55 miles per hour = 88.5139 km/h
That's on freeways and other limited access or rural highways. City speed limits can vary. Most residential streets have a speed limit of 25 mph (about 40 kph) where I live. School zones are 15 mph on school days. Minor thoroughfares and feeder streets might have a limit of 30-35 mph, with major thoroughfares being between 35-45, depending on various factors, such as the volume of traffic and the design of the road.
We are speaking of cities which are also old, like Paris, Rome, Brussels.
Yes, the older cities came into being and grew during times when there were no automobiles. America is somewhat different, particularly for western cities which grew after the invention of motor vehicles. Los Angeles is a perfect example, as it was made for cars, while public transportation is too cost prohibitive to be very useful.
Other cities in the west are similar, as they were mainly designed with the assumption that people would have cars and use them as their primary mode of transportation.
This also helped boost the rise of suburbs in the mid 20th century, since workers would live in relatively decent neighborhoods and then commute into the cities for work. At the time, it would have been seen as enhancing and improving people's quality of lives, since the cities were seen as filthy, polluted, unhealthy, and dangerous. A nice house in the suburbs was far preferable to overcrowded tenements.
If people love speed, we have beautiful motorways, where the speed limit is very high. 110 km/h normally, up to 130 km/h.
They can go there.
They do when they can - if they're available for the destination they need to get to.
When I was a kid, I recall an article in National Geographic which had some interesting conceptions of how they envisioned cities of the future:
They envisioned the above-ground areas as mainly for pedestrian traffic, whereas public transportation and motorized transportation would be mostly underground (at least in urban areas). This, to me, seems ideal at ensuring pedestrian safety, transportation efficiency, and pollution reduction. This is what we should have been building 50 years ago. But instead, this is what we have:
Car crashes are a plague. And the 90% of deaths are caused by speed.
Because..I was run over by a car when I was 20 something. Near my university. I was crossing the zebra crossing.
It didn't do anything to me. The car was driving much less than 30 km/h.
If that car's speed had been 50 km/h or more than that, I would have been hospitalized. Or even killed.
I'm glad you survived. And there's definitely risk that comes with the use of motor vehicles. I think the benefits still outweigh the risks, though I agree that we should keep trying to find ways to make transportation more safe, efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly.
