In the first three quarters of 2022, almost two-thirds of all traffic accidents – 64 percent – occurred in urban areas. More than 20,000 people were injured and 81 died in accidents in the city. The death toll was even higher than before the pandemic
This is shown by an analysis by the Austrian Traffic Club (VCÖ). The club demands that communities and cities be made easier to implement Tempo 30 in the local environment. The number of road accidents in the region has risen sharply in the past year.
A total of 17,489 traffic accidents
In the first three quarters, there were 17,489 road accidents with personal injuries in Austria’s municipalities and cities, more than 1,300 more than in the first three quarters of 2021 and also more than before the pandemic in the first three quarters of 2019, VCÖ data analyzed of Statistics Austria.
Highest number since 2017
With 81 deaths, there was also the highest number of accidents in the region since 2017. Since 2019, almost 400 people have died in road accidents in Austria’s municipalities and cities and more than 99,000 have been injured.
“Many municipalities and cities want to increase road safety in their neighborhood by reducing speeds, but the Road Traffic Act (StVO) stands in the way. If a municipality wants to introduce a speed limit of 30 instead of 50 on a street, it needs expert advice, including gathering traffic data and potential hazards. Again and again, municipalities and cities fail to submit their requests to the responsible district authority because of the Road Traffic Act,” explains VCÖ expert Lina Mosshammer.
Criteria such as climate protection are not valid
According to the VCÖ, municipalities and cities are denied the possibility to introduce a speed limit of 30 km/h in the interest of the road safety of the population, especially on roads that are wide and designed for speeds of 50 km/h. In addition, criteria related to climate protection, adaptation to climate change and quality of life and the quality of life of the population cannot currently be used as a justification for 30 km/h – the flow and ease of movement of motor vehicles is still the relevant standard.
Legal leeway
“The aim must be to be able to control the pace in the district as a city. This has consequences both for more legal room for maneuver for cities in imposing speed limits and for speed enforcement. The association of cities and municipalities has already drawn up a proposal for an amendment to the traffic rules for radar surveillance,” the expert reports.
Since 2008, cities and municipalities are no longer allowed to measure speeds in local areas themselves. “This leads to massive speeding (70 percent) in the area. A solution is therefore urgently needed here,” says Thomas Weninger, Secretary General of the Austrian Association of Cities.
According to the VCÖ, mayors, transport councilors and transport councilors of 110 municipalities and cities across Austria have already joined the demand to create legal conditions for cities and municipalities to allow them to introduce 30 km/h.
Source: Krone
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