FHWA Announces Community "Speed Management" Demonstration Program

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is asking people in communities across the country to participate in projects intended to help them set safe traffic speeds.
"Speeding is a contributing factor in a third of all traffic fatalities on the nation's roads," FHWA Administrator Mary E. Peters said. "We want to encourage communities to create strong programs to inform motorists about the risks associated with unsafe speeds. Drivers should know that flagrant violators of speed limits will be prosecuted by local law enforcement officials."

The communities selected for the projects are in Connecticut, Mississippi and New Mexico. Each of the communities must develop an effective public information and education campaign to advise citizens about the project; collect and analyze speed data from selected roads; identify and reassign speed limits based on these data; and work with law enforcement agencies to enforce the revised speed limits.

Representatives from FHWA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, also an agency of USDOT, will work with the selected communities in providing financial and technical support and the communities will focus on local implementation and data collection. In 2003 when the program is completed, a final report that summarizes the project evaluations and discusses "lessons learned" will be distributed to the public.