Lead image for Red Cross: Reduce speed limit to 30km/h.
The Kenya Red Cross is pushing for sweeping changes to the country’s speed limits, including cutting the maximum speed in urban areas from 50km/h to 30km/h, as rising road crashes continue to claim lives and expose gaps in road safety enforcement.
Through its International Centre for Humanitarian Affairs, the humanitarian organisation is seeking amendments to Section 42(3A) of the Traffic Act to introduce a 30km/h limit in areas where vehicles share the road with vulnerable road users.
The proposal targets residential areas, health facilities, public playgrounds, highly built-up areas, Central Business Districts and other locations with high concentrations of pedestrians and other non-motorised road users.
Under the current law, Section 42(3A) prohibits drivers from exceeding 50km/h on roads within the boundaries of a trading centre, township, municipality or city. The Red Cross argues that the blanket limit is too high for some urban environments and is pushing for a more targeted approach based on the risks faced by pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users.
At a roundtable with journalists, the organisation said its proposals were informed by the Safe System Approach, which recognises that road users will make mistakes and seeks to ensure that such mistakes do not result in death or serious injury.
Kenya Red Cross policy and advocacy specialist on road safety Natasha Lulia said speed management was central to creating safer roads.
“Higher travel speed means less time to react, longer stopping distances, higher impact speeds and greater crash energy, resulting in a higher probability of death or serious injury,” Ms Lulia said.
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