Analyzing Driver Compliance to Speed Limits Using Logistic Regression

Driver compliance to speed limits is an important yet extremely complicated matter. The complexity arises primarily from the variety of factors that could affect drivers’ compliance to speed limits which could be vehicle, driver or road related, environmental, or even temporal. This study examines the effects of such factors on driver compliance in the City of Edmonton, using logistic regression. Unlike previous studies, this study examines the effects of different variables on compliance, rather than collision counts or driver speed choice. The dataset used includes vehicle spot speeds recorded at almost 700 different locations in the city. The compliance for each vehicle was used as the response variable for the regression model, which was built using data from more than 35 million cases. The findings show that, generally, the more restricted drivers become the more likely they are to comply with speed limits; potential restrictions include street parking, bike lanes, pedestrian crossing, or the absence of shoulder lanes. Furthermore, higher traffic activity during peak hours, and presumably on shoulder weekdays (Monday and Friday), both increase the likelihood of compliance. In contrast, as the vehicle class (length) increases, the probability of compliance decreases. Not much can be inferred about the effects of weather on compliance to speed limits, although an interesting finding is that odds of compliance seem to drop in winter months. Another important observation about non-compliance that is somewhat concerning is that speed limit violations are higher in residential areas relative to most of the other land uses considered

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB50 Traffic Control Devices.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Gargoum, Suliman
  • El-Basyouny, Karim
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
• Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 13p
• Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Climate; Highway design; Land use; Logistic regression analysis; Speed limits; Spot speed; Vehicle length
• Geographic Terms: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01558933
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 15-3241
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 31 2015 9:07AM