THE 55 MPH SPEED LIMIT LAW: PUBLIC ATTITUDES AND OPINIONS

The purpose of the study was two-fold. One, it was designed to assess public attitudes and opinions concerning the 55 mph speed limit. Complementing this was an additional objective of providing state agencies with the information needed to formulate policy and institute programs designed to achieve overall compliance with the lower (55 mph) speed limit. The task of identifying those attitudes held by New Mexico drivers toward the present highway speed limit was accomplished by using a public survey technique, employing telephone interviews as the data collecting mechanism. A survey questionnaire, structured to assimilate the data for computer analysis, was used to record the responses of those sampled. All data was then entered into a prepared software program and tabulated to obtain relevant information. The study is formatted into three sections. The methodology utilized in the study is discussed in Section I, along with alterntive techniques which were discarded in favor of the chosen methodology. Section II deals with results obtained from the data analysis. Frequency tabulations of certain variables are presented and other selected variables are subjected to a cross-tabulation analysis. Finally, Section III outlines the concusions drawn from the study and makes broad policy recommendations on the basis of the basis of the data analysis in Section II. Brief appendices containing the survey instrument interviewer's instructions, and a demographic profile of the sample are included primarily for information purposes. /HSRI/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Sponsored by New Mexico Traffic Safety Commission and by New Mexico Energy Resources Board.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

  Bureau of Business and Economic Research
  Albuquerque, NM  United States  87131
• Authors:
  • Sievers, J N
• Publication Date: 1976-2-16

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 43 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Data analysis; Information processing; Mathematical analysis; Policy; Public opinion; Speed limits; Surveys
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Policy; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00148968
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Highway Safety Research Institute
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 27 1977 12:00AM