Evidently, lowering the speed limit in Tashkent is not an idea that came from the capital’s Traffic Safety Department employees themselves. This was the proposal made by the head of our state during his visit to the city of Samarkand in February this year.
The head of state emphasized that the speed limit should be established on the basis of a rational, scientific approach in the central streets of Tashkent and other large cities. Movement on the streets should be comfortable for both drivers and pedestrians, Mirziyoyev said then.
It is known that the majority of traffic accidents involving the death of people in populated areas are caused by increasing the speed limit.
In many cities of the world, the speed limit is 40-50 km/h. For example, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the speed limit is set at 60 km/h in many streets, and even 40 km/h in the central streets.
According to the “Program of development of the city of Almaty until 2025”, it is planned to reduce the speed on the main and local streets of the city from 60 and 40 km/h to 50 and 30 km/h.
In Moscow, the capital of Russia, the speed limit is set at 50 km/h in the central streets, and 30 km/h in some streets. It is noted that lowering the speed limit in Moscow led to a reduction of the number of accidents.
For the second time in Kazakhstan, they are preparing to reduce the speed on city streets. We have the first proposal, which is a presidential task, but deputies are rejecting it.
According to the new traffic rules approved by the government in April of this year, the speed of vehicles in populated areas is reduced to 70 kilometers per hour, on the roads around schools and pre-school educational organizations to 30 kilometers at a distance of up to 300 meters, in residential areas and adjacent areas (the land between residential buildings in the section) it is allowed to move not more than 20 kilometers per hour.
The rule that city streets should be primarily designed for safe and easy movement of pedestrians is not working well in Uzbekistan.
In addition, this is not the first step taken by our deputies to create comfort for drivers in favor of pedestrians. Previously, the amount of fines imposed on drivers who violated the rules of parking on roads was reduced by deputies of the parliament.
Because none of our deputies walk. Therefore, it can be safely assumed that they think of their own comfort first.
According to the State Statistics Committee, as of January 1, 2022, the total number of cars belonging to individuals in the republic is 3,268,470. The city of Tashkent leads among the region in terms of the number of cars owned by individuals – 525,028. That is, almost 1 in every 11 people in the republic, and in the city of Tashkent, each family has an average of 1 car.
It should be recalled that in the “Concept of Ensuring Road Safety in the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2018-2022” it was envisaged to reduce the maximum permissible speed of traffic in cities and settlements to 60 km/h, but in the end this proposal was not approved.
In the spring of 2020, the nationwide movement “Yuksalish” came out with a proposal to reduce the maximum permitted speed of traffic in the cities and settlements of Uzbekistan from 70 to 60 km/h.
