Speed limits in some residential streets should be cut to 15 km/h to reduce the risk to pedestrians, road safety experts have said.

Traffic research agency SWOV said the limits should apply in narrow residential streets with no pavements, known as woonerven, where children are allowed to play across the width of the road.

SWOV director Peter van der Knaap said the move would save dozens of lives per year in streets where the current limit is 30 km/h. He added that it was necessary at a time when the government is looking to build a million new houses a year, mostly in urban areas.

The call was backed by road safety awareness group Veilig Verkeer Nederland and traffic institute CROW.

Van der Knaap said part of the problem was that there were no records of where woonerven had been built. ‘But the fact that there are streets that have been designed that way is our cue to say: build roads in these neighbourhoods that are safe from the start.’