Yes you heard me right, indeed humans can surpass the road speed limits in Singapore of 50km/h one day.

Scientists have found that in THEORY that a human could run at 40 miles per hour, or 65km/h, the newest established theoretical limits of human running speed.

That’s 17.8816 meter per seconds!

Even Usain Bolt would be envious of such speed, as he alone could only top 28mph in his 100m event feat.

The results were published in the Jan. issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology, done on a study by Southern Methodist University.

Southern Methodist University scientists says, “If one considers that elite sprinters can apply peak forces of 800 to 1,000 pounds with a single limb during each sprinting step, it’s easy to believe that runners are probably operating at or near the force limits of their muscles and limbs.

However, our new data clearly show that this is not the case. Despite how large the running forces can be, we found that the limbs are capable of applying much greater ground forces than those present during top-speed forward running.

Our simple projections indicate that muscle contractile speeds that would allow for maximal or near-maximal forces would permit running speeds of 35 to 40 miles per hour and conceivably faster”.

Well basically that means the scientists have found in the treadmill tests that human limbs can actually handle more force than what is applied during top-speed running.

It all boils down to how quickly muscles in the body can move, and the very critical biological limit is the time spent to apply force to the ground while sprinting.

Elite sprinters foot ground contact times are less than one-tenth of a second (0.01 seconds), and peak ground forces occur within less than one-twentieth of that second for the first instant of foot-ground contact.

So improve the sprinter ground contact times, and you get faster sprinting time … that sounds logic right.

Looks like the LTA might one day have to put up new road signs, “Do not run beyond 50km/h on this road”.