Momentum grows for lower speeds on local streets

When WA introduced 50km/h speed zones for local streets in built-up areas in 2001, there was an immediate impact on road safety.

Despite concerns by some road users who felt they were being slowed to a crawl on streets they had normally navigated at 60km/h or more, the proof of the project could be measured in lives saved.

Pedestrian crashes in Perth in the first two years fell by half — an incredible reduction, given early studies found around 20 per cent of drivers were still travelling at least 10km/h above the new limit.

An evaluation conducted soon after the implementation estimated 45 lives had been saved in Perth and 20 lives saved on regional roads in just two years, with more than 700 people across the state saved from serious injury.

Now, 25 years on, there’s a push to lower speeds again, this time to 40km/h on local streets close to the city.

And just as with the drop from 60 to 50km/h, changing to 40km/h is predicted to have far-reaching implications for road safety — as well as some community pushback.

Looking at the numbers

Research conducted for RAC by the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q) in 2022 estimated that more than 500 fatalities and serious injuries in WA could be prevented between 2022 and 2030 if all 50km/h speed limits were reduced to 40km/h.

Since then, concerns around resurging road trauma have only grown.

In 2024, more than 1400 people were seriously injured and 188 killed on WA roads, with about 60 per cent of serious injuries and fatalities combined, happening on roads signposted 70km/h or below.

On average, 18 people die each year on 50km/h roads in WA, with nearly 300 seriously injured.

For RAC Manager Road Safety Policy, David Elston, physics makes a strong case for reduced speeds on roads where people walk, cycle, play or interact with vehicles.

Lower speeds not only give drivers, pedestrians and cyclists greater time to react and avoid a potential crash but also reduce the speed of impact if a crash does occur.

Research shows cars travelling at 50km/h can take about 35 metres to stop on a dry road, he says, while stopping distance falls to 26 metres at 40km/h and 17 metres at 30km/h.

That might still be too far to avoid a collision, but the reduced distance and shorter stopping time means the vehicle is slowing, so any eventual crash is at a much lower speed.

“If you reduce vehicle traffic speeds, then it decreases deaths and serious injuries,” Elston says.

“The slower the driver is going, the quicker they can react, and the quicker they can come to a stop. Even if they don't come to a stop, because the human body is fragile, it can only take a certain amount of force in a crash.”

A pedestrian hit by a car at 50km/h has just a 20 per cent rate of survival. At 40km/h that chance rises to 60 per cent but a pedestrian hit at 30km/h has a 90 per cent chance of surviving.

Despite the safety advantages, perceptions of lower speeds can make people less supportive of 40km/h limits, Elston says.

“The primary concern we hear from people is that it might affect their journey time, but if you're reducing speed limits on local residential streets, people typically are only driving very short distances on those streets before they join a more major road,” he says.

“The impact on journey times on those urban streets is usually very minimal.”

Similar scepticism was seen in the introduction of 50km/h limits, although support grew rapidly once drivers became used to the new system.

Whereas only 60 per cent of community members approved of the drop to 50km/h in 2000, by 2003, 91 per cent were in favour and hardened opposition had fallen to 3 per cent.

RAC’s David Elston says most drivers come to understand the benefits of calming traffic on the local streets where people live, and reserving higher speeds for arterial roads designed to move large volumes of traffic.

“The biggest benefit is safety and that is the primary reason for looking at speed limits, but there are a range of additional benefits,” he says.

“It can make streets more welcoming, encourage walking and cycling, reduce vehicle noise and in some cases even reduce fuel consumption and emissions,” he says.

Working together on safer streets

The Perth Inner City Safer Speed Zone Project brings together groups including the Department of Transport, Main Roads WA, the WA Local Government Association, RAC and the Road Safety Commission, along with a number of inner-city councils.

Working on the principle that a 20 per cent reduction in speed from 50km/h to 40km/h can translate to a 200 per cent increase in survivability, the group is seeking to reduce speeds across a 62km² area close to the CBD.

The City of Vincent was the earliest council to act, launching a 40km/h trial in 2019 that reduced speed limits on local roads between Newcastle and Vincent streets.

In 2023, it began rolling out the new limit across the local government area with nearly 60 per cent resident support.

While a reduction in crashes was identified as part of the trial, other changes were also observed that helped cement the adoption of lower limits.

Resident surveys showed a 21 per cent increase in the perception of improved liveability, while 34 per cent reported being more likely to choose walking or riding over local car trips. The number of pedestrians and cyclists in the area also climbed by 14 per cent in the first 12 months.

PJA transport planner, Tim Judd, says the momentum for change across the inner city is growing.

“What helped in Vincent was that it started with a temporary trial which helped get it off the ground more easily,” he says.

“After COVID came it was a chance to leave the trial in place and allow more people to walk and ride. When you looked at the 12-month review we had of the trial compared to the three-year review, the change in people's attitudes towards the lower speeds was remarkable.

“They were saying ‘Yeah, the world didn't end, and it’s not really affected my day-to-day journeys at all.’ It felt a bit safer for people to allow their kids to walk or ride to school. It felt a bit calmer.

“The change in community perception was quite significant.”

Five additional local governments, including Perth, South Perth, Cambridge, Subiaco and Victoria Park, have now approved the adoption of 40km/h on at least some local streets, and Nedlands is waiting on the results of community consultation.

In November, the City of Perth approved 40 km/h limits for access roads and local distributor roads in all city neighbourhoods, extending the limit that already applies in the CBD to West Perth, East Perth and parts of Crawley.

Major roads, including Mounts Bay Road and Thomas Street will be unaffected.

In July, the Victoria Park council also voted to progress plans to reduce speeds but noted publicising the change became more expensive if each council had to act independently, rather than as a group.

Tim Judd says the simplicity of setting 40km/h as a default makes joint action desirable — and represents an enormous saving when compared to physical infrastructure changes such as roundabouts, road narrowing or other ways to slow down traffic.

“Most councils wait until they get a complaint from someone about speeding on their road and then go and check it out. Then they might come up with a traffic-calming design that needs to be consulted on and funded,” he says.

“It can take one or two years just on a single road based on someone's complaint.

“What they can do now is say, it’s 40km/h everywhere. We can now monitor the speeds and where we're not getting the compliance, and focus funding on any physical measures to get the speeds down to where we want them.

“You can effectively do all the roads in all the inner-city area for the same cost as maybe three roads with physical interventions.”

In 2025 RAC launched a major trial in partnership with the Shire of Augusta Margaret River, with support from Main Roads WA, to test reduced speed limits on 550 local roads in the region.

The trial, which will run until mid-2028, was motivated by 59 deaths or serious injuries in the area between 2019 and 2023, and is testing a new approach to speed limit setting, focusing on harm minimisation and analysing roads in a holistic, area-wide way.

“Community consultation conducted in late 2024 found that a majority of respondents supported 40km/h on residential streets and two-thirds supported 40km/h in town centres.

“Bringing down those speeds makes it a more pleasant environment for people, and makes people feel safer to be out walking or riding.

WA is also not alone in its move to restrict local speeds, he says, with examples of similar projects in NSW and Victoria, while in Europe, many cities are moving towards 30km/h limits on their local streets.

“There is a widespread international trend towards slowing speeds in urban environments, and that's to increase liveability,” he says.

“There are lots of countries and lots of cities that are looking at this as a way of improving safety but also creating environments that are more people-focused and friendlier for people who are walking and riding.”

Listen to our episode of the Horizons by RAC Podcast with David Elston (RAC Manager Road Safety Policy) and Tim Judd (PJA Road Safety Engineer & Strategic Transport Planner) on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.