The Department of Health (DOH) has recently voiced its support for enforcing a maximum speed limit of 30km/h in urban areas. This might sound counterintuitive, but it is actually an important solution in addressing our road-safety crisis, especially now that kids are going back to school.

You might be thinking: “What does the DOH have to do with dictating vehicle speed?”

The reality is that road safety isn’t just a transportation issue; it is also a public health concern.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, 13,125 Filipinos died on the road in 2023. And DOH secretary Teodoro Herbosa said that vehicular crashes are the leading cause of death for people aged five years old to 29 years old.

Coincidentally, the two people who died at the NAIA Terminal 1 crash happened to be a five-year-old girl and a 28-year-old male.

Speed kills. The faster and heavier you are on the road, the more dangerous you are to others. That’s physics.

According to the United Nations, 30km/h is the fastest speed at which a young child (including yours, if you have one) could survive if they were hit by a car. Anything higher is more likely to be fatal.

This should also go without saying, but you are likelier to crash the faster you are traveling. We’re not Formula 1 drivers, and even they make mistakes despite their reflexes and skill.

Won’t a 30km/h speed limit make traffic worse? No.

It’s hard to believe, but your speed in the city won’t significantly affect your travel time. Everyone’s in such a rush to get ahead when all they’re really doing is racing to see who arrives at the red light first.

Hold your horses.

You will have to stop and wait at traffic lights, yield to pedestrians at zebra crossings, and avoid hazards and obstructions. There’s a lot more slowing down than speeding up when driving in the city.

Combine this with the congestion, and you get an average travel time of 30 minutes and 10 seconds just to move 10km according to TomTom. Speaking from experience, I get around just as quickly, if not faster, on a bicycle than with my car.

Metro Manila is a city, not an expressway. So, motorists need to stop treating the streets like a drag strip and instead pay very close attention to vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists.

I used to think that 60km/h was the default speed limit in Metro Manila, and I was mistaken.

Republic Act 4136 was legislated in 1964, and it’s also known as the Land Transportation and Traffic Code. Section 35 (b) prescribes the maximum allowable travel speeds for different kinds of roads. The speed limit ranges from 40km/h for boulevards with clear traffic, to 30km/h for city streets, and 20km/h for pedestrian-heavy places such as residential areas and school zones.

However, take note that this is subject to the provisions in Section 35 (a):

Any person driving a motor vehicle on a highway shall drive the same at a careful and prudent speed, not greater nor less than is reasonable and proper, having due regard for the traffic, the width of the highway, and of any other condition then and there existing; and no person shall drive any motor vehicle upon a highway at such a speed as to endanger the life, limb and property of any person, nor at a speed greater than will permit him to bring the vehicle to a stop within the assured clear distance ahead.

Just because the posted speed limit says 60km/h doesn’t mean you should be traveling that fast. Look carefully with your eyes and think clearly with your head before stepping on the gas pedal. With great horsepower comes great responsibility.

Road safety is no accident.

The government must take concrete steps to create a safe environment where people don’t pay with their lives due to driver error or negligence. This involves infrastructure and street design just as much as law enforcement.

I remember hearing a motoring journalist share about the experience of Filipinos in Europe. One of them was apprehended by a police officer for driving too fast in a small town.

“You do not speed in the neighborhood where my children are playing.”

If LGUs and traffic enforcers shared the same empathy, then we could save more lives by preventing needless deaths.