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FHWA Home / Safety / Speed Management / Integrating Speed Management within Roadway Departure, Intersections, and Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Focus Areas

Integrating Speed Management within Roadway Departure, Intersections, and Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Focus Areas

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Chapter 3. Program Level Strategies for Integrating Speed Management

What is USLIMITS2?

USLIMITS2 is a web-based tool designed to help give advice to practitioners about setting reasonable, safe, and consistent speed limits for specific segments of roadway. It is applicable to all types of roads, from rural local roads and residential streets to urban freeways. For additional information, visit http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/uslimits.

Prior to exploring the detailed, specific strategies for managing speed within the three safety focus areas, FHWA encourages agencies to take a broad look at their speeding-related policies and programs to identify opportunities for integrating speed management throughout the planning, project development, construction, and maintenance stages and for institutionalizing speed management through agency policy.

There are a number of program-level strategies agencies may pursue. These are identified and discussed below.

3.1 Establish or Enhance Policies, Safety Plans, and Performance Measures

There is potential for agencies to more fully integrate speed management into their practices by establishing or enhancing their policies, safety plans, and performance measures. Elevating speed management as a primary strategy to support a broad vision for safety will create positive safety outcomes.

3.2 Educate and Improve Awareness

Many people do not fully understand speed concepts, the basis of speed limits, reasons for speed management countermeasures, or the effect of speed on safety and crash risk. Agencies need to employ diverse training and outreach strategies to educate a variety of groups.

3.3 Collaborate with Stakeholders

Stakeholder involvement and collaborative arrangements are vital for improving transportation safety by building trust, understanding, and comprehensive solutions.

3.4 Establish Data Analysis Process for Analyzing Speeding-related Crash Data

Many agencies do not have an established process for analyzing their speeding-related crash data. Using the national crash analysis report as the base model, States can replicate the process using their own crash data to begin identifying State-specific trends and can compare the results to national data.13

Analyzing speeding-related crash data within the focus areas allows agencies to effectively enhance their existing focus area safety plans with appropriate speed management countermeasures and strategies.

Speeding-related Roadway Departure Crashes

Speeding-related Intersection Crashes

Speeding-related Pedestrian and Bicycle Crashes


12 NHTSA sponsors a Speed Program Management course that is conducted by the Transportation Safety Institute. [ Return to note 12. ]

13 For more information, the crash analysis report, Evaluation of the Role of Speeding in Crashes and Safety Critical Events, is included in Appendix A. [ Return to note 13. ]

Page last modified on May 23, 2016
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