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

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.

• Establish speed management policies that create a clear direction for practitioners within the organization. Policies may include disseminating technical information on the importance of establishing appropriate speeds for all types of roads in the network, conducting assessments, and monitoring existing speed limits, the role of speed in crash severity, and the effect of speeding on the environment (e.g., fuel consumption, emissions, and noise). Agencies may also choose to enact more detailed policies such as jurisdiction-wide guidance on the applications of specific speed management countermeasures.
• Establish procedures for setting speed limits by conducting engineering speed studies using an established, uniform protocol across the agency and employing the USLIMITS2 web-based tool to support and confirm speed limit setting decisions.
• Set performance goals and metrics related to speed management (e.g., reducing the number of speeding-related fatalities and severe injuries, reducing top-end speeders).
• Develop a jurisdiction-wide speed management action plan.
• Review all current agency safety plans (e.g., SHSP; roadway departure, intersection, and pedestrian safety implementation plans; etc.) to identify opportunities to integrate speed management.
• Integrate speed management programs with related highway safety activities, such as programs to combat impaired driving and safety initiatives targeted at youths, motorcyclists, and commercial vehicle operators.

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.

• Educate staff on speed management (include planners, designers, construction inspectors, traffic engineers, and maintenance personnel):¹²
  • Explain speed definitions and concepts; how to set speed limits, choose design speed, and select appropriate speed management countermeasures
  • Incorporate speed management learning modules within other established training programs
  • Educate staff throughout the entire life cycle of the project development process on the importance of context sensitivity awareness (e.g., types of users, surroundings, functional classification, etc.); design features (e.g., curves, intersections); and countermeasures affecting speed.
• Make speed management/awareness a priority throughout all phases of a project by developing speed management checklists.
• Review and evaluate current communication/outreach strategies to ensure speed management is represented and look for ways to integrate speed management messages within other focus areas.
• Determine whether a particular group needs a larger focus or more education on speeding-related issues by analyzing the speeding-related crashes by:
  • Driver characteristics
  • Location within the jurisdiction
  • Contributing circumstances
  • Crash type (e.g., roadway departure, intersection-related)
  • Driver behaviors.
• Develop specific education campaigns focused on partners, such as:
  • Judges and prosecutors
  • Elected officials
  • Law enforcement
  • Corporations
  • Education community (e.g., teachers, administrators, volunteer groups)
  • Other special interest groups.
• Develop and target public information and education programs to specific aspects of the speeding problem based on data analysis. Some common aspects may include the following:
  • Young drivers
  • Males
  • Nighttime crashes
  • Adverse weather and traffic conditions
  • Impaired driving
  • School zones
  • Work zones
  • Roads and streets with major potential conflicts in traffic and with pedestrians.

3.3 Collaborate with Stakeholders

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

• Gather input from groups outside the transportation agency (e.g., pedestrian and bicyclist groups, special community groups, law enforcement, public officials, schools, etc.) when making decisions on speed limits.
• Collaborate internally and with partner agencies to improve speeding-related data, such as:
  • Improve data collection and analysis by combining speeding-related data across other organizations and databases,
  • Examine the types of data relating to speed currently being captured and identify areas for improvement (e.g., inventories for speed limits, curves, etc.),
  • Join together with law enforcement to determine the definition of speeding-related crashes and ensure the crash type is consistently reported. Review the law or statute that defines speeding- related crash to determine whether it can be revised for clarity.
• Assist law enforcement in their patrol efforts by identifying high-crash locations where speeding was a contributing factor.
• Collaborate with law enforcement and the judicial system to ensure speed limit violations or citations are consistent; gather input on their perspectives regarding specific speed limits.
• Proactively work with elected officials to promote speeding-related legislation.
• Work together with local agencies and/or neighboring States to share best practices, success stories, and lessons learned regarding speed management by holding peer exchanges or conferences.

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

• Roadway characteristics - analyze the percentage or distribution of vehicles involved in speeding- related roadway departure crashes by:
  • Roadway type
  • Speed limit
  • Speed limit (only non-vehicle collisions)
  • Horizontal Alignment.
• Driver characteristics - analyze the percentage or distribution of vehicles involved in speeding-related roadway departure crashes by:
  • Age and gender
  • Blood alcohol concentration (BAC).
• Environmental characteristics - analyze the percentage or distribution of vehicles involved in speeding- related roadway departure crashes by:
  • Time of day
  • Hour of day
  • Surface conditions.
• Vehicle type
• Crash type (e.g., non-vehicle collision, front-to-front, front-to-rear, angle, sideswipe)
• First harmful event (e.g., tree, rollover, culvert/ditch/embankment, etc.)
• Characteristics of a specific type of crash, for example:
  • Rollover crashes (by speed limit, BAC, surface condition, or vehicle type)
  • Opposing direction crashes (by speed limit, BAC, surface condition, or vehicle type).

Speeding-related Intersection Crashes

• Roadway characteristics - analyze the percentage or distribution of vehicles involved in speeding- related fatal intersection crashes by:
  • Traffic control
  • Intersection type
  • Roadway type
  • Speed limit.
• Driver characteristics - analyze the percentage or distribution of vehicles involved in speeding-related fatal intersection crashes by:
  • Age and gender
  • Blood alcohol concentration (BAC).
• Environmental characteristics - analyze the percentage or distribution of vehicles involved in speeding- related fatal intersection crashes by:
  • Time of day
  • Hour of day
  • Surface conditions.
• Vehicle type
• Crash type (e.g., non-vehicle collision, front-to-front, front-to-rear, angle, sideswipe)
• First harmful event (e.g., tree, rollover, culvert/ditch/embankment, etc.)
• Characteristics of a specific type of crash, for example:
  • Angle crashes (by speed limit, BAC, surface condition, or vehicle type)
  • Rear-end crashes (by speed limit, BAC, surface condition, or vehicle type)
  • Left-turn crashes (by speed limit, BAC, surface condition, or vehicle type).

Speeding-related Pedestrian and Bicycle Crashes

• Roadway characteristics - analyze the percentage or distribution of vehicles involved in speeding- related pedestrian and bicycle crashes by:
  • Location
  • Roadway type
  • Speed limit.
• Driver characteristics - analyze the percentage or distribution of vehicles involved in speeding-related pedestrian and bicycle crashes by:
  • Age and gender
  • Blood alcohol concentration (BAC).
• Environmental characteristics - analyze the percentage or distribution of vehicles involved in speeding- related pedestrian and bicycle crashes by:
  • Time of day
  • Hour of day.
• Vehicle type.

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