EFFECTS OF SPEED LIMITS

AUSWIRKUNGEN VON GESCHWINDIGIKEITSBEGRENZUNGER

A summary of international research on the effect of speed limits, based on the results of over a hundred research reports, is given. Such factors as accident risk, accident rate, number of deaths, and changes in driving behavior as a result of various speed limits are analyzed. In the first study ("Local Speed Limits") two groups of variables were compared: A) the type of road, the plausibility of the restriction and B) the sociodemographic factors, the driving history and the traffic attitudes of the drivers. The second study ("Temporary Speed Limits") dealed with the street and traffic situations, the executive surveillance, announcement of speed limits in mass media, the driver characteristics and investigated which of these variables most influence the average speed, the 85% speed, the speed deviation and the control of the speed limit. It was found that both the local and the temporary speed limits led to radical reduction of the driving speed on the two lane highway, but did not have the same effect on the four lane highway. The restriction seemed to be more important to drivers who are unfamiliar with the locality because they rather accept the limit as an additional information concerning the dangerous location than those drivers who are familiar with the locality. It is suggested that the speed limits should not be too low because the neglect quoto and with that the negative learning effect would increase too much. Traffic education measures should be concentrated on the male drivers between 25 and 40 years because they belong to the group with the most traffic violations.

• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Traffic Psychology

  Vienna,   Austria 
• Authors:
  • Hofner, K J
  • Kowar, P
  • SCHMIDT, L
• Publication Date: 1973

Language

• German

Media Info

• Pagination: 21 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Behavior; Crash rates; Drivers; Hazards; Human characteristics; Males; Risk assessment; Speed limits; Surveillance; Traffic safety education
• Uncontrolled Terms: Driver characteristics
• Old TRIS Terms: Male drivers
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00080807
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Safety Council Safety Research Info Serv
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 26 1975 12:00AM