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POLICY
AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Federal Highway Administration
February
1997
Problem
Statement
Travel
at safe and reasonable speeds on highways promotes the nation's
productivity. Most highways and motor vehicles are designed
and built for safe operation at the speeds traveled by most
motorists. Speeding -- exceeding posted limits or driving
too fast for conditions -- involves many factors including
public attitudes, personal behavior, vehicle performance,
roadway characteristics, enforcement strategies, and speed
zoning (a safe and reasonable limit for a given road section
or zone). Nevertheless, speeding on the nation's roadways
is a contributing factor in as many as one third of all
fatal crashes. Fatal crashes are only a small part of the
total safety picture. In addition, many people are injured
in speed-related crashes. The economic cost to society of
these crashes was estimated to be $27 billion per year in
1994.
Federal
Policy on Speeding
Speeding
is a significant threat to public safety and warrants priority
attention. The Department of Transportation's policy on
highway speeds is to provide guidance to State and local
governments to set speed limits that maximize the efficient
and rapid transportation of people and goods while eliminating
the unnecessary risk of crashes due to unsafe speeds. This
policy promotes the concept that Federal, State, and local
governments should have balanced programs that use the most
cost-effective strategies for decreasing crash risks from
speeding. These strategies include: (1) ensuring that posted
speed limits are reasonable and appropriate for conditions;
(2) providing public information and education on the risks
associated with speeding; (3) understanding who speeds,
where, when, and why; (4) using a variety of techniques
and technologies beyond enforcement for speed management;
and (5) targeting enforcement where speeding presents the
most serious hazard and accompanying it with public information
and education.
Speed
Management Program and Implementation
The
following are the key elements of a balanced program to
implement the speed policy at the Federal, State, and local
levels.
1.
Speed Limits
Speed
limits should promote safe travel, and should be perceived
by the public as safe and reasonable. If the public does
not understand the consequences of speeding to themselves
and others, they are less likely to adjust speeds for traffic
and weather conditions, or to comply with posted speed limits.
This can place serious strains on the limited resources
that are available for speed enforcement and on the relationship
between the police and the public. Voluntary compliance
with speed limits can also be improved through greater use
of speed management devices and techniques that can be built
into the existing highway system, as well as incorporated
in the Intelligent Transportation System.
Objectives
-
Develop speed zoning guidelines with the States and local
entities to use in establishing safe and reasonable speed
limits on their roadways through a multi-discipline team
review of existing speed-setting criteria.
- Work
with States and local governments to promote increased
use of condition responsive speed and hazard warning systems
that give motorists information on appropriate speeds
for the prevailing environmental, traffic and roadway
conditions.
- Encourage
States and local governments to use speed zoning guidelines
and, where appropriate, revise posted speed limits to
reasonable levels, and/or adopt variable speed limits.
Encourage States and local governments to increase the
use of physical speed management and perceptual techniques
(i.e., speed humps, rumble strips, pavement markings)
in locations where speed has been shown to pose a serious
hazard. Use of these countermeasures will vary by highway
type.
- Encourage
States and local governments to consider relevant design
factors and design speed prior to changing posted speed
limits. Many factors, such as congestion and environment,
can impact speed limits.
2.
Education, Public Information and Enforcement
State
and local enforcement should focus on the types of drivers
and situations where speeding has a significant impact on
public safety. Speed enforcement must be complemented by
focused public information and education campaigns. Research
shows that compliance with, and support for, traffic laws
can be increased through aggressive, targeted enforcement
combined with a vigorous public information and education
program. This approach has been successful in addressing
impaired driving, occupant protection, red-light running,
and commercial motor vehicle safety issues. Public information
and education also contribute to public support for speed
management by increasing the awareness of the consequences
of speeding.
Objectives
- Broaden
Federal, State, and local speed management programs to
include public information and education in coordination
with enforcement.
- Target
enforcement programs to high crash locations where speeding
was a contributing factor.
- Target
public information and education programs to specific
aspects of the speeding problem such as young drivers,
males, nighttime, adverse weather and traffic conditions,
impaired driving, school zones, work zones, and roads
and streets with major potential conflicts in traffic
and with pedestrians.
- Encourage
States and local governments to monitor speed limit compliance
and examine the relationship of crashes to speed and the
effect on health care and public costs.
- Integrate
speed management programs into related highway safety
activities, such as impaired driving, youth initiatives,
and commercial vehicle safety.
Develop and target specific education campaigns focused
on judges and prosecutors, elected officials, law enforcement,
corporations, and engineers to educate them on the inherent
dangers of driving too fast or too slow for conditions.
3.
Research and Demonstration
An effective
and efficient program to address speeding as a highway safety
issue requires better definition and understanding of speeding
and its management. It is important to identify any specific
characteristics or traits that can be used to target drivers
and situations where there is increased risk. Detailed information
on why these drivers speed can be used to develop more effective
countermeasures. Voluntary compliance with speed limits
can also be improved through on-going development of new
speed management technologies.
Objectives
- Better
define the speed problem. Determine when, where, and under
what conditions speeding leads to crashes; the demographics
of drivers who speed in these situations; and why they
speed.
- Develop
advanced technologies to address speed including variable
speed limit systems, vehicle-based radar warning systems,
and less labor intensive methods of speed enforcement.
Promising approaches should be tested and demonstrated.
- Examine
the effect of fines and sanctions on habitual offenders
and explore the use of alternative techniques to increase
compliance.
- Examine
the effect of corporate policies which may encourage speeding
and explore appropriate sanctions.
- Analyze
the effects of road design, the vehicle and the environment
on safe operating speeds.
- Develop
and study the effects of traffic calming techniques on
speed and crashes.
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