A Health Impact Assessment of a Proposed Bill to Decrease Speed Limits on Local Roads in Massachusetts (U.S.A.)

Peter James, Kate Ito, Rachel F. Banay, Jonathan J. Buonocore, Benjamin Wood and Mariana C. Arcaya
Additional contact information
Peter James: Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Kate Ito: Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 60 Temple Place, Boston, MA 02111, USA
Rachel F. Banay: Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Jonathan J. Buonocore: Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard School of Public Health, 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Benjamin Wood: Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Division of Prevention and Wellness, 250 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108, USA
Mariana C. Arcaya: Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 60 Temple Place, Boston, MA 02111, USA

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-23

Abstract: Decreasing traffic speeds increases the amount of time drivers have to react to road hazards, potentially averting collisions, and makes crashes that do happen less severe. Boston’s regional planning agency, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), conducted a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) that examined the potential health impacts of a proposed bill in the state legislature to lower the default speed limits on local roads from 30 miles per hour (mph) to 25 mph. The aim was to reduce vehicle speeds on local roads to a limit that is safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and children. The passage of this proposed legislation could have had far-reaching and potentially important public health impacts. Lower default speed limits may prevent around 18 fatalities and 1200 serious injuries to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians each year, as well as promote active transportation by making local roads feel more hospitable to cyclists and pedestrians. While a lower speed limit would increase congestion and slightly worsen air quality, the benefits outweigh the costs from both a health and economic perspective and would save the state approximately $62 million annually from prevented fatalities and injuries.

Keywords: health impact assessment; speed limits; crashes; injury prevention; air pollution; physical activity; monetization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/10/10269/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/10/10269/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:11:y:2014:i:10:p:10269-10291:d:40901

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().