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

Neuner, Michelle; Atkinson, Jennifer E.; Chandler, Brian E.; Hallmark, Shauna L.; Milstead, Robert; Retting, Richard · 2016 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Safety

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This report addresses the persistent issue of speeding, which contributes to nearly one-third of all roadway fatalities in the United States, a proportion that has remained largely unchanged over the past decade. The research was motivated by the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) identification of roadway departure, intersections, and pedestrian and bicyclist crashes as three focus areas with significant potential for fatality reduction. The primary objective was to assist state and local agencies in integrating speed management into their policies, practices, and safety plans within these specific focus areas to support the national vision of "Towards Zero Deaths." The study employed a multi-phase methodology to evaluate current practices and identify gaps. Phase 1 involved scanning and documenting speed management policies, procedures, and countermeasures used by state and local agencies. Phase 2 consisted of a detailed analysis of national crash data, utilizing the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), the General Estimation System (GES), and data from the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2) naturalistic driving study to assess the role of speeding in fatal and serious injury crashes. Phase 3 included interviews and focus group discussions with federal, state, and local practitioners to identify major issues and potential initiatives for improvement. The findings reveal a wide variability in speed management practices across the United States. While all states reference speeding in their Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSP), most do so primarily in the context of enforcement rather than as a contributing factor in the three focus areas. Many agencies lack specific documentation or procedures for identifying speeding-related crash problems within roadway departure, intersection, and pedestrian contexts. The crash data analysis highlighted that nearly 40 percent of fatal roadway departure crashes and 20 percent of fatal intersection crashes are speeding-related. Although speeding-related pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities constitute less than 10 percent of total fatalities, impact speed significantly influences crash severity, with pedestrian risk of death rising sharply as speed increases. The report concludes that successful speed management requires the integration of engineering, enforcement, and education efforts. It recommends four program-level strategies for agencies: establishing or enhancing policies and performance measures, educating the public, collaborating with stakeholders, and establishing robust data analysis processes for speeding-related crashes. Furthermore, it provides specific countermeasure recommendations for each focus area, such as rumble strips and safety edges for roadway departures, roundabouts and advanced warning flashers for intersections, and traffic calming techniques like medians and high-intensity crosswalk beacons for pedestrian and bicyclist safety. The report identifies gaps in current practices and suggests that integrating these strategies is essential for agencies to effectively reduce speeding-related fatalities and injuries.

Key finding

Speeding contributes to nearly one-third of all roadway fatalities, yet many state agencies lack specific policies or data analysis procedures to address speeding within roadway departure, intersection, and pedestrian safety focus areas.

Methodology

mixed_methods

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• incidence prevalence
• comparative international
• speed management
• crash typology
• rail grade crossings
• roadway lighting effects

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes, observational prevalence