Walk Bike and Roll to School 2023

Vehicle Speed and Safety

Walking and bicycling need to be safe and accessible transportation options. This means creating safe environments for students of all abilities and teaching safety skills to walkers, bicyclists, and drivers. How streets are designed plays a role in the speed at which people travel – speed limit, vehicle speed enforcement, number of lanes, distance of buildings from the street, landscaping, medians, signage, on-street parking.

 Higher speeds exponentially increase the chances that a driver will hit a pedestrian crossing or along the roadway and that the injuries sustained will be life changing (brain injury, physical impairment) or life ending.

 Speeding reduces a driver’s peripheral vision, increases the distance needed to stop and increases the severity of injury to a pedestrian in a crash.

o A car traveling 40 mph requires 300 feet, or an entire football field, to come to a complete stop. At 30 mph a car needs 200 feet to stop and at 20 mph requires only 100 feet.