Integrated Strategies for Managing Excessive Travel Speed to Improve Safety Performance

Excessive traffic speed is one of the largest contributors to traffic deaths in the United States. Excessive speed contributes to crash occurrences and influences crash severities. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) found that, in 2020, there were 11,258 speeding-related fatalities, accounting for 29 percent of the total traffic fatalities for the year. Despite the existence of isolated interventions to curtail excessive speed (e.g., speed safety cameras, traffic calming road design, concordance between land use and road classifications) few have been widely and equitably adopted. None get to the deep-rooted cause of the problem, such as people's harried lifestyles, thrill-seeking behaviors, desire for powerful vehicles, and prioritizing speed above everything else, among other interacting factors. In addition, traditionally marginalized and underserved communities often experience a disproportionately high burden of speed-related traffic injuries but receive hardly any benefits from speed management policies and countermeasures. To manage traffic speed proactively and over longer periods of time, professionals need to recognize the complexity of this public health issue and broaden their repertoire of ways to address it. It is important to identify cross-sectoral partnerships and tools to help them visualize the complex processes that could contribute to reducing excessive speed. There is a need to draw upon a variety of datasets and consider the interacting elements that influence excessive travel speed to develop integrated strategies for speed management framework (ISSMF). These integrated strategies should be flexible enough to deal with disruptions such as global pandemics, siloed funding of the disconnected parts of the system, increased awareness of social inequities in transportation safety and access to transportation, and technological breakthroughs. The objective of this research is to develop a guide for state departments of transportation (DOTs), transportation agencies, and their partners to institutionalize ISSMF in their policies, practices, and interventions to improve safety performance. At a minimum, the research shall cover: (1) Summary and lessons learned related to agency speed management approaches and policies, including impacts on traditionally underserved communities; (2) Behavioral, cultural, and human factor determinants of speed choice; (3) Travel speed management countermeasures that are useful in different contexts; (4) Holistic speed management schemes suitable for the different stages (planning, design, construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation) of a project's lifecycle; (5) Implementation framework to identify critical steps and partners for high-quality implementation; and (6) Partner and stakeholder engagement and input that are incorporated into a unified, adaptable framework for managing excessive travel speed.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5343
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $500000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 17-114

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Deng, Zuxuan

• Start Date: 20230515
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Fatalities; Guidelines; Highways; Institutional issues; Policy; Public health; Speed control; Speeding; State departments of transportation; Traffic safety; Transportation departments
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Policy; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01847460
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 17-114
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: May 27 2022 12:43PM