REDUCED SPEED LIMIT

Speed limit for vehicles at urban area will be reduced to below 50 km/h for all city in Malaysia that MIROS had been submitted to government for proposal,The existing of speed limit are between 50 to 70 km/h and 80% of the speed limit for urban in many country in the world are under 50 km/h.These speed limit are introduced in South Korea but many complaints from young drivers that the 50 km/h are not suitable.

The main reason to reduced the speed limit are :

1. Fewer accidents,injuries and death to the road users.The stopping distance or brake distance a cars at speed 30 km/h are shorter than at speed 50 km/h that means the drivers still can stop the car without hit the road users or if hits also can cause only minor injuries.
2. The road users are including a childrens,aged and disabled person.These type of person are sometimes are not aware about the safety when on the road so when a speed limit are reduced to 30 km/h that means greater safety for these groups of people.
3. To get the speed of 50 km/h,the drivers must press more to the fuel pedal and the make a bigger noise from the exhaust system compare to the speed at 30 km/h so the urban more quieter .
4. More space for pedestrians and children space.The design lane or geometry for speed at 50 km/h are more wider than design lane at a lower speed.The wider shoulder are use as pedestrians lane and for a children playground and for the other purposes.
5. The wider shoulders or wider pedestrian lane can also used as the cycle lane for cyclist.The urban residents can used a cycle for going to one place to one place in the city without used a cars and also can reduce the air pollution .
6. With no air pollution or lower carbon city that can contribute a good environment and health .

But research and comparison between different speed limit have to carry out because different country have different character of people,type of vehicle,type of urban planning layout.For the existing urban area may be faced a problem to implement this speed limit.The regulation or road law have to amend and the most important thing is how to monitor the road users will follow this speed limit.For the new development urban area,the design road geometry will based on the design speed limit.For the existing urban area,many complaints regarding this new speed limit.The complaints are include:

1. Creates more traffic jams and congestion costs.The main reason of traffic jams because of the traffic volume is higher at one short time not because of speed limit and also the traffic jams will slower the speed limit.
2. Hinders public transports.Now the public transports have special lane like Jakarta,the bus lane are special at the middle of the road and also like Kuala Lumpur,the elevated MRT or LRT have a special lane or tracks bur as said above when the road shoulders wider,the special lane for public transport can be build at this area.\
3. Creates more emission.So we to the concept of combustion of petrol or car fuel.When the speed limit are low,the patrol will combustion in perfect condition compared to the higher limit which the carbon residue are more to emit by exhaust system.
4. Restrict personal freedom.The road area is a public area not belong to personal so if the lower speed can get good things compared to the bad things ,all the road users happy,good for human,good for environment and good for all,
5. Costs to make the speed limit are higher.At the beginning the higher cost needed to make a signboard,to change a law.to set up the enforcement team and etc but the ROI will be get at the future.

There are the pro and con when changing the speed limit at the existing urban area,Study must be conduct before implementing the new speed limit.The system have to modify when necessary to get a better result.Thank you