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The Suroriental Highway and Simón Bolívar Avenue will be the first roads where the maximum speed allowed will go from 60 km / h to 50 km / h before the end of this year, in order to reduce the road accident indicators, which in the past This 2020 they report the loss of 254 lives in Cali.
The decision was made by the Ministry of Mobility based on a study carried out by World Resources International, which is part of the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety and which determined that with this change there would be a 30% reduction in the number of victims fatalities by 2023, which would be equivalent to 190 lives saved, not counting 2,500 fewer injured in road accidents.
“Both the study and the draft decree will be available to the community on the Mayor’s Office website for 15 days before their official signature. Meanwhile, starting this Friday (tomorrow) we will carry out pedagogical activities to communicate to drivers the importance of traveling at a speed that allows us to reach our homes safely, “said the Secretary of Mobility of Cali, William Vallejo .
That is, as soon as the work to change the signage and demarcation on the Suroriental and Simón Bolívar highways is initially completed, the measure will begin to be implemented, so whoever fails to comply will be fined $ 438,900, which corresponds to 15 minimum wages current newspapers.
Also read: Speed limit in Cali will be 50 km / h: Ministry of Mobility
The other roads on which the speed reduction will begin to govern are Calle 5, Avenida Ciudad de Cali, Avenida Sexta, Pasoancho, among others, for a total of 18 main arteries of the city.
“The average speed in Cali is 32 km / h, so reducing it will not affect travel times in most of the corridors. The reason we do this is that speed is killing us on the tracks. During this year it has increased by about 4 km / h in the early morning hours and 2 km / h, in off-peak hours, which in turn increases the severity of the claims, ”Vallejo noted.
For Ciro Jaramillo, mobility expert and researcher at the Universidad del Valle, the decision is appropriate, given that lowering speed levels allows injuries at the time of a vehicular collision to be less, as a result of the energy released.
“Besides the fact that it does not imply a significant change in the functionality of the roads, it is not a measure that they also seek to apply in the local corridors of the neighborhoods: only in the main arteries,” said the teacher.
Jaramillo also indicated that strategies like these are key when it comes to realizing that -after the period of mandatory confinement- the circulation of vehicles began to increase and, with this, higher values in speed are recorded.
Also read: Speed limit in Cali will be 50 km / h: Ministry of Mobility
In fact, according to Luis Felipe Lota, director of the National Agency for Road Safety (ANSV), although road mortality was reduced by 62% in the months in which the quarantine was implemented due to the covid-19 pandemic – from March to August-, the behavior was not so positive in September and October of this year: while in the first there was a reduction of 5% in relation to the same period last year, in the second the reduction was only 2% less.
“The main factor that has generated more mortality in recent years is speed. Let’s look at the following figures: while a pedestrian has a 10% chance of surviving if a vehicle collides with him at 60 km / h, that indicator rises five percentage points if said car is going 50 km / h. And it is more interesting to discover that the probabilities are 90% if the car has a speed of 30 km / h, as is established on the roads of the school zones ”, explained Lota.
The director of the ANSV added: “This is not only a strategy that is applied in Cali or Colombia, but throughout the world. In fact, one of the recommendations given by the United Nations in February this year is to build a safe system on the roads, which seeks to reduce the risks that may arise in urban environments, which are the ones that most report mortality ”.
Likewise, Lota indicated that reducing mortality levels helps to reduce ICU occupancy in the context of a pandemic that seeks less stress in the health system.
However, the proposal of the Ministry of Mobility has not received the support of all drivers.
Jhon Peñuela, leader of the National Taxi Drivers Union, stated: “This can cause many traffic jams on the main roads of Cali. I cannot imagine a passenger who wants to arrive at his destination soon, but it is impossible for one to comply with the service just because the new rule establishes that we go at a maximum of 50 kilometers per hour ”.
Peñuela indicated that the taxi drivers union will present a proposal to the draft decree. “We better do an analysis so that there is a more extended peak and plate schedule, so that the vehicles are not so close to each other. And let us also take into account the importance of repairing the gaps in the main arteries, which are also a cause of accidents ”.
Also read: Speed limit in Cali will be 50 km / h: Ministry of Mobility
Other figures
According to the most recent report from the National Road Safety Observatory, between January and October there have been 240 deaths from road accidents in Cali, that is, 14 less compared to the same period last year.
Motorcyclists are the main victims, with a prevalence of 49.2%, which is equivalent to 118 cases.
But then the pedestrian follows, with 75 deaths in that period, according to the Observatory report.
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