively minimise injury and fatality rates. Lower speeds also improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists, who are more vulnerable to harm in high-speed collisions.
Effective speed management helps ensure compliance with traffic regulations, promotes smoother traffic flow and reduces accident risk. Additionally, it supports environmental benefits by reducing fuel consumption and emissions. Overall, speed management is a key strategy in creating safer road environments, protecting all road users, and contributing to broader societal and environmental goals.
Speed Management Approaches Across the World
Globally, the perspectives on speed management are shaped by a variety of factors including cultural attitudes towards driving, infrastructure quality, and regulatory frameworks. In some countries, stringent speed limits and rigorous enforcement are standard practice, driven by advanced road safety technologies and high public awareness. In others, speed management may be less emphasised due to different priorities or infrastructural challenges.
Understanding global perspectives on speed management involves examining how different regions address common challenges such as high accident rates, varying road conditions, and diverse traffic patterns. It also includes exploring how international best practices are adapted to local contexts to improve road safety outcomes. By analysing these diverse approaches, we can gain insights into effective speed management strategies that can be tailored to specific regional needs and contribute to a safer global road network.
Netherlands - Road Design
The Netherlands has been implementing its Duurzaam veilig (Sustainable Safety) approach to road safety since 1997 - 98. Sustainable Safety is considered a predecessor to the Safe System approach of today. This is a shared initiative between the national, provincial, and municipal governments in the Netherlands. Since its adoption as a national guideline, Sustainable Safety has shaped the subsequent decades of Dutch roadway design, creating streets ideally suited to the majority of transportation involving pedestrians and cyclists of all ages and abilities. Sustainable Safety comprises five guiding principles: functionality, biomechanics, psychologics, responsibility, and learning and innovating.
One of the focus areas is psychologics, ie, making explicit, what is otherwise implicit, commonsense understanding of what road users might expect from road infrastructure. The aim is to align the design of the road traffic environment with road user competencies, supported by their traffic system's design that is well-matched with the abilities and expectations of road users. This ensures that the information from the traffic system can be perceived, understood (“self-explaining”), relevant and feasible for all road users, making them capable of adjusting their behaviour to safely navigate traffic under prevalent conditions. This applies equally to drivers and non-motorized road users.
The concept of self-explaining roads, originating from the Netherlands, aims to create road environments that align with user expectations. This approach encourages safer behaviour, speeds, manoeuvres, and interactions among road users. Key aspects of Self-Explaining Roads (SER) include standardised road types and consistent design elements such as layout, road features, and signage. Essentially, SER implies that roads themselves guide appropriate behaviour, reducing the reliance on enforcement, explanations, or education. This concept is grounded in statistical learning theory, which suggests that road users develop expectations based on repeated experiences in specific road environments.
Netherland roads are categorised into three main categories based on their functionality.
Figure 1: Access roads (ideal design) inside and outside built-up areas that also correspond to different speed limits, Netherlands.
Figure 2: Distributor roads and through roads (ideal design) outside built-up areas in the Netherlands
Columbia - Adoption of a Speed Management Program
The capital city of Columbia, Bogota officially adopted Vision Zero, developed based on the Safe Systems approach in 2017. The Speed Management Program (Programa de Gestión de la Velocidad, PGV) was designed to regulate safe speeds across various city corridors and adjust speed limits in different areas. This initiative engaged the community and stakeholders by raising awareness about speed as a risk factor. It established safe speed limits and prioritised measures to control speed through improved infrastructure, education, enforcement, and effective communication strategies, all aimed at protecting citizens' lives.
In addition to traffic calming measures around the city and safe design interventions, especially for vulnerable road users and school children, speed limit implementation was one of the most important interventions for speed management with implementation of a maximum speed limit of 50 km/h on arterial roads in the city. This was initially introduced across 10 major corridors and was expanded to most of the main roads for the rest of the city. This was backed by coordinated enforcement with the City Police, a comprehensive communications strategy and targeted infrastructure improvements. The remarkable outcomes are highlighted in the infographic below.
Figure 3: Infographic displaying the outcomes of the speed limit of 50 km/h in 10 corridors in Bogota, Colombia.
In 2021, following the extension of the 50 km/h speed limit to most main roads, there was an 11% reduction in fatalities compared to the 2015–17 average (before the PGV implementation). This translated to 37 lives saved for the year of 2021, all of whom were pedestrians, the most vulnerable road users in Bogotá.
The success of Bogotá's speed limit initiative was so remarkable that the National Road Safety Agency implemented a 50 km/h speed limit in all Colombian cities through the new Julián Esteban Road Safety Law. The new law mandates a 50 km/h speed limit in urban areas, in accordance with World Health Organization recommendations, and sets a 90 km/h limit on highways nationwide. Previously, speed limits were as high as 120 km/h on highways and 80 km/h on urban roads.
Australia - Automated Speed Enforcement
According to Transport for New South Wales (NSW) Australia, almost 135 people die and 1,141 people are seriously injured in NSW each year from speed‑related crashes. It is the biggest contributor to road trauma on NSW roads. In NSW, speeding consistently contributes to around 41% of road fatalities and 24% of serious injuries each year.
NSW has an Automated Enforcement Strategy for road safety (‘Strategy’) that provides an overarching framework to manage the automated enforcement programs to help reduce road trauma in NSW. It is a key action in the NSW Government’s 2026 Road Safety Action Plan to achieve their long-term vision of zero road deaths and serious injuries by 2050.
Speed cameras detect vehicles that exceed posted speed limits and have been proven to enhance road safety by reducing speeding and, consequently, the number and severity of crashes. In NSW there are four types of speed cameras currently used, each used differently to encourage drivers to comply with speed limits.
- Fixed speed cameras: Detects speeding at specific high risk locations
- Red-light speed cameras: Detects speeding and red-light running at specific signalised intersections
- Mobile speed cameras: Enforce speed limits across the road network by relocating to various locations at different times, supporting the perception of "anywhere, anytime" enforcement.
- Average speed cameras: Detects heavy vehicle speeding between two points on specific high-volume and/or high-risk routes
It was found that the speed camera programs continued to provide substantial road safety benefits to the NSW community. Overall, road trauma rates were considerably lower at fixed, red‑light, and average speed camera locations, compared to pre‑installation as shown in the table below. It was also found that the mobile speed camera program also continued to deliver road safety benefits (although a detailed analysis is yet to be undertaken).
Table 1: Road trauma reductions at NSW location five-years pre-installation compared to 2016-2020; Source: NSW Speed Cameras Program - 2021 Review
Vietnam - Safe School Zones
The Walk this Way (WTW) program was launched in Vietnam by the Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation to increase awareness of child pedestrian safety and improve road user behaviour in Vietnam. A baseline study was conducted across 37 schools in Ho Chi Min consisting of a road safety environment assessment with the iRAP Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) application, rating the risks and safety of roads from 1-star (least safe) to 5-star (safest). An assessment with the school community revealed that 51% of parents cited safety as the primary reason for not allowing their children to walk to school alone. Additionally, over 95% of parents indicated the need to improve sidewalks, signage, and traffic signals to reduce vehicle speeds near schools.
Out of the 37 schools assessed, four were selected based on their different school zone needs.
Before the intervention, 60% of pilot school sites were rated 1 or 2 stars. Road modifications were then made including the installation of sidewalks, yellow warning lights, refuge islands, school zone signs, pedestrian crossing signs, slow down markings and raised crosswalks across the four pilot schools. These road upgrades improved the Star Rating of all four schools, providing a measurable increase in the safety level for students on their journey to school. Post-implementation results showed that all the schools achieved a rating of at least 3 stars or better according to the SR4S ratings.
In 2022, WTW was shown to have significantly increased student safety using a systemic approach that included implementing school zone modifications along with awareness and education. Modifications were implemented in 11 schools post which results showed that 10 out of the 11 schools were ranked at least 3 stars or above with SR4S. In parallel, advocacy with the local government secured funding for school modifications at 10 additional schools, resulting in a total of 21 schools being modified, creating a safer walking environment for children and communities in Vietnam.
Figure 4 : A refuge island installed in front of Pham Van Chi Primary School in District 6 and a raised crosswalk installed in Mach Kiem Hung Secondary School in District 5
Recommendations
Overall, evidence-based speed management strategies are crucial components of any road safety framework and play a crucial role to enhance road safety and reduce traffic-related fatalities. They also play a significant role in enhancing environmental and health outcomes, as well as improving overall quality of life. Drawing on successful practices from around the world, the following recommendations aim to provide ideas that can be incorporated for effective speed management in India.
- Design roads for safe speeds and behaviour: Incorporate road design features that help in speed management by intuitively communicating appropriate driving behaviour, enhancing road safety and reducing the likelihood of accidents (such as self-explaining roads, traffic calming measures, signages, etc)
- Prioritise safety: Adopt a road safety action plan with evidence based principles such as the safe systems approach that puts the safety of the population at the heart of its framework.
- Lower speed limits in urban regions: Introduce speed limits tailored to urban areas, road types and traffic conditions, to prioritise safety in pedestrian heavy zones.
- Use Automated Speed Enforcement: Improved enforcement using technology such as fixed, mobile, red-light and average speed cameras to enforce speed limits and other traffic violations.
Develop Safe zones: Develop safe zones within cities such as safe school zones, pedestrian-only zones and residential neighbourhood zones to enhance safety, particularly for vulnerable road users.
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