“Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that’s what gets you.”

Fans of Jeremy Clarkson will definitely recall this famous quote. Now, whether you agree with the controversial personality might be an entirely different matter altogether.

Asian Development Bank has published a manual about the “benefits of managing road speed” for the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation, which counts as its member countries the following:

•  Afghanistan
•  Azerbaijan
•  China
•  Georgia
•  Kazakhstan
•  Kyrgyz Republic
•  Mongolia
•  Pakistan
•  Tajikistan
•  Turkmenistan
•  Uzbekistan

The study has found that reducing speeds by just 10km/h “across all roads in the CAREC region” can decrease car-crash deaths to less than 50% of what is now currently normal.

Since the Philippines is not included in the study, one wonders if this can apply to our roads as well. Assuming it does, this would mean—for instance—cutting the speed limit on EDSA from 60km/h to 50km/h.

The CAREC region has an average of 168 passenger vehicles per 1,000 individuals. That puts it above Asia’s norm, but clearly below high-income countries like Japan and South Korea. It is estimated that car accidents, on average, have a 4.6% dent in gross domestic product in CAREC countries annually.

“Speed limits are critical and must be set with a focus on safety risks, including protecting vulnerable road users on roads where they are present,” the manual says. “Best practice has steadily shifted in good road safety countries from 50 kilometers per hour (km/h) to 40km/h for urban roads with 30km/h limits in pedestrian areas.”

Basically, the goal is to implement “safe speeds.” What makes a speed rating safe? If a road user—whether a car passenger or a pedestrian—has a “90% chance of survival.”

• 30km/h for impacts with pedestrians and cyclists
• 40km/h for impacts with fixed objects
• 50km/h for car-to-car direct side-impact crashes
• 70km/h for head-on crashes

As for the famous Jeremy Clarkson quote on speed, the ADB manual has this to say:

Speed management is the greatest road safety opportunity available to CAREC (and many other) countries, yet speed management is the most underestimated, poorly understood, inadequately addressed, and resisted opportunity on the basis of misinformation. This manual works toward correcting this situation by providing relevant scientific evidence and showing the many unexpected benefits of interventions to reduce speeds.

Download the free manual here.