Speed Limits, Geometry, and Driver Behavior

Speed management has been an extensive focus of traffic safety research dating back to the 1960s. Research has generally shown crash risk to increase as the average speed of traffic increases and as the standard deviation of travel speeds increases within a traffic stream. However, research as to the effects of speed limits has been somewhat inconclusive. This study investigates how speed limits affect driver speed selection, as well as the resultant crash risk, while controlling for various confounding factors such as traffic volumes and roadway geometry. Data are obtained at very high resolution from a Naturalistic Driving Study (NDS) conducted as a part of the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2). These data are integrated with a Roadway Information Database (RID), which provides extensive details as to roadway characteristics in the six-state study area (Florida, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Washington.) These sources are used to examine how driver speed selection varies among freeways with different posted speed limits, and how the likelihood of crash/near-crash events change with respect to various speed metrics.

• Record URL:
  http://intrans.iastate.edu/mtc/index.cfm/research/project/project/1424634186

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $50000
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT13-G-UTC37

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Midwest Transportation Center

  Iowa State University
  2711 S Loop Drive, Suite 4700
  Ames, IA  United States  50010-8664

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Performing Organizations:

  Iowa State University, Ames

  Institute for Transportation
  2711 South Loop Drive, Suite 4700
  Ames, Iowa  United States  50010-8664
• Principal Investigators:

  Savolainen, Peter

• Start Date: 20160515
• Expected Completion Date: 20180514
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash causes; Crash characteristics; Crash data; Safety; Safety factors; Speed; Speed limits; Traffic
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01607452
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Midwest Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: DTRT13-G-UTC37
• Files: UTC, RiP
• Created Date: Aug 4 2016 3:43PM