ANNUAL SPEED STUDY

THE SPEED SAMPLES FOR THIS REPORT WERE OBTAINED USING A RADAR SPEED METER AND AN UNMARKED VEHICLE AT TWENTY- FIVE PERMANENT STATIONS LOCATED ON VARIOUS INTERSTATE, PRIMARY, AND SECONDARY ROAD SYSTEMS THROUGHOUT THE STATE. ALL SAMPLE VEHICLES WERE RECORDED UNDER CONDITIONS WHICH THEORETICALLY WOULD ENABLE EACH DRIVER TO CHOOSE A SPEED WITHOUT INFLUENCES OF GEOMETRIC DESIGN, SIGNING, VEHICULAR CONGESTION, INCLEMENT WEATHER, OR UNSAFE CONDITIONS. THE RESULTANT DATA WERE UTILIZED TO PRODUCE THE VARIOUS GRAPHS, TABLES, AND SPEED DISTRIBUTION CURVES SHOWN IN THIS REPORT. A REVISION OF THE MOTOR VEHICLE LAWS OF ARIZONA HAS REMOVED STATUTORY LIMITATIONS ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE SPEED LIMITS SOLELY ON THE BASIS OF TRAFFIC ENGINEERING STUDIES. AS A RESULT OF THIS, NIGHT SPEED LIMITS HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED THROUGHTOUT THE STATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM AND 75 MPH MAXIMUM SPEED LIMITS HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED ON SOME SECTIONS OF THE INTERSTATE SYSTEM. FOUR OF THE EIGHT PERMANENT RURAL INTERSTATE STATIONS ARE IN SECTIONS WHERE 75 MPH ZONES HAVE BEEN INSTALLED AS A RESULT OF RECENT TRAFFIC ENGINEERING STUDIES. COMPARISON OF THE COMPOSITE SPEED TRENDS IN THIS STUDY, WITH THOSE IN THE 1970 STUDY, INDICATES THAT OPERATING SPEEDS HAVE INCREASED AT MOST STATIONS. IT IS FELT THAT THE INCREASE IN COMPOSITE SPEED TRENDS THIS YEAR MAY NOT NECESSARILY BE AN INDICATION OF INCREASED OPERATING SPEEDS, BUT MAY BE AN INDICATION OF INCREASED ANONYMITY OF THE RADAR VEHICLE USED IN THIS STUDY. THE RISE IN RECORDED SPEEDS WAS NOT UNEXPECTED; THIS YEAR, FOR THE FIRST TIME, A PICKUP-CAMPER COMBINATION IS USED FOR DATA RELATIVELY CONSTANT WHEN THE PICKUP-CAMPER COMBINATION IS USED FOR DATA COLLECTION, WHILE A DEFINITE DECREASE IN APPROACH SPEEDS IS OFTEN NOTICED WHEN AN UNMARKED PASSENGER VEHICLE IS UTILIZED FOR OBTAINING SPEED SAMPLES. THE COMPOSITE SPEED TRENDS FOR BUSES AT INTERSTATE STATIONS SHOW A DECREASE IN OPERATING SPEEDS. SINCE BUS SAMPLE SIZES WERE TOO SMALL FOR STATISTICAL VALIDITY AT INDIVIDUAL STATIONS, ONLY COMPOSITE BUS SPEED TRENDS ARE INCLUDED IN THIS STUDY. /AHD/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • 76 Pp, Figs
• Corporate Authors:

  Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department

  Traffic Operations Division
  Little Rock, AR  United States  72203
• Publication Date: 1971-10

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Physical distribution; Speed; Speed limits; Studies; Traffic speed; Trend (Statistics)
• Old TRIS Terms: Speed studies
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00226108
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-011 936
• Files: TRIS, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Dec 20 1990 12:00AM