case study
The Inner West Council uses data-driven evidence to lower speed limits for road safety, in particular pedestrians and cyclists.
The Inner West council did a speed study for the InnerWest@40 project to see what happens when you change the speed limit of 50km/hr roads to 40km/hr. This project’s results were defined by observing near-misses and speeds provided by the NSW Open Data Hub and Compass IoT connected vehicle data.
The data showed 60% of cars travelled at 40km/hr which reflected existing traffic conditions.
Near-miss data from the data providers also correlated with existing crash data.
The results found which areas in the local government area posed the biggest risk for drivers. Planners can now consider strategies and prioritise high priority areas. The speed reduction strategies could provide economic benefits such as:
These changes could result in a decrease of related injuries by 30% and save an estimated: