Slow down: Think tank proposes 30 km/h limit in urban areas

A report by the Today Policy Institute concludes that health costs can be reduced by up to €60 million if preventive health measures such as encouraging people to exercise more are implemented.

One of the concrete measures proposed in the report is the introduction of a 30 km/h urban speed limit, as widely adopted in European cities and towns. 

The report warns that higher urban speeds result in a street environment which discourages people from walking or cycling. 

The report notes that in Malta the risk-benefit equation between flow of traffic and welfare of other road users remains one-sided. 

“The difference between a speed limit of 30 km/h and one of 50 km/h may mean life or death for a child or an aged pedestrian,” the report says. 

A proposal to reduce the legal speed limit in Attard’s residential roads to 30 kilometres per hour first proposed by Green party councillor Ralph Cassar in 2011 still awaits the final stamp of the transport authority after being anonymously approved by the council.

The TPI report, which focuses on the environmental dimension of ill health, takes as its starting point a number of damning statistics like those which show Malta having the lowest national level of physical activity in the world and the highest frequency of obesity and type 2 diabetes in Europe. 58% of Maltese adults are overweight and 22% are obese. The latter figure is far higher than the European average and second only to the UK (24%). 

Added to these are the costs resulting from childhood obesity and, as Malta’s population ages, an increase in the incidence of dementia. 

Obesity, type 2 diabetes and dementia are estimated to cost annually around €150 million.

But the report concludes that a 50% reduction of obesity and diabetes is feasible with well-implemented interventions. The prevalence of dementia can be decreased by 20%. 

Key to any strategy to address the lack of physical mobility is a reform of Malta’s dysfunctional transport system.  

Improving the urban environment to encourage walking and bicycle use can only encourage active mobility.

The costs of Malta’s dysfunctional transport for 2012 were estimated at €274 million by the UOM Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development. This was largely accounted for by traffic congestion (€118 million) and accidents (€83 million). The cost of air pollution was calculated at €83.9 million and noise €11million. But this amount does not include health costs arising out of lack of exercise.

According to the report, a healthy lifestyle which includes regular physical exercise, a healthy diet, avoidance of smoking and limiting alcohol consumption to 3-4 units per day, plays a major role in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, obesity and other diseases. 

Ban on sugary displays

The report also comes up with a number of concrete measures to address unhealthy eating.

These include the prohibition of displays of sugary food at ends of supermarket aisles, the prohibition of special offers and discounts on sugary food in supermarkets, the introduction of a tax on high sugar foods and a proposal to set up a legal distance between fast-food outlets and schools. It also proposes the greater emphasis on nutrition in the Curriculum.