Despite growing awareness of road safety, one factor continues to demand deeper attention: speed. In 2023, overspeeding caused 68.4% of road crashes and 68.07% of fatalities in India, according to the Road Accidents in India 2023 report by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). These statistics underscore the scale of the problem. Yet, this alarming trend has not led to significant policy reforms. The risk is not hidden; it plays out in plain sight, often regarded as an inevitable aspect of mobility rather than a preventable public health concern.

To address this challenge meaningfully, speeding must be understood as a systemic issue rather than an individual failing. It is shaped by multiple factors — including road design and engineering, vehicle engineering, enforcement practices, and others. Effective speed management, therefore, requires shared responsibility across the entire road transport system—from policymakers and road engineers to enforcement agencies and road users.

The relationship between speed and crash outcomes is direct: every additional kilometre per hour increases both the likelihood and severity of a crash. According to the WHO, a pedestrian struck at 70 km/h faces a risk of fatal injury of more than 90 percent, while at 30 km/h the risk falls below 10 percent. Even a small reduction in average speeds—just 1 km/h—can lower fatal crashes by 3 to 6 percent.

In a country where over half of all road traffic deaths involve pedestrians, cyclists, and two-wheeler riders, speed management becomes a critical issue.

So, what are the policy gaps??

India has taken significant measures to address the issue of speeding. Over the years, national policies, action plans, and legal provisions under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, have laid a framework for regulating speed. Guidelines from the Ministry of Road Transport and technical standards on road design and traffic calming further support this framework.

However, road safety policy in India continues to rely primarily on road design standards when setting speed limits — with limited consideration for land use patterns, crash history, or road users, especially the vulnerable road users. India currently lacks a systematic, evidence-based framework for speed management. Speed enforcement in India remains largely manual and while electronic enforcement provisions are in place, their adoption and implementation continue to be uneven across States and Union Territories. Coordination between transport departments, police forces, and urban local bodies is also a challenge.

This gap between policy and practice is reflected in recent state-level findings. In 2023, SaveLIFE Foundation, in collaboration with IIT Kanpur, conducted a study across five districts in Uttar Pradesh — the state with the highest number of traffic crash fatalities in India.

The study found that speeding accounted for 9,297 deaths, or 41% of all road fatalities in the state. Two-wheelers were the most frequent violators, with over 75% found speeding on national highways and 64% on state highways near schools. Notably, buses were observed to exceed speed limits more often than trucks, with 74% speeding on expressways during the day and 69% at night.

These findings point to the urgent need for the Centre and States to formulate speed management guidelines based on relevant factors for each road type, based on road function, risk exposure and other related factors. And ensure consistent, effective implementation of existing legal provisions. The current model needs to evolve into a proactive, system-based approach — one that is grounded in data, supported by technology, and enabled through stronger inter-agency coordination.

A Roadmap for Safer Speeds

1. It is recommended that State Governments/UTs should develop and notify comprehensive Speed Management Guidelines based on scientific studies by defining speed limits for each road type, based on road function, risk exposure and other factors.

2. Further, regular speed audits should also become standard practice across the states.

3. Strengthening speed enforcement in India through a mixed approach — combining manual and electronic measures — is key to comprehensive speed monitoring.

4. An amendment to Section 183 is required to include speeding penalties for two-wheelers. Currently, two-wheelers, which are among the most frequent speed violators, are not penalised under the Motor Vehicles Act after the amendment to the Act in 2019.

Speed Management: Beyond Setting Limits

Recently in Nagpur, a mobility audit revealed that two-wheelers were regularly clocking speeds of 75 km/h and cars were exceeding 60 km/h on urban roads — speeds far beyond what is survivable for pedestrians. In response, authorities implemented targeted interventions such as improved lighting and intersection redesigns. In contrast, a signage audit in Chandigarh found that over half of the road segments had mismatched or missing speed signs, undermining enforcement efforts and causing confusion among drivers. These contrasting examples underscore a critical insight: effective speed management relies not just on setting appropriate speed limits, but on implementing them with consistency, clarity, and public trust.

At the same time, poorly designed measures — such as arbitrarily placed speed bumps — can cause discomfort, increase fuel consumption, and contribute to traffic congestion. However, these are implementation issues, not arguments against reform. With calibrated engineering, intelligent enforcement, and sustained public awareness, such trade-offs can be effectively managed — ensuring that safer and more efficient urban mobility becomes the norm, not the exception.

Learning from Global and Local Successes

International experience shows that setting speed limits based on scientific assessment—taking into account road function, traffic mix, and pedestrian activity—can significantly reduce crash severity and improve urban livability. Countries such as Sweden, the UK, and Australia have adopted this evidence-based approach rather than one-size-fits-all limits, demonstrating the effectiveness of context-driven speed management.

Encouragingly, some Indian states are beginning to align with international best practices. West Bengal has developed a statewide Speed Management Plan grounded in scientific evidence. The plan features automated enforcement pilots using radar and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems, mandates signage audits, and integrates crash analytics into zoning decisions. It has also created inter-departmental coordination mechanisms — a critical, yet often missing, component of effective and sustained implementation. Similarly, Gujarat is working on a proposal to reduce speed limits in congested city zones to 30 km/h, backed by data that shows fatality risk at 80 km/h is twenty times greater than at 30 km/h.

Speeding is not just a matter of individual choice — it is a systemic challenge that reflects the gaps in India’s road design, enforcement, and policy frameworks. A forward-looking approach demands the formulation of comprehensive Speed Management Guidelines at the State level. Road safety is not a constraint on growth — it is the foundation on which sustainable, equitable, and thriving urban India must be built.

Authored by:
Saurabh Verma, Co-Founder of Synergie, and Priyanshi Jaiswal, Assistant Manager of Public Policy and Research at SaveLIFE Foundation; both are also RSN partners.