ADVISORY SPEED SIGNS FOR BENDS

PANELS SHOWING ADVISED MAXIMUM SPEEDS FOR BENDS HAVE BEEN ATTACHED TO BEND WARNING SIGNS ON SOME 150 BENDS IN EAST SUSSEX, DORSET, AND WORCESTERSHIRE. OBSERVATIONS OF THEIR EFFECTS ON SPEEDS AND ON ACCIDENTS HAVE BEEN MADE OVER A PERIOD OF TWO YEARS SINCE THEY WERE ERECTED. ALTHOUGH THERE APPEARED TO BE A REDUCTION IN THE NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS ON BENDS IN ALL THREE COUNTIES WHEN COMPARED WITH THE NUMBERS OF ALL OTHER ACCIDENTS ON A ROADS IN THE COUNTIES, THE REDUCTION WAS ONLY STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT IN DORSET. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE GREATER EFFECT IN DORSET MAY BE DUE TO THE HIGH NUMBER OF NON-LOCAL DRIVERS IN THE SUMMER MONTHS. AVERAGE SPEEDS OF VEHICLES IN THE BENDS WERE AFFECTED BY THE SIGNS WHEN THE SIGNS SHOWED A SPEED DIFFERENT FROM THE MEAN SPEED OF VEHICLES BEFORE THE SIGNS WERE ERECTED. THE MEAN SPEED MOVED TOWARD THE ADVICE GIVEN BY THE SIGN. /HSL/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • TRRL-LR-461
• Corporate Authors:

  Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)

  Wokingham, Berkshire  United Kingdom 
• Authors:
  • Rutley, K S
• Publication Date: 1972

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 28 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crashes; Highway curves; Speed limits; Statistics; Traffic speed; Warning signs
• Old TRIS Terms: Bends; Overall travel speed
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00226642
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Highway Safety Literature
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 7 1973 12:00AM