THE EFFECT OF SPEED ZONING ON TRAFFIC OPERATIONS

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS STUDY WAS TWOFOLD, /1/ TO DETERMINE IF THERE IS A GREATER NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS ON SECTIONS OF HIGHWAY THAT HAVE A NORMAL SPEED DISTRIBUTION THAN ON SECTIONS WITH A NON-NORMAL SPEED DISTRIBUTION, AND /2/ TO DETERMINE IF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SPEED ZONES WOULD CHANGE THE SPEED DISTRIBUTION FROM NON-NORMAL TO NORMAL WITH AN ACCOMPANYING REDUCTION IN ACCIDENTS. A 15 MILE SECTION OF HIGHWAY, ON WHICH 117 ACCIDENTS HAD OCCURRED, WAS DIVIDED INTO 22 SUBSECTIONS. THE SECTIONS WITH NON-NORMAL SPEED DISTRIBUTION HAD A HIGHER ACCIDENT RATE THAN THE NORMAL SECTIONS. TWO YEARS OF ACCIDENT RECORDS WERE THEN ANALYZED FOR 51 SPEED ZONES. THE ZONES WERE CLASSIFIED INTO FOUR CATEGORIES BASED ON THE NORMALITY OR NON-NORMALITY OF THE SPEED DISTRIBUTION BEFORE AND AFTER THE INSTALLATION OF THE SPEED ZONES. ABOUT ONE HALF OF THE ZONES IN WHICH THE SPEED DISTRIBUTION WAS NON-NORMAL BEFORE WERE CHANGED TO NORMAL BY INSTALLATION OF THE SPEED ZONE. FURTHER, A REDUCTION IN ACCIDENT RATE ACCOMPANIED THIS CHANGE. /BPR/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Hpr, Hps-hpR-1/32/, 09MAR65
• Corporate Authors:

  Ohio Department of Highways

  Columbus, OH  United States  43210
• Authors:
  • Taylor, W C
• Publication Date: 1965-3-9

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash investigation; Crash rates; Highway operations; Highways; Normal distributions; Physical distribution; Records management; Reduction (Chemistry); Speed limits; Speed zones; Studies; Test sections; Traffic; Traffic speed
• Uncontrolled Terms: Records
• Old TRIS Terms: Reduction; Speed studies
• Subject Areas: Finance; Freight Transportation; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00224802
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Bureau of Public Roads /US
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 1 1994 12:00AM