THE FEASIBILITY OF MINIMUM SPEED LIMTS BY LANE ON MULTIPLE LANE HIGHWAYS

THE PURPOSE OF THIS INVESTIGATION WAS TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING MINIMUM SPEED LIMITS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL LANES ON MULTI-LANE HIGHWAYS. STUDY TECHNIQUES USED WERE SPOT-SPEED MEASUREMENT OF ALL TRAFFIC, PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORDING AND MANUAL OBSERVATION OF DRIVER BEHAVIOR, AND PERSONAL INTERVIEW OF DRIVERS. ANALYSES OF THE DATA OBTAINED WERE USED TO DEVELOP BEFORE AND AFTER MEASURES TO EVALUATE THE EFFECT OF THE SIGNING ON AVERAGE LANE SPEEDS, VOLUME DISTRIBUTION BETWEEN LANES, VEHICLE HEADWAYS, LANE CHANGING MANEUVERS, VIOLATIONS OF MINIMUM SPEED SIGNING AND REASONS FOR NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THE SIGNING. INTERPRETATION OF THE STUDY RESULTS INDICATED THAT THE EFFECTS OF SUCH SIGNING, IF SIGNIFICANT, WERE UNDESIRABLE. IN GENERAL, THERE WERE REDUCTIONS IN AVERAGE LANE SPEED, AN UNDESIRABLE CHANGE IN THE VOLUME DISTRIBUTION AND AN INDICATION OF AN INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF LANE CHANGES. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT IN THE ABSENCE OF IMPROVEMENT TO TRAFFIC FLOW AND A POSSIBLE INCREASED TRAFFIC HAZARD, THE APPLICATION OF MINIMUM SPEED LIMITS BY LANE SHOULD NOT BE RECOMMENDED. /BPR/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Hpr, C-3-10
• Corporate Authors:

  California Division of Highways

  Bridge Department
  Sacramento, CA  United States  05914
• Authors:
  • Wingerd, N C
• Publication Date: 1967-1-3

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Before and after studies; Behavior; Drivers; Feasibility analysis; Headways; Interviewing; Multilane highways; Photography; Physical distribution; Regulation; Signs; Speed; Speed limits; Spot speed; Surveys; Traffic lanes; Traffic speed; Traffic volume
• Uncontrolled Terms: Photographic surveys
• Old TRIS Terms: Lanes; Minimum speed; Spot speed study
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00224835
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Bureau of Public Roads /US
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 6 1994 12:00AM